making your own vanilla extract

[Cuppy]

I'd like to try making my own vanilla extract at home
I read all you need to do is put some whole vanilla beans in a bottle of vodka
but what is the best way to do it
how many vanilla beans, how big a bottle of vodka
does it have to go into a cool dark place or can it sit on my windowsill
oh yeah and does the bottle of vodka have to be full :biggrin:

[ChiCupcake]

Did you try Googling this?

[GenghisFlan_77]

On this note, could you create any sort of extract in this fashion. I would like to have a source for, say, hazelnut or almond extract and that would be an interesting way to go about it. Though in the end I doubt you would save that much money, depending on what quality of vodka you would need.

[Princess Cupcake]

Over Christmas we did exactly this; got a bunch of extract quality vanilla beans and put them in vodka. I did some research beforehand and found the site http://www.vanillareview.com/, and learned to use about 8 ounces of cut up and scraped vanilla bean for each cup of vodka. I did put some in the vodka bottles but you have to plan on having some displacement, so I had sterilized Mason jars ready for the rest. You're supposed to either use dark bottles or keep them away from the light, so no windowsill displays I'm afraid :)

I'm not sure about hazelnut or almond extracts, but now I'm thinking about also making my own lemon extract, as it sounds even easier than vanilla. But in about 5 months I'm going to be overflowing with vanilla extract as it is!