Friday, December 10, 2010

Vanilla


I'm making vanilla.....did you know you could do that?
(I didn't)

You need good vodka, and I'm not sure what constitutes 'good' but this was the most expensive one that Costco sold (don't laugh) so that's what I went with.




Using a fairly sharp knife, I cut down the middle of 9 vanilla beans
(3 beans per cup of vodka) ....


....leaving an inch at one end.


Put vanilla beans in a glass jar, cover with vodka, secure lid and
store in cool, dark place for 2 months.


This was started a month ago and it's turning a nice brown color but still tastes a bit like...um...vodka? Because I don't drink vodka I'm just guessing....it doesn't taste like wine:) Since commercial vanilla extract usually has simple syrup added to it, it won't ever taste quite like that. I could add sugar water but probably won't, it'll be fine for baking.

....from a recipe on Simply Recipes

4 comments:

myrtle groggins said...

i love the bourbon bottle. cool.

Maureen said...

Except it seemed kind of mean when Bradley tried to drink some of it.....and today he thought I'd bought more of his favorite beer but was using the bottle for fermented tea....poor guy.

Anonymous said...

Have you noticed that the vanilla at Trader Joe's is made from bourbon? (I love the bottle too, btw!) I dunno how that works, since vodka is the booze o' choice due to it's lack o' flavor (which, of course, is only lacking to die hard alcoholics in my opinion).

Where did you get your vanilla beans from? Were they expensive?

Maureen said...

I have Aldra. One recipe I found used bourbon instead of vodka and another called for adding it at the end to make it smoother. I may try that next time.

I bought organic beans from Barry Farms but they were kind of expensive ($5/bean) but then found them at our co-op for about a dollar each (but not organic).