12 Days of Christmas in Jar – Home Made Vanilla Extract

Posted by on Tuesday, December 4th, 2012

Home made Vanilla

Do you like the taste of real vanilla extract but hate to pay the price?  Unless you have a relative headed to Mexico or Central America who can bring you back some foreign vanilla, you would probably pay over $20 US dollars for a pint of vanilla extract.  OR you could pick up a cheap bottle of Vodka (6 bucks) and a vanilla bean pod (3 bucks) and make your own vanilla extract for a lot less money.  If you have a pint sized Mason jar, fill it with the Vodka and add the vanilla bean pod.  Put a lid on the jar to seal it, then set it in a dark cabinet and forget about it for 4-6 months.  The longer the jar sets, the darker and more flavorful the vanilla will become.  Then you can adorn the jar and give it as a gift.  Also Vodka will easily take on the flavor of other spices and even herbs (I’ve read this but not tried it yet).  I could have filled another pint jar with the remaining Vodka if I had bought 2 vanilla bean pods back in May instead of 1.  So a quart – 32 oz of home made vanilla would cost me about 12 dollars.  Oh, and save those vanilla beans – they can be used again when you make your next batch!

Filed in Christmas,Miscellaneous | 2 responses so far

2 Responses to “12 Days of Christmas in Jar – Home Made Vanilla Extract”

  1. Serenityon 11 Dec 2012 at 2:57 pm 1

    Tara this is awesome! Where do you find the vanilla bean pod? Thanks so much!

  2. Taraon 11 Dec 2012 at 10:52 pm 2

    Trader Joe’s has them for 2 for 5$ according to Julie. I got mine at Fresh Market but I don’t get down that way very often. I think Kroger had them but they were quite a bit more – so much I didn’t buy one there. I bet we could order online sometime. I will check on that.