 Well, hello everyone. Welcome back to Vicki's country home. We're starting to get into the holiday baking season between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And there's always so many things that we're baking and making and a lot of them require vanilla. Well, last year everybody kind of got a shock because all of a sudden the price of vanilla just skyrocketed. And that's because I believe it was Madagascar had a problem with their orchids which are where vanilla beans come from. Their harvest was just ruined. So it took a lot of people by surprise and like I said prices were so high that everybody was complaining about it. Well, the way to get around that is to make your own and keep your own. So what I'm going to do is I have vanilla beans. Some of these from two years ago that I bought at Costco. And I think I paid about $10-11 two years ago for 10 vanilla beans. Well, the price has come down some but I paid I think it was $16 for five vanilla beans at Costco this year. So I have those beans plus I have these which are dried and not the highest quality but I've got quite a few of them. So what I'm going to do so I'm going to make vanilla that you can always refresh right on in your kitchen. So what I'm going to do is get this set up and I'll show you how I make it and then I'll tell you how to keep it going year after year. So let's get started. This is really simple and it doesn't take any really special kind of equipment. All you need is a jar that you can seal and I have a wet glass canning jar with the clamp on lid. I'm going to use bourbon. You can use rum, you can use vodka. Vodka is going to add it's going to be the most neutral in flavor. But and it's also going to be very neutral in color. So this is totally depending on your taste but I chose to use bourbon for this because I think it's going to be a really rich vanilla flavor when it's all done. Plus the color is going to be beautiful too. The vodka will give it get some color but probably not as much. So I'm going to use the bourbon. I'm going to measure in cups so I see how many cups of bourbon I'm adding to the jar and the vanilla beans. Now what you have to do, first of all, is I'm going to set these aside for the moment. We're going to start cutting open the vanilla beans because we want to get all that wonderful flavor out. Okay, the ones I got two years ago from Costco are Madagascar and they are Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans is what they're called and I think it's just the type of orchid that produces them. The ones I got this year and I'm going to show you they're a little bit shorter and I don't know if you can see that in these glass tubes. They're maybe an inch shorter and they are Papua Nugini vanilla beans and it's just a variety so don't really know exactly which kind they are. And these are just I don't know what kind of vanilla beans that I got when I was part of a soping co-op. I never bought them to make soap with but I got a good price on them. So the flavor is going to be really coming from these with these for added emphasis and they're very hard to dry right now but after soaking over time in this jar they're going to add to the flavor so that's what we're doing. So to start out this one is open. Nice little glass tubes. So your vanilla bean and this is wonderful these are two years old and they're still really soft and supple. So now what I'm going to do is just take a paring knife and carefully slit it all the way down because inside are all those wonderful flex that make vanilla beans. Let me see if I can bring in a little bit closer. Okay now I'm going to open up my jar so I can add these right into it. And I'm not going to do this to everyone but I'm going to some of these. I'm just going to run my knife down and scrape off the vanilla beans. And we're just going to put those in the jar. There the flavor is going to be throughout anyway but these just give you more of those little bits of flavor. Okay now I'm looking and that smells amazing by the way. Now these are the ones that I bought this year and they're a bit shorter as you can see. So what I think is going to happen and I'm hoping for is the different kind of beans is going to give me a little bit more complex flavor because all the different vanilla beans have a different type of flavor. So I'm just going to go through, cut all these open and I'm going to do the ones from two years ago. I'm going to do at least these five and then I'm probably going to add some of these just depending on how many cups of bourbon this takes. So I'll bring you back when I'm ready to do that. All right I decided to save two of these because they are just so nice that I can use in recipes. So in the jar I have nine and the guidelines that I can find most recipes start out at five vanilla beans and go up. So I'm going to start out with three cups and see I want to submerge these. So I think we're going to need at least two more cups. And I'm going to add one more. That way I know that'll be submerged. And I'll have the rest of that to use in a recipe. Okay so that is six cups and if you're going by the five per that'll be 30. So I've got in there nine 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 and then some broken 21 22 23. So I'm going to get out some more. I'm just going to go ahead since it's close and use the rest of what's in this bag. So when they're dried up like this you're not really going to be able to slice them open but they snap apart easily. So we can try but I don't think you're going to be able to not really know. So and this is also in the recipes that I found just break them up. And they say one inch pieces I'm going to break it however it breaks. And this really can't be any easier. And that's the recipe. Now all you have to do with this is cover this up. Seal it up. I'm going to get all these little bits of vanilla beans because those are the inside with all the flavor. All those little specs. Now I'm going to just put the lid on but I'm going to just kind of run my finger across it. Make sure there's nothing on there. And you can do this in cute bottles. You can do this pretty much however you want. You can do pretty bottles. You can do a mason jar, regular kind. You just want to have a good seal because now what you're going to do for at least a month but preferably longer. You're just going to shake this. Oh maybe once a day maybe every two days. You just want to totally infuse the bourbon with that vanilla flavor. At that time you can start using it. You can repackage it for really nice gift especially to any one that likes to bake. And if they had to go out and buy a vanilla I'm sure they would appreciate this. And that's all there is to it. Then keep it in a nice dark place and store it until you need it. Then if you start running low just add more of your alcohol of choice whether it's the bourbon or vodka or rum. Just add more to give it some time and shaking and you're going to have more. And occasionally add more vanilla beans. But this will be an indefinite ongoing source of vanilla for your cooking and what's greater than that. So just in time to prepare it for the holidays. All of the Thanksgiving and Christmas baking that we're all going to be doing make yourself some vanilla. The price is not as low as it used to be but compared to last year it's much better. And this is going to have more flavor and complexity than anything you buy in the little jars. Especially the artificial ones. This will be real vanilla extract. So give it a try and let me know what you think. Leave a comment below and tell me what how if you've made it before and if you did what you used and how long you let it sit. A lot of recipes will tell you try and leave it six months to a year before you touch it. Well I'm not going to wait that long. But a month and a half I can do that. So thank you for watching. If you enjoyed this please give me a thumbs up, subscribe, share it with your friends that maybe they had to buy vanilla last year and you don't want to make it for them. But hit the little notification bell so you'll get notified of all my videos. God bless and we'll talk again soon.