If you want a handmade gift that people LOVE to receive and that is really easy to prepare, I’ve got just the thing–homemade vanilla extract!
It won’t add a bunch of calories to your holidays, it’s super useful, and it’s beautiful to boot. And we all know that real vanilla is way better than imitation. So grab a few supplies and let’s make the best homemade gift of the year.
Make Your Own Vanilla Extract Supplies
- Glass swing bottle
- Vodka (enough to fill the bottle)
- Vanilla bean pods
Instructions
- Take a knife and slit the vanilla beans open. Place 8-10 of them in your bottle.
- Pour in enough vodka to cover the beans.
- Add a ribbon and tag, and you’re done!
It’s really that easy. Yours will be clear at first, and over time it will darken up. Now there are a couple of things to note before you give this away–it takes 3-6 months for the bottle to actually become vanilla extract. So if you make it right away, you’ll be able to give your vanilla a little time to get started, but if you don’t, no worries. Just make sure that you let your recipient know they’ll need to let it wait.
Tips for great vanilla extract:
- Store your vanilla in a dark place and swirl it around once every week for the first month so that the vanilla beans really have the chance to flavor the vodka.
- Once you’ve used up the vanilla, pour in some more vodka and start the process over again with the same vanilla pods.
- This particular bottle looks amazing and has worked wonderfully for us. You can buy a set of them here (affiliate).
Making your own vanilla extract is a fun, unique gift that will be really fabulous for baking and is memorable.
I'd love to hear your thoughts–leave me a comment!