Nov 11, 20224 min read

How to make incredibly delicious Vanilla extract at home

When I was... 29 (?) years old, I took my family to meet my grandpa for Thanksgiving and he bought me a really big bottle of Mexican vanilla extract. (During winters, he stayed in a mobile home park on the U.S. side of the Mexican border, so we were right there and he wanted to give me a special treat.) The gift was a welcome one because I liked to bake for my family sometimes and Mexican vanilla is notoriously stronger than the imitation vanilla that I could afford on, at that time, a military budget.

Now, more than twenty years later, I am almost finished with that huge bottle of Mexican vanilla and it's about time for a new one. Unfortunately, grandpa has been gone for a very long time and I no longer live in Texas, so what to do? It would definitely not be cost effective for me to fly or drive 1600 miles to the Mexican border for a big bottle of vanilla. Hence, I did the next best thing: I looked up the recipe to make my own. This resulted in a very pleasant discovery that making my own vanilla extract is not really the next best thing to Mexican vanilla. It is better!

There are three reasons I now think making my own vanilla is best.

Vanilla extracts made for commercial distribution are typically made with vodka and I am not a vodka fan. I don't enjoy the flavor. I prefer rum or whisky. Brady can be okay, depending on the brandy, but vodka is just not to my liking. If I buy vanilla from Mexico, chances are good it was made with vodka. If I make my own vanilla, though, I can use any 80 proof spirit -- rum, bourbon or brandy (or vodka, but why would I?) and exchange its subtle tones, miniscule though they may be, for those of vodka in whatever I cook. I use rum for my homemade vanilla and it is delicious.
Typical store-bought vanilla "brews" in as little as 8 weeks. My own vanilla can be left on the shelf to "brew" for up to two years, thereby infusing it with extra deliciousness and making it quite strong.
I can make plenty of "double-fold" vanilla for only a little bit more than "single fold" vanilla. This is a game changer in baking. The difference? Single-fold vanilla is weaker. It is made with 4 beans per 8 fluid ounces of booze. Double-fold vanilla is twice as strong. It is made with 1/2 ounce of beans (5 to 6) per 8 fluid ounces of your medium. No, it is not double the beans but, yes, it is somehow double the flavor. The best pastry chefs, of course, use double-fold vanilla -- and so do I (now)!

There are also different vanilla beans that the home-brewer of vanilla extract can choose from.

Mexican beans are one. They supposedly produce a smokier vanilla.

Tahitian vanilla beans reportedly have a "floral" hint.

I buy Madagascar vanilla beans. Their flavor is claimed to be creamy and rich.

Here's an interesting fact about vanilla that my daughter brought to my attention. Every year, there are a certain number of genius minors who, knowing a little but not enough, stupidly decide to get drunk on vanilla. Vanilla extract is just flavored vodka, right? So why is vanilla extract classified as a food and not an alcoholic beverage? The reason is that during the beginning of prohibition in the 1920's, FEMA petitioned Congress (by flooding individual congressmen with telegrams LOL) to change the designation of flavor extracts from alcohol to food. For some reason, they considered the prohibition of flavor extracts to be a threat of cataclysmic proportions to food industries. (I wonder why...?)

Enough talk. Here's the super-complicated (not) recipe:

Ingredients

Your choice of 80 proof consumable alcohol: vodka, rum, bourbon, brandy, etc.
Glass container with lid
4 to 6 vanilla beans per 8 oz. of fluid

Directions

Pour 8 ounces 80-proof alcohol into the GLASS container.
If you plan to use the vanilla before it has steeped for a year, split your beans in half. Otherwise, there is no need to bother. The flavor from split vs. unsplit beans evens out at the one-year mark.
For each 8 ounces of fluid, plop 4 beans (for single-fold) or 5-6 beans (for double-fold vanilla) into the glass container.
Secure the lid. (DO NOT vent.)
Gently shake the container once or twice to stir the fluid.
Set the container in a location out of direct light.
Gently shake the container once a day for the first two weeks and then at least once a month after that until the flavor is to your liking. This will take between 8 weeks and two years depending on how strong you want it.
Remove the vanilla beans when the vanilla is to your liking, or after 2 years to keep the vanilla from getting gross.

TIP

This is a fun one. You can begin using your vanilla out of its steeping jar after 8 weeks (the minimum steeping time) but leave the beans in it and just add enough booze (whatever kind you started it with) to replace the vanilla you used. This way, you have a full jar of good vanilla at the end of the two years -- even though you have been using it.