Vanilla Extract

You are going to kick yourself when you find out how easy it is to make vanilla extract.  I gave some to my family and friends as Christmas gifts and they all loved it. 

I order my vanilla beans off of Amazon in bulk so I always have some on hand. I use them all the time and they last for a while so I'm not desperately trying to use them up. 

You can find these cute little jars at places like Michaels or AC Moore crafts stores, Marshall's or TJMaxx, or I found these at World Market.  They are perfect for gift giving because the are not huge so they will easily fit in someone's spice cabinet but they are just big enough that they will have plenty of vanilla for much of the year. 

Take a sharp knife and cut a vanilla bean from top to bottom.

There are lots of seeds inside, leave them in there.

Clean your bottles. Depending on the size of your bottles you might need to cut the beans in half.

Insert 6 cut pieces (3 whole beans) into the bottle.

Fill the jar to the top with vodka. Leave a little bit of space at the top, about 1/4 of an inch is fine but I don't really think it matters.

Now wrap it up and give it as a gift.  They need to sit for about 3 months before using. Shake every so often, about once a month.

I hope you can make your own vanilla extract soon, it smells SO good!

Vanilla Beans
Vodka
Bottles