DIY Vanilla Extract

I am proud to say that I have officially started my Christmas gift-making for 2011!  This is way ahead of schedule for me, but in order to get this done and wrapped by Christmas I needed to start now.  A couple of weeks ago I came across a recipe for Homemade Vanilla Extract on one of the blogs I follow, Whipperberry.  It looked fun and easy to make so I thought I would give it a whirl!  I think this will make a great gift for our mom's, grandmas and the just-in-case I need a gift, gift.

All you need is vodka (anything cheap) and whole vanilla beans.  I took the recommendation from the Whipperberry blog and ordered my vanilla beans from Beanilla Trading Company. 

Who knew that vanilla extract was made out of vodka and vanilla beans?! Out of curiosity I checked the ingredients on the vanilla extract in my cupboard and sure enough - alcohol and vanilla beans and of course a few preservatives.
As for packaging, the mini wine bottles from either Barefoot or Sutter Home wine work great!

DIY Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1 cup of Vodka for 2 Vanilla Beans

Let it sit in a cool, dark place for 1 1/2 to 2 months, shaking it every couple of days

Remove the vanilla beans and strain the liquid thru cheese cloth

Package it up with a cute label! 

(Go to the Whipperberry Blog for packaging ideas- great ideas!)

So this weekend I picked up my supplies from our local HyVee grocery store so I could start my homemade vanilla extract project.  I didn't think of it until I left the grocery store but, I must have looked like an absolute "soak" when I was pushing my cart through the store.  I had a huge bottle of cheap vodka and eight mini bottles of Barefoot brand wine.... and a six-pack of Shocktop... Haha! 

I'm pretty excited for this DIY project!  I just need to empty out all of my mini wine bottles (1 down, 7 to go) so I can keep this project moving. Guess that means I will be drinking wine! :)

Let me know if you take on this project!

Have a great week and enjoy!