How to Make Your Own Vanilla Extract and Vanilla Sugar

Member

By MarlaineMarie
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating: (18 Ratings)

Pure Vanilla Extract - easy to make and soooooo much better! Use the link below to get high quality, low cost vanilla beans. Add a bottle of vodka to your shopping list and you will be brewing incredible homemade vanilla within minutes - and saving a whole lot of money if you bake a lot! Start now because the best vanilla extract takes time to steep.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Clean, sterilized dark colored bottles with tight fitting caps or corks.
Vanilla beans
Vodka
Sugar and vanilla beans

Step 1

Whole Vanilla Beans

Homemade Vanilla Extract:
3 cups vodka
7 or 8 vanilla beans
Split the vanilla beans in half lengthwise, but leave it attached at the stem.

Scrape the beans with a butter knife to loosen the seeds - the caviar of the bean. Leave some seeds in the bean pod.
Step 2

Find a great bottle with a tight fitting cap or cork - be sure it's sterilized. (Submerge in boiling water for 15 minutes.) You can use the vodka bottle if it is dark glass. Dark glass bottles protect the extract from direct sunlight.

It should have a tight-fitting cap or cork that can be removed easily so you can sniff test it. (You will want to deeply inhale this! Smiling!)
Step 3

Put the split beans, with all the seeds, into the bottle and cap it. If they are longer than the bottle, cut them in half or just long enough to fit - strictly for looks. Otherwise, cut the pods in 3 inch lengths.

Let it sit for 3 or more months, shaking the bottle periodically.
The longer you leave the beans in the vodka, the more flavorful it gets. It is said that it can "mature" or "brew" indefinitely by some.
Step 4

As you use the vanilla, add more vodka now and then. Or fill the old vanilla bottle you saved (hopefully) and refill your bean bottle with vodka.

Once the liquid stops getting darker after adding more vodka (check in a week or two) - take out the old beans and add fresh, or just add fresh. The more beans in the bottle steeping, the more favor it develops!

Many people use the old beans after they've "brewed" their vanilla to make vanilla sugar and/or they scrape out the seeds to add to homemade ice cream.

Might as well make the most of those beans!
Step 5

This is a German standard - Vanilla Sugar or Vanillezucker.
1 - 2 whole vanilla beans - fresh
2 cups granulated sugar

Split the vanilla beans down the middle and scrape some of the seeds out into the sugar. Put sugar into a canning jar and push the bean pod into the sugar and seal tightly with lid. Let sit in a cool, dark pantry for 3 weeks. Use like regular sugar - in coffee or even tea. One tablespoon of vanilla sugar equals the flavor of 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Step 6

Use the old extracted beans in 2 cups of sugar - using 3 to 5 beans. Scrape the bean pods again to loosen any leftover seeds. Let air dry a couple of hours. Cut the pods up a little to about 3 inch lengths and push into the sugar. Cap the jar and shake well. Shake the jar every few days to loosen clumps. Let this sugar steep longer before taking out the pods.

You can make vanilla sugar by using the extract you make as well but it is not as good for baking. Add about a teaspoon per cup of sugar and mix well. Using it in coffee it so European!