How to easily make vanilla extract yourself
Vanilla is a real flavor enhancer. For many baking recipes, such as this apple and cinnamon meringue pie or these pear cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, vanilla extract is often listed among the ingredients. Of course, you can use extract from that bottle you bought, but making it yourself is just as easy, cheaper and much tastier. Here’s how to make your own vanilla extract.
Aroma vs. extract
First things first: vanilla extract and vanilla flavoring are not the same. In fact, vanilla flavoring does not contain any real vanilla at all. The flavoring is artificially produced in a lab from vanillin, water, ethanol and coloring. As a result, the taste of vanilla flavoring is much less intense than that of extract. Vanilla extract is made from real vanilla (the bean that grows after pollination from a vanilla orchid), together with alcohol. So those are the only two things you need for homemade vanilla extract.
How to make vanilla extract
You need 2 vanilla beans per 125 ml of vodka. I always order my vanilla beans here. It is handy to make a fairly large bottle right away, since you can keep it for months anyway. So for half a liter you need 8 vanilla beans, and for a liter 16, and so on. Split open the vanilla beans, scrape out the seeds and put them, together with the pods, into the bottle of vodka. Then store the bottle in a cool, dark place and shake it occasionally. The extract needs to steep for at least 1.5 months before you can use it. And then… it makes every baked good even (much!) more delicious!
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