![]() ![]() There should be no additives such as artificial flavors or sugar. They should only include alcohol, vanilla beans, and water. ![]() The Food and Drug Administration states that vanilla extract must have at least 35% alcohol to a minimum of 100 grams of vanilla in every liter.Ĭheck the ingredients of your extract when shopping. Vanilla extract, especially one labeled as a pure on the label, is created by soaking vanilla beans in an alcoholic situation to remove all the flavor compounds of the beans. Vanilla is also grown in Mexico, Tahiti, and Indonesia. Vanilla orchids generally grow in a small section of the world, with about 80% of the world’s supply coming from Madagascar. ![]() What it is, is a fruit from the genus Vanilla. So, where does vanilla extract come from? Vanilla comes in the form of a bean, but it isn’t the type of bean you have in mind. To understand vanilla extract, we have to understand the basics of vanilla. Even if you’re an average baker like me, the homemade stuff pays for itself pretty quickly.Vanilla extract is an integral ingredient to many culinary dishes however, most people do not truly understand it. In the first five years of making my own vanilla, I spent $30 on four high-quality beans, $6 on a single inexpensive bottle of vodka, and approximately $5 for the jar. Prefer the store brand? That’s $11 per 4-ounce bottle, or $110 for five years. If each jar costs $18, that’s $180 over a five-year span. Say you buy two 4-ounce bottles of the good vanilla extract from the grocery store every year. And while she buys pure vanilla extract in bulk from Costco ($50 for a 32-ounce bottle), it’s still one of the most expensive products on her grocery list.Ī bit of simple math reveals that homemade vanilla extract is the more economical choice. Adekoya uses vanilla in virtually every one of her recipes-she probably goes through more vanilla extract in one day than I do in a month. I gifted a tiny vial to Lara Adekoya, founder of boutique baking company Fleurs et Sel. But because I’m only a part-time baker, I wanted to test my DIY vanilla on a real pro. I’ve had my personal jar of homemade vanilla extract for over eight years, and it’s never let me down. Here’s how to do it: How to Make Homemade Vanilla Extract Seriously, DIY vanilla extract is the gift that keeps on giving. This, combined with the idea that I could produce a never-ending supply of homemade vanilla extract-one suitable for all my baking, cooking, and beverage needs-simply by adding in more vodka (another spoiler: it’s not quite that simple, but the method is still easy), was enough to convince me to give it a go. I quickly learned that making my own vanilla extract would require just a few vanilla beans, some cheap vodka, a glass jar, and a lot of patience. There are a number of ways to reuse spent vanilla pods, like making extract, vanilla salt, or vanilla sugar, that eke out every last molecule of flavor the pricey pods have to offer. Any time a recipe called for more than a scant teaspoon, I’d walk away feeling guilty: Those tiny bottles are expensive, not to mention environmentally wasteful and hit or miss in terms of flavor and quality.Īfter buying some very expensive vanilla beans a few years back (using a discount from my kitchen job), I researched how to get the biggest bang for my buck. At the time I had been going through a lot of store-bought vanilla extract and racking up quite a bill while doing so. Until recently, I wondered if homemade vanilla extract could improve my projects-not to mention save me some money in the long run (spoiler alert: it did and it does). As a professional food blogger and recipe tester, I bake quite a lot and drink more flavored coffee beverages than I care to admit. ![]()
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