As any serious baker will tell you, pure, real, homemade vanilla extract can be the difference between a normal cookie and an award-winning confection! It is so much better that you probably think it must be difficult, expensive and time consuming to make. The reality is, it takes less of your time and effort to make real vanilla extract than it does to bake the cookies you add it to, and the cost is comparable or less than just buying vanilla extract.
To make things even easier for you we have created an all in one Homemade Vanilla Extract Kit that you can purchase on our site and create your own vanilla in 4 easy steps.
Homemade Vanilla – Better than Store Bought
When it comes to food, the idea that something homemade is better than something store bought isn’t hard to imagine. What is hard to imagine is just how much better homemade vanilla really is. It’s not just a bit better. It’s not even just a lot better. It is so much better that anyone who has ever made their own vanilla from vanilla beans, will never buy vanilla extract again. It’s THAT good.
What Makes Homemade Vanilla Extract Better
The most significant factor is the vanilla beans. When you make your own homemade vanilla extract you can choose the quality of vanilla beans you use. Premium grade vanilla beans simply have a richer, fuller flavor than any commercially produced vanilla extract.
How to Make Your Own Vanilla Extract at Home
It's surprisingly easy to make your own vanilla extract. You only need a few ingredients, and some patience.
The ingredients:
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- 1 oz Premium Vanilla Beans (about 8-10 of vanilla beans)
- 8.5 ounce Glass Jar or Bottle with lid (we suggest a swing top bottle with attached lid)
- 1 cup (8 oz) alcohol (at least 35% alcohol (70 proof)-vodka is common; also try rum, bourbon or brandy)
FDA standards call for at least 13.35 ounces of vanilla beans per gallon of liquid. This equates to approximately .9 oz of beans per 8 ounces of alcohol! Many people really like to use rum, bourbon, or brandy. The quality and brand of the alcohol are not important. The quality of the vanilla beans is extremely important which is why we use a blend of gourmet quality or Grade A vanilla beans and beans specifically grown for extract purposes.
The 4 Steps for How to Make Vanilla Extract
Step One – Slit the beans long-ways then cut into smaller pieces. Place them into the jar or bottle.
Step Two – Completely submerge your beans by adding 8 oz of your favorite vodka, rum, bourbon, or brandy.
Step Three – Secure the lid on the jar or bottle and give your new delicious concoction a shake 1-2 times weekly.
Step Four – Try not to run out of patience. It takes about 6 - 12 months for the vanilla beans to magically turn the alcohol into pure, homemade vanilla extract. After 6 months, most of the extraction is finished. The vanilla beans could be removed, but if you leave the vanilla beans in the bottle, the flavor continues to evolve like wine does.
Store your vanilla extract out of direct sunlight and at room temperature and it will last literally forever, if you don’t use it up.
Premium Madagascar Bourbon Gourmet Vanilla Beans
Madagascar Bourbon Gourmet Vanilla Beans have a strong, deep, rich, vanilla aroma. The traditional, rich and creamy vanilla flavor that you expect is exactly what these beans deliver. They are ideal for making your homemade vanilla extract. In fact, Madagascar Bourbon vanilla beans are highly sought after because the region in which they are grown is known to produce the best quality beans.
Your Homemade Vanilla Extract
Perhaps you will just make enough vanilla extract for your own baking. Many people find that small bottles of homemade vanilla extract make ideal gifts. Make a large batch and repackage it into pretty jars or bottles. They make great hostess gifts, gifts for teachers, holiday gifts, or any occasion you have to give a gift to your favorite baker.
Making vanilla extract is quick and easy, aside from the waiting part. Yes, the waiting is the hardest part.
142 thoughts on “How to Make Vanilla Extract from Vanilla Beans (Homemade Vanilla)”
The Formulating Princess
First off, for true accuracy and consistency one should be measuring in metric. Virtually every country uses metric for good reason.
I HATE this cups and gallons stuff. I always convert recipes to metric and I create my recipes in metric. Use a scale. I promise, all recipes come out consistently better.
To answer the question of the cups to gallon it takes 16 cups to make a gallon. The average amount of vanilla bean pods to a cup is 10. Therefore, to make a gallon one would need 160 vanilla bean pods.
However, this every vanilla bean pod varies in weight. To obtain taste consistently weighing the alcohol and pods is important. Every type of alcohol weighs differently, depending on what one uses as well.
My suggestion is buy your alcohol, and weigh in milliliters as you pour in your vessel, assuming you know it is a one gallon vessel.
Then weigh the ten vanilla beans in grams abd note it. Those are the magic numbers one would use to make your gallon consistently.
Next up, if someone wants me to teach them how to make vanilla bean paste, mention it in the notes. Key ibgredient you’ll need you probably don’t have but will need – xanthan gum. It’s a very tricky ingredient to work with and you need to buy the right type. Just mention it in the comments and I’ll see it and teach it.
Brad
Can you tell me where to go now? Tell me what to do. I took some dried vanilla beans (8 oz) that were all twisted. I cut them into pieces and I put them in a big jar and I filled it with 1.75 L of 80 proof vodka. I then vacuum sealed the jar. It was amazing how quickly the color change from clear to a darker color. It was also very satisfying to see the bubble, coming up from the vanilla beans when I was vacuum, sewing the jar.
I shake it up 2 – 5 times a week. After about five weeks, it is so dark that you can’t see through it. I can kind of make out some parts and pieces of the vanilla beans floating around inside after I shake it.I want to pour the vanilla extract into smaller jars and give them away as gifts. Because of all the loose bits and pieces floating around I figured I should use cheese cloth or something to reduce the loose bits going into the smaller bottles. What are your thoughts???
MeLisa Antrican
I’ve honestly never handled a vanilla bean until this project. I had no idea what I was doing or needed to do or how to do what I didn’t know I needed to do ha! I read the recipe here and just prayed for the best.
I used 5 beans per 4.5oz bottle. I did this in early August and just popped the lid on one (I’m curious) – it smelled AMAZING! I’m so excited to smell and taste these this Christmas!!!
I was going to use 10 per bottle but was not prepared for just how tedious splitting the beans really was. I still have beans left and now that I’ve recuperated (lol) I’m thinking I may just add them in and have a double fold going on.
Richard K Graham
Thank you for information. I enjoyed no nonsense approach to your readers.
Sara Murray
First timer here, at the end of the 6 months or year (I’m going a year), do I need to strain the beans out of the jar?
I plan on making them in a larger canning jar, and then re-bottling in smaller 4 oz bottles to give as gifts, and of course to keep myself.