I absolutely love vanilla extract! Talk about a fun, easy and delicious homemade gift idea! Organic vanilla extract can be quite spendy at the store, and with these cute jars you cannot go wrong in blessing family and friends and your own kitchen cupboard. I made 6 (4 oz bottles) this last weekend and they are steeping away nicely in my cupboard ready for Christmas baskets. Here’s how I did it:
Supplies:
6 Vanilla Beans
6 (4 oz jars)
24 oz. vodka
I purchased the vanilla beans and recycled glass cork top bottles from Mountain Rose Herbs. The vanilla beans are sold by the 1 oz (which is 6-9 beans) for $9.00, making it about $1-1.50 per bean. The jars were $1.60 each. I purchased the vodka at my local liquor store for $10 for 750 ml (which I figured out is about 26 oz). So you are looking at less than $5 per 4 oz jar, compared to easily double that amount at your local health food store. And with reusable glass jars, you can save even more with future batches (if you are making it for yourself, that is). The beans smelled fabulous! I cut them down the center with scissors and then into 2 inch pieces and put them in the jars. I then filled each jar with vodka and put the top on! That’s it! You must steep them for 8 weeks. Once you have used half the jar, you can refill the jar to the top with more vodka to stretch it even more! Make sure to make a note of this when you send it for gifts. You can also save room to sweeten with a 3/4 tsp of rum per bottle after it has steeped.
You can also use this recipe and steep them altogether, but since I was in a rush getting them ready for Christmas, I chose to steep them individually, so I could send them on their way.
Aren’t they adorable? I just have to make a cute little label tag to go with them! That’s more natural living on a budget for you!
I’m having a hard time figuring out which bottles to order from Mountain Rose. The only cork top one (that I can see) says that it holds 2-3 ounces of liquid, but didn’t yours hold 4 oz? The other bottles listed have metal lids. I just want to make sure I get the ones in your picture, they’re adorable!
When you add the 2nd round of vodka do you need to let it sit for a few weeks again or can you keep using it? Thanks so much for this recipe. Super excited to try it!
I just keep using it.
I finally made this. I start and stumble, last year I mistakenly ordered salve jars (good for holding homemade spices) and this year I triple checked the order and pulled it together. Still late, no one can use it to make their holiday cookies because it needs 6 more weeks to steep, but the jars and the whole set up are lovely. The first week they sat on my counter in a row, then when we had child company, I moved them to a cabinet where they are all lined up. thanks for the inspiration and links to the cutest, best priced bottles ever.
maybe I’m dumb – we don’t drink alcohol in our household so I’m not familiar with vodka or rum. Is there always alcohol in vanilla extract? I’m assuming it cooks or bakes out….just curious.
Hey, I’m pretty sure there is. All of the vanilla extracts at the store have alcohol in them. But realize that you only use a teaspoon in most things, like say pancakes, so that’s 1 teaspoon divided into 10 pancakes or so. Even if some alcohol doesn’t cook out, it’s a miniscule amount. And you might even be able to use less with homemade vanilla extract because it will be stronger since you can let it steep for a long time with the vanilla beans.
Love this idea! I made one bottle last year for myself and this year will try out the mini-bottles for gifting. My recipe is the same as yours except I use Rum instead of Vodka. The end result is the same. I plan to give these with a little recipe card tied to the neck for vanilla cream scones, and also include a jar of jam (for the scones, if they bake them.)
I started mine last night. I used (6) 6 oz. bottles. I added one and 1/3 vanilla bean to each. Is that enough vanilla bean? I also left enough room to add rum at the end of steeping. Thanks, I’m so excited to give these as gifts for Christmas.
Do you have to scrape the seeds out of the vanilla beans?
No.
I made one test batch a few months ago, and it was wonderful! So easy and produces a much more flavorful extract than any store bought version. I’m making another batch today for Christmas gifts…exactly 8 weeks away! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Hi,
I was wondering how many vanilla beans do you put in each bottle? Thanks
Hey! I had a quick question before I attempted to make this. While researching recipes for homemade extracts I noticed a lot of them said to take the vanilla bean out of the extract after the 8 weeks of steeping were done. It looks like you leave them in. Am I assuming right that you leave them in?
Thank you for your time!
You can do it either way. Leaving it in allows you to replenish the vodka when the bottle is half gone – thus extending the life of the vanilla beans!
Thank you!
I am finally going to make these! I’m super excited.
I’m really glad I have found this info. Today bloggers publish only about gossips and web and this is actually annoying. A good website with exciting content, this is what I need. Thank you for keeping this website, I will be visiting it.
need to figure out how many ounces of vanilla you can make from a bottle of vodka, check out this conversion calculator
http://www.metric-conversions.org/volume/liters-to-us-ounces.htm
Hi Lindsay! I am really excited to make these for Christmas gifts this year! I was wondering if you know how the 4 oz. cork lid bottles from Mountain Rose Herbs will ship? I have a lot of family in different states that I was hoping to gift these to, but worried they might not survive in the mail. :/
Yah..I’d recommend a plastic option instead unless you have lots of bubble rap!