How do you make homemade, pure vanilla extract? The answer is surprisingly simple!

Purchase your first vanilla-extract complete starter kit by clicking right here, starting at just $22.40 for an 8oz glass bottle and 1oz of vanilla beans.

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Make new friends, learn a new craft and get 50% OFF your first vanilla extract starter kit by signing up for a virtual extract making class by clicking here and registering today. 

Pure vanilla extract is derived from vanilla bean essential oils. By submersing a vanilla bean in aged alcohol, the essential oil is extracted. Sounds easy, right? Well, there is a trick or two that will ensure the best possible outcome. Let's go through each of the seven steps together. 

 

Step 1: Choosing Your Vanilla Beans

Like coffee, chocolate or any other bean-derived culinary treat, the quality of bean has the single greatest impact on the final product. Choose the highest quality beans that you can. We pride ourselves at VanillaPura for sourcing the very best quality and variety that the world has to offer. 

The first choice you need to make is the vanilla bean country of origin. At any given time, VanillaPura offers vanilla beans from Tahiti, Tonga, Madagascar, Indonesia, Mexico and other countries. Each bean has its own flavor profile. From rich and fruity, to dark and smokey, creamy and buttery. You can see all of our current vanilla bean options right here.  

The next choice you need to make is to decide whether you want a grade-A vanilla bean or a grade-B vanilla bean. Grade-B vanilla beans are drier and less expensive. They are great for making home-made vanilla bean powder and vanilla extracts, but not much more. Grade-A has a higher moisture content. These beans are fantastic for homemade extracts, pastes and many other applications. They are typically a little more expensive. 

How many beans do you need? See step 5 below. 

 

Step 2: Choosing Your Extract Bottle

VanillaPura offers a number of customer-favorite extract bottles, but it's almost impossible to carry every bottle imaginable. Bottles are a fun medium to express your personality. For some, it's all about function. For others, it's all about aesthetics. If you're making vanilla extract as a party gift or hostess gift, then the bottle needs to be small and cute. If you're making vanilla extract for your own baking needs, then it may just be about finding a bottle that is tried and true for your own use. The wonderful part about this step is that it is entirely up to you! Have fun. Be creative. 

We recommend that you only use glass bottles. There are many reasons why you should use glass instead of plastic such as environmental considerations and the impact on taste. We recommend using clear, glass bottles so you can watch the extraction take place. When the extract becomes dark and amber, a clear glass bottle will give you a visual queue that your extract may be ready. 

 

Step 3: Dicing Your Vanilla Beans

Your vanilla beans have arrived! Now what? This is the fun part, because in this step, your kitchen will begin to fill with the aroma of vanilla. It's a sweet, pure, subtle aroma that makes everyone smile. 

The goal with dicing is two-fold: 1) to expose the seeds inside the pod, and 2) to ensure that your beans are cut right to be fully submerged in spirits during extraction. 

To expose the seeds, simply take a sharp knife and slice open the bean from the top of the pod down to the bottom of the pod. You will see thousands of small seeds. Smell them...they are wonderful. 

To ensure that your beans are fully submerged, simply look at the extract container that you are going to use and make sure that you cut the beans to a size that is less than the level of spirits in your container. You want 100% of your vanilla beans to be fully submerged during extraction. 

 

Step 4: Choosing Your Spirit

Second only to the type of bean you are using, the type of spirit that you choose will have a dramatic impact on the final product. If you use a less-expensive bottom-shelf spirit, then your extract will taste accordingly. The finer the spirt, the finer the outcome. Here's a summary of all the spirits we have used.

At VanillaPura we only used 5X distilled spirits for the smoothest, richest vanilla extract taste. Since vodka is tasteless, it is often a customer favorite because you will only smell and taste the pure vanilla bean. Bourbon, with its smokey undertones, is often used with Indonesian vanilla beans that are also dark and smokey. White rum, with its sugar-based origin, is a fantastic spirit to use for a sweeter Tahitensis vanilla bean, like those from Ecuador, Indonesia or Papua New Guinea. Have fun with this step. Choose a spirit and a bean of your choosing to make an extract blend of your own design that the world has never seen!

 

Step 5: Filling Your Extract Bottle

Once you have selected your bottle, chosen your spirit and diced your vanilla beans, it's time to fill the bottle.

How many beans do you need? A simple rule of thumb is to have one ounce of vanilla beans for every 8oz (1 cup) of spirits. It's that simple. On average, there are 6-8 vanilla beans per ounce, but we have seen as few as 1-2 vanilla beans in an ounce and as many as 15+ vanilla beans in an ounce, which is why using weight instead of vanilla bean count is so important. Of course, feel free to add more beans for an even more-concentrated vanilla sweetness. 

Now, simply place the beans in the bottle. Then, utilizing the help of a funnel, carefully pour in your spirit until the beans are totally submerged and your bottle is full. Tighten your cap and you're finished. Now the wait begins...

 

Step 6: Storage 

Extraction takes time and patience. Find a place in your home that is cool with limited to no sunshine. Set your extract on the shelf and slowly walk away from the bottle. It's hard to leave it alone after all that work, but it needs to be left alone for extraction to take place. The alcohol is slowly removing all of the bean's essential oils. That's what pure vanilla extract is: vanilla bean essential oils. 

With the highest quality vanilla beans and spirits, your extract could be ready in as little as 180 days, but most people find that it takes a full year with light spirits like vodka and white rum, and up to 18+ months for darker spirits like bourbon, cognac, whiskey and brandy. The longer you wait, however, the more rich and creamy the extract becomes. As each day passes, you will taste less of the spirit and more of the vanilla bean. 

Here's a taste test method to ensure that your vanilla is ready before you begin to use it. 

Some people like to shake the bottles every few weeks and that may help speed the process somewhat, but we haven't seen much of a difference in our experience. Just good, old-fashioned patience is what you need most. 

Tip: Once you gauge how much extract you use each year (and remember, most people use more during the fall/winter holiday baking season) you will start to develop a system to make sure that you never run out of extract. The day you begin using your new extract is the day you should make a replacement bottle so it is ready when you run out. 

 

Step 7: Use & Re-use 

Now, you've waited long enough and it's time to start using your homemade extract. There are a few things to remember as you begin. 

Because your diced vanilla beans are in the bottle, the bottom of your bottle will contain a lot of seeds. Some people love seeds and others don't. If you fall in the latter category, the simply pour all of your extract from the bottle into a measuring cup through a sifter or a strainer. This will remove all of the beans and the seeds and it will make the product easier to pour. (The vanilla beans will feel very slimy. That's 100% normal after sitting in alcohol for months.)

By removing the beans and the seeds, it means that your vanilla extract will not continue to extract. You have reached maximum sweetness. By leaving the beans and the seeds in, however, your vanilla extract will continue to become sweeter as time goes on. It's 100% your decision. 

Finally, and this is the best trick of all, you can reuse your beans one more time for another round of extract! Since they have already been extracted once, their value is less than the value of a new bean, but it still has value! Use the beans to start your mother jar, or vanilla sugar, or paste or more.  

That's it! Vanilla Extract making in just 7 easy steps! Please share your pictures and your experiences with us because we love to hear of your original creations and what you make with your extracts. 

Once you have a taste of real, pure vanilla extract, you'll never go back. 

Be sure to visit our complete extract making guide center for additional details on every step.

Here's a video tutorial of 5 different extracts being made:

Happy baking!!