{TUTORIAL} homemade vanilla extract

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tutorial on

homemade vanilla bean extract

by

TRAYLOR MADE TREATS

if you don't know amanda from traylor made treats then you are missing OUT!

she is the talented lady behind ALL of the cakes at our parties!

you can see her cakes here, here, and here ... and a million other places on our blog!

with all the baking i have been doing lately i really need to try this...

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The finished product...

But first, there was a lot of research and buying what I needed!

First, I got my bottles and my vodka 

(and i did 1 smaller bottle with rum~ i wanted to see the difference at the end) 

make sure the vodka is 80% alcohol

Then I got my vanilla beans.

I got my beans from iherb.com where they have a wide variety of different types of organic beans.

I ended up getting: plain organic vanilla beans, organic Indian vanilla beans, organic mexican vanilla beans, organic madagascar vanilla beans, and organic tahitian vanilla beans... just to have different flavor profiles. And let me add, that these prices were amazing for as many beans as you get, AND i knew it was coming from certified USDA organic store.

Beware buying your beans from other online places...if they price is too cheap...your are going to pay for it in quality.

All of the beans I got were nice and plump and soft.

My research told me to use 6 beans per 17 oz bottle. 
My large bottles were twice as big and then some, so i doubled my beans and added a couple to compensate. The mason jars I used were exactly 34 oz, so i used 12 beans for those. Then I labeled the bottles to show which beans were used and I added a date to the back of each bottle telling when it was bottled. 

It takes 8 weeks/2 months for the vanilla to be complete.

Store in a dark cool place and shake your bottle once a week.

This is after only 1 week!

Now, this is after 8 weeks....

This project was pretty simple! 
The hardest part was waiting 2 months!!!

But now I'm set for all of my holiday baking and I may even put the vanilla into smaller bottles and give as gifts!

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thanks amanda! 
i would love to get a bottle for christmas -- hint hint!!
check out all of her amazing treats here
TRAYLOR MADE TREATS
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happy entertaining
mindy starr