Homemade Vanilla

Scroll to bottom for recipe.

As we all know, pure vanilla extract is super expensive...but if you make it yourself it doesn't have to be! And you can make a lot at a time.

All you need is, a glass bottle, three vanilla beans, and some alcohol (either vodka, rum, or bourbon)

(for those of you are freaking out right now because of the alcohol, don't worry because you are using this in really small doses, just like you would regular vanilla extract, and they alcohol content will cook out of your recipe anyway.)

Anyway, I purchased a vial of three madagascar vanilla beans for $8.99 at Penzey's spices here in Clackamas...however I'm sure you can get them at more places. Online would probably also be a great place to get them. As for the alcohol, you can pretty much use whatever you want because you won't taste that much of it anyway.

You'll need to take the vanilla beans and slit them all the way down with a knife, that way the flavor will infuse the alcohol. Then pour in your alcohol, and that's pretty much it. It will need to sit for at least three weeks, giving it a good shake every few days.

The vanilla beans will be good for approximately one year, so you can keep pouring in more alcohol up until that time, waiting about two weeks each time you use it again.

I hope you all enjoyed this!