Christmas in July – Homemade Vanilla Extract

With just under 5 months until Christmas, it might be time to start thinking about gifts for your friends and family. That’s what I was doing about a year ago. I am definitely a big planner and had decided early in 2009 to make as many Christmas gifts as I could. Some of these gifts required quite a bit of time and some were easy to throw together. This week I’ll be sharing the gifts that I gave our family and friends last year.

The first gift came about due to a sale on Amazon. There was a great deal on 1/2 lb of vanilla beans. I started with two bottles of vodka and the vanilla beans. Once the beans were split (but not scraped) and placed in the vodka, the bottles just had to sit in a cool dark place. Every couple of weeks Hubby would pull the vodka out of the closet and shake the crap out of it. A couple months later the vanilla extract was ready to go!

I ordered some bottles online and made some labels for the bottles to finish off the look. I also placed two vanilla beans into each bottle.

I love that the vanilla extract tastes so good, has the specks of fresh vanilla beans, and will essentially never run out. If the vanilla starts running low, you can just top it off with some more vodka. As you use vanilla beans, just throw the pods in the bottle to replenish the vanilla flavor.

One Year Ago: Goat Cheese Potato Salad and Salmon with Yellow Pepper and Cilantro Pesto
Two Years Ago: Champagne Cupcakes

    Pin It

5 Responses to “Roasted Pistachio Ice Cream”

  1. #
    1
    Andrea Johnson — July 11, 2013 at 7:52 am

    That looks so yummy! Can you suggest a good substitute for the cream cheese? I can’t eat dairy….. Also, can I use honey/agave in place of the sugar & corn syrup? Thanks!

    • beantownbaker — July 11th, 2013 @ 7:54 am

      Have you tried the Tofutti “Better than Cream Cheese”? I am lactose intolerant and use that in place of cream cheese. I think the cream cheese is there to enhance the smooth texture of the ice cream. You could just leave it out if you wanted. The corn syrup is there to help it not freeze too hard. Again, you could omit it if you wanted or replace with honey. Let me know how it turns out for you with the substitutions.

  2. #
    2
    Casey — July 12, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    I really need an ice cream maker….

    • beantownbaker — July 14th, 2013 @ 4:15 pm

      I can’t believe I lived so long without one…

  3. #
    3
    Shannon — August 1, 2013 at 3:34 pm

    i’ve done a pistachio ice cream awhile back and it was most definitely amazing. never was into the bright green stuff as a kid, either 🙂

Leave a Comment