We Can Craft That

Hello to all the bakers out there! We absolutely love to bake. Every Christmas we turn into our families holiday elves and bake a ridiculous amount of goodies. If you bake anywhere near as much as we do you know that the ingredients can get a little pricey ( especially in the quantities we do). So we are always looking for ways to cut cost without compromising quality. So, when we learned you can make your own vanilla extract that actually tastes better than store bought we didn’t hesitate to try it!

Step 1: Gather your supplies:

• Vodka or alcohol of choice
• Vanilla beans ( we ordered ours off Amazon)

• Glass containers with lids ( ours are 4 ounce jars)
• Small funnel or cup with a spout
• Labels ( optional)

Step 2: Wash and dry your containers

Step 3: Cut your vanilla in half ( we used our kitchen shears for this) and slice them down the middle to expose all the vanilla beans on the inside. You don’t have to completely split the bean in half, just a slit down the middle.

Step 4: Put your vanilla beans in your containers. We saw multiple recipes online with different ratios. We just made an educated guess and did three segments in each jar ( so that comes out to 1 and a half beans in each).

Step 5: Use your funnel and fill your jars with your alcohol. We chose vodka because that’s just what we happened to have on hand.

Step 6: Gently give your jars a little shake and put them in a cool dark place. We put ours in the back of one of our pantries. Now you just sit back and wait for them to really marinate ( with the exception of a quick little shake every once in a while). According to our research the vanilla will be ready to use in about 3 months but they really reach their most delicious flavor around 6 months. So, we started ours in July for the holidays.

Step 7: This step is optional. We chose to add some cute label to make them extra special. We used our cricut machine to make the stickers and cardstock with sharpies to make the direction cards. We love to add personal touches whenever we can!

So, with minimal effort you now have some homemade vanilla extract. These make excellent gifts! Next, we want to try to make other flavors like a lemon extract. Happy baking!