Don't these look so wonderful? Do you even know what they are? Good guess but its not licorice. These are vanilla beans over 50 of them (who knew I would get so many when I ordered) I wish that I had smell a puter, because the scent is outstanding! So what am I doing? It is simple, I am making homemade vanilla extract. Vanilla is one of my all time flavorings for baking. Have you seen how expensive a tiny bottle of "pure" vanilla is? Let me tell you that even that is not pure vanilla extract, there is added water and SUGAR! A Facebook friend of mine tipped me off that I could have a high quality vanilla at the fraction of the price...EARS ARE OPEN! So here it is in simplified form. Step one take about 5-6 vanilla beans and split from the end. (Great bulk vanilla purchases can be made on Amazon...just watch the customer ratings)
Add one cup of vodka to the split beans ...Now this one was fun! Let me just say that you cannot walk into any grocery store and pick up vodka (well at least in NC) It involves going into what my daughter likes to call the "ALPHABET" store. (ABC = Alcoholic Beverages Ctr) . Well yes this one was a fun step for me. I will say until the idea of making vanilla extract was presented to me, I had never been in this type of store...GASP, I KNOW! So on the day I went to buy Vodka, I dressed in my most inconspicuous hoodie sweatshirt, mask...JUST KIDDING! Of course when I went in I had no idea where to start, thank goodness the salesman did and better yet I am pretty sure he had sampled each one! (Well not that day). I felt empowered and a bit stinkerish (my word) because now I had given people something to talk about ahahaha (EmBEE went in the ABC STORE). I was felt empowered. I have been back a couple times now, for more extract and baking adventures :). The next step was simple....SHAKE! SHAKE SHAKE!
Now the next step, Let sit for 6 mos! Shaking the bottle every few days. Every day for for the first few weeks. Once I figured out the extract process I realized you could make several kinds. Orange (3 large oranges, rinds peeled to one cup of vodka), Lemon (5 -6 lemon rinds peeled off to one cup vodka) Coconut, Almond. The list became endless and so did all the little glass bottles in my pantry. I think glass works a whole lot better than plastic, just my opinion.
Almond extract is just a little different. The recipe is 1/2 cup of crushed almonds to 1 cup of vodka . The almonds will not be the typical scent you expect because they are sweet almonds in the US . Typical almond extract is made with bitter almonds (which are not sold in the US, because they are poisonous) And here we go...PEACH or nectarine seeds. SURPRISE! They are poisonous as well, but in large amounts...so adding 5-6 are not going to hurt your extract. Surely all that vodka does something to them..
So happy experimenting! Special note, if you look around you will find a lot or recipes stating only 3 vanilla beans per cup. Professionals use double strength vanilla, so add those extra beans!
I'll let you know how they all turn out! I can see Christmas gifts will be easy this year. I just have to remember to start in JUNE!
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