Preparing to make a batch of Vanilla Extract.
This year, for Christmas, I decided to try making Vanilla Extract for the bakers I know. It’s pretty simple once you know how to do it, but it does take some patience, and it’s not cheap. The basic recipe is simple: Vanilla bean suspended in alcohol make extract. The patience part comes from the 6 months and the constant shaking it takes.
Lots of people swear by lots of things when it comes to ingredients, but I went with 1/2 pound of Papua New Guinea Tahitian Vanilla Beans and 1/2 pound of Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Beans. Different types of beans are better for different things, but as a novice, I thought I’d play it safe and make sure my bases were covered. I went with Polar Ice Vodka, starting with 4L and quickly adding another 2L as I realized how many people I wanted to gift with it. I was originally worried it wouldn’t be strong enough, but I think the extra effort I went to collecting the ‘seeds’ from the beans, chopping and pulverizing the beans did a lot to let out flavour. Add to that the 9 months I left it instead of the required 6, and I had some mighty potent extract.
I underestimated the amount of liquid lost to what was left in the filtering process and in the discarded leftover bean. Still, I’d consider it a huge success, since the smell and taste were amazing. Not sure I’ll make the effort again (it was a lot of work doing all that cutting, and remembering to shake it every day was a bit tedious), mostly though because of the cost. It was pretty pricey when you factor everything in, but it is a unique gift that I hope people will enjoy for a long time. And given that each bottle contained 450mL, I think a long time doesn’t sound unreasonable…
Ground and chopped Vanilla beans are added to vodka.
One two litre jar complete, one to go. A third 2L jar was added the next day.
Within the hour, the vanilla begins to colour the vodka.
A cauldron of vanilla.
Filtering the Extract nine months later with coffee filters, strainers and cheesecloth.
Syringes were used to carefully collect, measure and remix the batches into the final bottles.