The Great Vanilla Extract Experiment

February 28, 2008 · Filed Under Tips for Expats 

For six years now, I’ve been bringing a large bottle of vanilla extract home with me from the States every year.  I considered the tiny, overpriced bottles at KaDeWe.  I searched the shops.  I searched online.  I looked at recipes.  To be honest, it doesn’t look that difficult to make your own, so it’s time to step it up a notch.  It’s time to start living what I preach.  It’s time for me to make my own vanilla extract.

Ingredients for vanilla extract

There are a myriad of recipes out there, just google and you’ll find them, but here’s mine. You’ll need 0.5L of alcohol, 4-6 vanilla beans, and a jar with a lid. You don’t need top of the line booze*, anything will do, as long as it’s 40% alcohol (that’s 80 proof). Vodka is nice and neutral, but I’ve seen dark rum in a lot of recipes. Since we don’t quite have a full bottle of vodka, I’m adding a small bottle of dark rum to the mix.

Splitting vanilla beans

I decided that if I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna go all the way. So I searched and found an online shop Vanille aus Madagaskar, that sells 9 Bourbon vanilla beans from Madagascar for €12,90 (plus postage).  (This is quite the savings over the beans sold in the supermarkets - and they look nicer too). I took each bean and split it down the middle, leaving one end intact. Some recipes say to scrape the bean, but I chose not to.

Vanilla extract - Week 0

I dropped the 6 split vanilla beans into the jar, then topped them with the vodka and dark rum. It’s important now to store the container in a dark, cool place. It will take at least 4-6 weeks before you’ll be able to use the extract, and 6 months to full maturity.

* If you plan on keeping the extract around for 10 years or so, you will want to use high quality alcohol - but I’m not making enough to last that long.

Week 1

Vanilla extract - Week 1

After one week of steeping, the extract is already a beautiful dark amber color.  It still smells rather strongly of alcohol, but the vanilla scent is there.  The jar gets shaken, and put back in it’s dark, cool spot.

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Want worship-worthier instructions? Check out the Make Vanilla Extract article by Ian on Instructables.

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Comments

10 Responses to “The Great Vanilla Extract Experiment”

  1. silvia on February 28th, 2008 7:06 pm

    Wow, thats interessting. I never ettempted to make my own. I even have to confess that I bring back Vanilla in powdered form from Germany…I am curious about the result in a few weeks tho!

  2. Christina G on February 28th, 2008 11:56 pm

    I’ll keep you informed! I’m curious myself to see how this turns out. It is very easy though!

  3. Bek on February 28th, 2008 11:57 pm

    Funny - I am importing Vanillezucker to the US. It’s so much easier to use for me:)

  4. Diane Mandy on February 29th, 2008 12:04 am

    You are making your own VANILLA EXTRACT. I am so so impressed right now.

  5. G on February 29th, 2008 1:04 am

    Hi-firstly, thanks for reading me!
    Great minds must think alike because I was just reading on
    http://suzannemcminn.com/blog/2008/02/09/homemade-vanilla-extract/
    here how to do the same thing. Although I just picked up 2 huge bottles of vanilla at the Publix here in Orlando, so I can put this off for a while;-)

  6. Hezamarie on February 29th, 2008 8:42 am

    Wow, Christina. You don’t fool around.

    I’m pretty satisfied with the Spice Island, Pure Vanilla extract. I find it at Hertie’s and the Kaufhof supermarkets in Munich.

    But your stuff looks very intoxicatingly yummy.

  7. Migraine Meister on February 29th, 2008 1:14 pm

    WOW Christina - RESPECT!

    I only use vanilla extract for my choc. chip cookies and the Dr. Oetker “Finesse Natürliches Bourbon-Vanille Aroma” works really nice for that recipe…

    For which recipes do you use vanilla extract?

    So enjoying your blog and newly added videos!

    My family back in the States would love for us to do a blog like yours, but I could just as well say, “Read Christina’s blog - es geht uns genauso!” - Except I married a life sciences guy and can’t convince my husband to get a dog! (yet!!)

    If you need an idea for a blog, I would love to hear your experiences about owning a dog in Germany/how much it costs/taxes,insurance, obedience school - I mean I already know most of these things from my neighbors, but you have such a cool perspective on things!

    You showed us your local Kindergarten in your last video - have you signed Oliver up yet? Our Kigas are so full here we had to sign up our son when he was 3 months old! What do you think about kids already going to Kiga with 3 years?

    Have a good weekend!

  8. rositta on March 1st, 2008 2:59 am

    Christina, thanks for that post. I use a lot of vanilla and never thought about making my own. I will now though for sure…ciao

  9. Christina G on March 1st, 2008 11:14 pm

    @bek: ohhh, I’ve still got three vanilla beans, that gives me an idea for another post!

    @diane: you are easily impressed, I see ;-)

    @g: That’s funny! I wonder how many other people got the idea to make vanilla extract for the first time this month…

    @hezamarie: It’s supposed to be WAAAY better than the stuff in the store. We’ll see…

    @migraine meister: I use vanilla extract for french toast, cookies, cakes, lots of stuff —- I will put the dog post on the idea pile, thanks! Maybe it’ll convince your hubby! (Mine took a few years, but I finally broke him down) —- We don’t need to sign up at the Kindergarten here until a week before he starts. That’s the nice thing about living in a small village —- I don’t have an opinion on the 3 year olds in Kiga thing, but I guess it’s probably fine. Never really thought about it…

    @rositta: You should definitely do it. It’s fun, easy and it’s supposed to be super yummy.

  10. christina on March 3rd, 2008 11:23 am

    Excellent! I might have to try that now that there are only a few teaspoons left in my bottle of vanilla extract. I always buy a huge one when we’re on holiday and it usually lasts a couple of years.

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