Homemade vanilla extract!
Vanilla
extract is possibly the most versatile baking ingredient. I love it! If you
have vanilla essence in your cupboard, please throw it away and substitute it
with vanilla extract. I don’t even know why essence exists. It really isn’t
good at all and, in my opinion, ruins dishes.
Vanilla
extract however isn’t the cheapest thing on the baking shelf. You can get away
with going to a baking store and getting 1 kg of caster sugar for R13 and flour
in similar quantities for less than R20, but vanilla extract is always
expensive! The tiny bottle goes for R50 +/-! So what about making your own? I
didn’t even consider this until a couple of weeks ago when I went to cupcake
decorating class. Making the extract is a very slow process! One bottle will
only really be ready in about 4 – 6 months! But then you’ll have a home made,
big bottle of fantastic vanilla extract.
I
always buy vanilla pods and end up wasting half the bottle it comes in. So this
is a great way of re-purposing them instead of throwing them away.
In
my bottle, I threw in 4 slit vanilla pods. I cut them to allow the inside beans
to come out and flavour it even more.
Then
I filled the rest of the bottle with vodka. This is going to be about 2 cups
depending on the size of your bottle. I know that you can also use bourbon, so
which ever you having lying around or prefer.
Make
sure the lid can close tightly and put the bottle away in a dark cupboard and
forget about it until it is a dark liquid.
Enjoy!
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