freemotion
Food Guru
This is how I do it, no measuring allowed!
Ingredients:
Vodka (can also use bourbon), any kind, whatever is on sale.
Whole vanilla beans, as many as you can afford.
Patience.
The more vanilla beans per ounces of vodka, the longer you let it sit, the stronger it will be. My last batch was made by pouring a fifth of vodka into my Vitamix along with 14 vanilla beans, chop 'em up! Store at room temperature in a dark cupboard in a glass bottle (important!!) for about 6 months. You can speed the process by giving it a shake now and then.
To use, strain some into a smaller bottle, like your last small vanilla extract bottle, using a funnel and a fine wire mesh tea strainer. Just strain what you will use in the next month, maybe. Leave most of it in with the beans to continue getting stronger. Put the beans you strained out back into the larger bottle if you can.
My latest batch was just mixed using some vanilla beans I found today in a discount store, high end beans for a low end price. I used 16 oz bottles and put 1.6 oz of chopped beans and 1.8 oz of ground beans in each and filled the bottles up with vodka. The amounts used were random, really, as that is the amounts and forms that the vanilla beans came in, I just eyeballed it and made a guess. You really can't go wrong. If you want stronger vanilla, use more beans and more time. For milder vanilla, less beans or less time.
If you find that you skimped too much on the beans, just add a few more and give it a few more months, no loss!
For delicately flavored and mild vanilla, use whole beans that you simply split and leave whole in the vodka.
Ingredients:
Vodka (can also use bourbon), any kind, whatever is on sale.
Whole vanilla beans, as many as you can afford.
Patience.
The more vanilla beans per ounces of vodka, the longer you let it sit, the stronger it will be. My last batch was made by pouring a fifth of vodka into my Vitamix along with 14 vanilla beans, chop 'em up! Store at room temperature in a dark cupboard in a glass bottle (important!!) for about 6 months. You can speed the process by giving it a shake now and then.
To use, strain some into a smaller bottle, like your last small vanilla extract bottle, using a funnel and a fine wire mesh tea strainer. Just strain what you will use in the next month, maybe. Leave most of it in with the beans to continue getting stronger. Put the beans you strained out back into the larger bottle if you can.
My latest batch was just mixed using some vanilla beans I found today in a discount store, high end beans for a low end price. I used 16 oz bottles and put 1.6 oz of chopped beans and 1.8 oz of ground beans in each and filled the bottles up with vodka. The amounts used were random, really, as that is the amounts and forms that the vanilla beans came in, I just eyeballed it and made a guess. You really can't go wrong. If you want stronger vanilla, use more beans and more time. For milder vanilla, less beans or less time.
If you find that you skimped too much on the beans, just add a few more and give it a few more months, no loss!
For delicately flavored and mild vanilla, use whole beans that you simply split and leave whole in the vodka.
