Homemade Vanilla Extract and Honey Butter

Name: Homemade Vanilla Extract
Prep time: 20 min
Total time: 11 d 14 h 20 min
Yield: 1
Ingredients: Pint of gluten-free vodka (or rum, or another liquor of your choice; some folks like brandy and cognac, but I prefer the more neutral-flavored vodka--see notes); Two vanilla beans

Shirley Braden

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Homemade Vanilla Extract and Honey Butter. These are two of my very favorite food gifts!

Holiday food gifts are always welcome. Especially when the food gifts are ones that everyone loves.

Homemade Honey Butter and Homemade Vanilla Extract (still being extracted)

Homemade Vanilla Extract

My very favorite holiday food gift to make is Homemade Vanilla Extract. Homemade vanilla is so easy to make and wonderful for baking and other cooking.

It’s also very economical for the avid cook. It’s a favorite of my friends and family.

I usually give my homemade vanilla extract every 2 years, because most folks don’t go through a bottle this size in a year’s time.

Homemade Vanilla Extract Becoming Extract. Two approaches to making vanilla extract are shown. [from GlutenFreeEasily.com] (photo)

Homemade Vanilla Extract (Shown on Window Sill for Photos Only, Store in Cool Dark Place)

By the way, I have to confess that I love that all the recipients of my vanilla extract will think of me kindly every time they use it.

Family and friends love this gift so much that they even let me know when they need a new bottle! That makes my holiday gift planning even easier, of course.

Homemade Vanilla Extract ready to give. A very special holiday food gift that's easy to make and will have the recipient thinking of you all year long! [from GlutenFreeEasily.com]

Homemade Vanilla Extract (on Day One, before the vanilla has been extracted)

For gift wrapping, attach your label and a decorative bow/ribbon. “Curly” ribbon is great for the neck of the bottle.

You can also easily attach a little gift tag. Gift tags are easy to make from old Christmas cards by cutting out an image that you like that is the right size for the gift, punching a hole at the top (in a place that won’t ruin the image), and then running the curling ribbon through the hole before you tie and curl the ribbon with scissors.

Homemade Vanilla Extract Recipe

Yield: 1 bottle

Homemade Vanilla Extract

It's very easy to make homemade vanilla extract and also very economical. Homemade vanilla extract also makes a wonderful gift.

Prep Time 20 minutes

Inactive Time 1 month 11 days 14 hours

Total Time 1 month 11 days 14 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

Pint of gluten-free vodka (or rum, or another liquor of your choice; some folks like brandy and cognac, but I prefer the more neutral-flavored vodka--see notes)
Two vanilla beans

Instructions

Soak label off vodka bottle by submerging bottle in water (up to top of label) for a few hours.
Either cut vanilla beans into 1-inch pieces or split/cut in the middle using a knife, but do NOT cut all the way through so that the bean separates into two pieces. See photo below for both methods. I prefer the splitting method because I think the beans looks nicer in the bottle this way.
Add vanilla beans to bottle of vodka. (If the bottle if filled to the top with vodka, you'll want to remove some of that so that the vodka doesn't overflow when the vanilla beans are added.
Shake or turn every few days. Keep in a cool, dark cabinet for at least a month, preferably longer..

Notes

I don’t usually buy my vanilla beans from the grocery store because they are not usually high quality at my grocery store and they are typically more costly. Madagascar vanilla beans are popular. I’ve usually bought the Tahitian ones though (that actually come from Papua New Guinea now it seems). I’ve gotten my vanilla beans through Penzey’s, The Spice House, and Amazon.

You can save money by buying a large bottle of vodka, using recycled bottles, and ordering your vanilla beans online in larger quantities. Just be sure if using recycled bottles that they allow for easy pouring, are a similar size to pints, and that they don’t retain a strong smell (i.e., don’t use a jar that formerly contained pizza sauce).

I read one opinion that unless you use six vanilla beans per cup of alcohol, you are making vanilla-flavored alcohol. Well, I’ve been using this ratio for years and have been happy with the results.

The vanilla extract doesn't have to be ready for use when you give it as a gift. Recipients usually love watching the vanilla get extracted and already have vanilla extract on hand that they can use until your gift is ready.

I just made the bottle of vanilla extract shown in the first photo so no extraction has taken place yet. In a very short time, the extraction process will be evident as the vodka begins to turn amber.

You can see the extraction happening in the second photo. With those bottles, I used more beans that I usually do because I wanted to use all the beans that I had immediately. I also used both approaches to see which approach extracted the vanilla more quickly.

For the two bottles on the left, I cut the beans through the center, but did not split them apart completely. For the bottle on the right, I cut the vanilla beans into 1-inch sections. As you can see, the bottles on the left are becoming vanilla much more quickly. So if you need your vanilla extract sooner rather than later, use the approach where you split the bean in the middle, but not from end to end.

Distilled alcohol is gluten free, even when made with gluten-containing grains because gluten does not make it through the distillation process. You still have to ensure that gluten is not added AFTER the distillation process though. So be sure to verify that flavored alcohol products are gluten free, not necessarily for this recipe as unflavored alcohol is used for the base for this vanilla extract but I want you to know that when consuming alcohol products at other times.

Homemade Honey Butter

Because we keep bees and our bees make the world’s best honey (yes, we’re biased), I’m always looking for great ways to use honey in cooking or as gifts.

Honey butter is one of those little niceties that some restaurants offer with their bread. It’s so easy to make and is really appreciated by the recipients. It’s such a special accompaniment to a loaf of homemade bread or some homemade rolls or muffins.

You will be tempted to make a lot of honey butter to make as a gift, but a little goes a long way. The jars shown are bouillon jars that I’ve recycled. Smaller jars might be even better.

The very small jars that jams and jellies sometimes come in would be perfect, especially to go with a bread gift. The following recipe produces just the right amount of honey butter to fill one of the bouillon-sized jars though.

Homemade Honey Butter Recipe

Homemade Honey Butter Ready To Gift

Yield: 1 cup