Christmas presents or your own private stash - DIY Vanilla Extract

I'm sure most of your would have seen this or be aware of it - with the amount of vanilla extract I've been using lately and the great source of madagascar vanilla beans I found I thought it best to start making my own Vanilla extract.  It really couldn't get any easier than this.

When I think that 100ml of quality vanilla extract is anywhere from $9-12 - that is $90 - $120 a litre.  YIKES.

So I've made 3 litres of vanilla extract:

$15 vanilla beans
$72 vodka
$12 bottles (I'm guestimating, I've had them for ages and re-use them)

$99 for 3 litres.  Beautiful.   I also plan on dispensing some of these into little bottles to give to family and friends over Christmas. Cheap homemade pressie - and USEFUL!  If I give just over half of my stash away and give away 200ml bottles of vanilla extract (x8) that makes them even with $1.50 bottles and printing of labels of around $5 each.

If you want to make these for Christmas - get onto it this week - it's best if it steeps for 6 months or so, though 5 months should be fine to decant it.

All you need to do is:

Clean and dry your airtight bottle.

Split 12 vanilla beans for each litre of vodka

Put the vanilla beans in the bottle.

Fill up with vodka.

Put somewhere dark and dry for it to steep.   Don't worry if it's not brown yet a few hours later I dropped in on mine and they were already looking like weak tea.. given them a gentle shake every couple of weeks or whenever you remember.

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