I honestly never knew how easy it was to make homemade vanilla extract until I saw the idea a couple of years ago and ended up making a bunch of cute little bottles to giveaway for the holidays!

A surefire way to ensure purity + quality of your vanilla extract is to make it yourself! All you need is some high-quality beans, vodka, and an airtight container. I will never buy vanilla extract at the store again!

I am running low so I decided it’s time to whip up a new batch. I bought organic beans from Beanilla (free shipping, woohoo!). You can also buy bottles there but I just used a small Mason jar from home.

The ratio of beans to alcohol varies by preference, but I stick to 6 beans per cup of alcohol, or 3 beans per half-cup.

Homemade Vanilla Extract

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Ingredients

  

• 6 vanilla beans
• 1 cup vodka

Instructions

 

• Slice open the vanilla beans length-wise and place in an air-tight container
• Pour vodka over beans, making sure to cover beans entirely (I had to cut my beans in half to get them to fit in the jar--it's OK to chop them into small pieces if you need to)
• Securely fasten lid, and store in a cool, dry, dark place for 2 months. Shake the container one or twice a week.