Linen and Twigs

Hello Friends and welcome to a little peek of what goes on in my kitchen. I don’t claim to be a gourmet cook or a wonderful baker but I have successfully kept three boys and a husband alive for almost 33 years now so I’m not doing too bad. I will say that I have taken a bigger interest in the quality of food that we consume as opposed to just eating stuff.

One thing that I tried my hand at was making homemade vanilla extract. I know what you’re thinking, “how different could it possibly be”? I’m here to tell you, it’s different! Again, I’m not a wonderful baker but I do have tastebuds and I can tell a difference in the flavor. It’s also super easy and cost efficient too. Real vanilla extract as opposed to imitation vanilla can be so expensive however you only need two ingredients; vodka and vanilla beans.

The first step is to head to your local ABC store. Now I’m not a frequent patron at our local ABC store so I was a bit intimidated to go inside but the writing was on the wall…literally, it said Vodka right on the wall right above where all the vodka was. My only requirement of getting some vodka was that I wanted it to be in a glass bottle and preferably a pretty one. As I scanned the wall of vodka, I began tapping on various bottles with my fingernail to see if it was made of glass. The very young boy whom I’m assuming was barely of age and yet quite knowledgeable asked if he could help me. I assured him that I was finding what I needed on my own and continued to lightly tap on the bottles. After several minutes passed, the young man asked, “Maam…are you sure that I can’t help you find something?” Feeling a bit foolish, I confessed that I was looking for Vodka and the only requirement was that it was in a pretty glass bottle.” He smirked and began pointing out the brands that were in glass bottles. I paid for my bottles, grabbed my brown bags and headed out the door.

Once I got home, I went to work on making my delicious batch of vanilla. I purchased my vanilla beans from Amazon. I recently found vanilla beans at Costco as well. It takes about five beans per batch but you can definitely use more. The more beans you use, the stronger the vanilla will be however the longer you let your batch sit, the stronger it becomes as well.

The first thing you do is to split the beans lengthwise with a knife.

You don’t have to cut all the way through but rather just enough for the vodka to penetrate the bean. Once the beans are cut, place them inside the bottle of vodka, cap it up and give it a shake.

Store the vodka in a dark place and periodically, give the bottle a shake. The longer the bottle sits, the darker and more flavorful it becomes which is why now would be a good time to start a batch in time for your holiday baking.

A bottle lasts a long time however should you need to make more, you can top off your vodka bottle and add a few more beans following the initial instructions of splitting the new beans. You can also rebottle your homemade vanilla extract in a fancy bottle of your choice but I find that the bottle it comes in works perfectly.

That is it!!! It is so easy and so delicious. There’s nothing imitation about it and it makes a big difference in the taste of your bake goods in my opinion. Let me know if you give it a try and how you liked it.

As always, thanks for stopping by. It means the world to me!