The Vanilla Experiment

They are here!!! My lovely vanilla beans are here!

I am so very excited to try this. Around Easter my sister told me that you can make your own vanilla with just some vodka and some vanilla beans. Then I found a tutorial from the hungry mouse about making your own vanilla. I am extra excited about this because you just replenish the vodka and vanilla beans as needed. Thus, the bottomless bottle of vanilla. With all of the baking I do, this will come in very handy!

Here is what you will need:

Vodka

I am not a drinker. I had no idea where to begin. So, I bought the cheap big bottle.

Should do the job. Right?

&

Vanilla Beans

I bought ½ lb. from olivenation.com through Amazon for about $18. I figure I can make some other yummy things with the extra vanilla beans. Can't wait!

Here is how you make the vanilla:
1: Open Vodka.

2: Put in 2 vanilla beans per cup of vodka. My bottle is 1.75 liters. That is about 7 cups, so that means 14 beans. * I did some research on this process and discovered that a lot of people say to use scissors and cut the beans lengthwise leaving about an inch together at the top of the bean to help the process along... Upside, more vanilla flavor. Downside, lots of little seeds floating around in your extract. They are easily removed by filtering the extract through a couple of layers of cheese cloth when it's ready to use.
3: Let it sit in a cool (not cold) dark place for about 6-8 weeks. Oh and give it a shake every few days just to give it a stir.

You will know it's ready when it's got a nice rich brown color.

I am so stinkin' excited that just can't handle it! Come on October! Come faster!