 Hey you guys, welcome to Baking with Jamie. Today we're gonna be covering one of my very favorite things because most people don't know that you can make it. And that is homemade vanilla extract. And there's a couple reasons why you're gonna wanna make homemade vanilla extract. First of all, it tastes and smells amazing. And second of all, in the long run, it is far cheaper to make your own homemade vanilla extract. And some people, when they look up the price of vanilla beans, you're gonna be shocked and overwhelmed and you're gonna go, what? But have you guys looked for pure, real vanilla extract? I'm not talking imitation. Imitation is fake, it's not vanilla extract. Real pure vanilla extract in the store now is crazy expensive. I know Costco, I used to just buy Costco's vanilla extract. Costco's vanilla extract used to be about $6 for their bottle. It is now $35 and it now has sugar added. Why does it need sugar? It doesn't. It is now $35 for that little bottle. And because I do have a lot of baking, that cost adds up like crazy. Now the reason that it is so expensive right now, I looked into doing homemade vanilla extract years ago and I'm like, Costco's price is like incredible. Like I can't buy the vanilla beans for that. Well, the reason that the prices have gone up so much is because there has been a shortage of vanilla beans. So they're harder to find, more expensive. So the price of vanilla extract and vanilla beans has gone up. Now when you make it in these big quantities, you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, it's a lot up front, but in the long run, it is totally worth it to make your own homemade vanilla extract. And today I'm gonna show you how simple it is. Takes two ingredients and takes about 10 seconds of work and then you set it in your cupboard for six weeks and you have incredible vanilla extract. Okay, so the first thing you wanna start with is your vanilla beans. This is what we're making today. We're gonna make this huge one. I believe this is 32 ounce. I should have looked before. I believe this one's 32 and this one is 16 ounce and this is gonna make a ton. And so I have 10 vanilla beans here. You can make it in smaller quantities if you want, but I like being able to, I'm gonna show you that you can reuse this again and again for quite a while. So I like starting with 10 because it's an investment up front, but it's worth it in the long run. Okay, so first question is, where do you buy vanilla beans? Okay, the good thing is when you are making vanilla extract, the quality of the vanilla beans does not matter as much. You can buy the grade B or the cheaper vanilla beans because you're just extracting that flavor out of them. So just find some vanilla beans. Okay, don't go to your local grocery store where you're gonna find one in the spice aisle and it's like $16 for one. You want to look online or in places where you can find a more in bulk. These two, I actually just found at Costco. Costco had a pretty good deal and to save me the hassle of having to get them online and ship them, I just snatched them up and got these. So you could check your local Costco or Sam's Club, but I would definitely look on Amazon. I would look on VitaCost. I would check out some places online, do some price comparison because the quality and the type of bean doesn't matter as much, which is kind of good. So find your vanilla beans. I would recommend about 10 if you're gonna be doing a large quantity like this, but the longer that you let it steep, the stronger the taste is gonna get as well. Okay, the next thing you're gonna need is some alcohol. Yes, you gotta go buy alcohol. Okay, this little one over here was made using vodka. Vodka is a great option because vodka is very flavorless and odorless. So what you're gonna get is vanilla taste. So this also happens to be very cheap. The quality of the vodka does not matter by the cheapest vodka you can find and you're good to go. The kind we're making today is made with bourbon. So this is going to be bourbon vanilla extract. I've never done this before, but I have tried it and it is amazing. So the thing with bourbon is that it's gonna make your vanilla extract slightly sweeter. So I'm excited to have both on hand to be able to use in different situations and I like having two going because this one's already ready. This one's gonna take six weeks before I can use it. And trust me, you guys, the six weeks is gonna go by in a blink. Get it started today and then you're gonna have it. So that's what we're doing. I would recommend starting with vodka if you've never made it before. Start with vodka. So this is how hard this process is. You guys, okay, it's really difficult, but I'm gonna walk you through it. So you open up, oh my gosh, smells so amazing. So you're going to take your, there's different methods for doing this. This is just what I do. Take your vanilla beans, you're gonna put them in your jar. Okay, that's the first really hard step, okay? So get them in and guess what? The second really difficult step is, is you're gonna take the bourbon or the vodka and you're gonna fill it up, okay? I mean, I told you, this is really difficult, right? Okay, so there's a couple different methods for doing this. Some people will split the vanilla beans down the center and scrape out all of the vanilla and they add the beans and the vanilla guk inside to the bottle. You can definitely do that, especially if you're going to do, let's say like a 16 ounce bottle and you only are gonna have, you know, four or five vanilla beans in, then that would be a good idea is to scrape it open because you're gonna be able to get to that vanilla center a lot quicker. Okay, so what I like to do, because I wanna squeeze every ounce of rice that I can get out of the beans. So what I do is I put them in a hole and then I'll finish filling this, it's going slow. So I'm gonna just fill this up to the rest of the way, give it a good shake and then I'm gonna put it in my cupboard and every two or three days, I'm gonna take it out, shake it up, put it back in and you're gonna let it sit for six, four to six weeks. You can start using it at four, but if you wait a little longer, it's gonna get a little stronger. Now, when you put the beans in a hole, the really good thing is you can kind of, you can keep reusing them again and again. So what I do is every time I get down a little ways and do a lot of baking, I cap it off. Okay, so I'm gonna add some more vanilla. Now, if I go to use this tomorrow, yes, the vanilla will be a little weaker because I just added this, but I just keep using it. So I'm gonna fill it up with vodka, cap it off and just let this keep sitting. So you can kind of do that again and again and it just keeps steeping. And then eventually, when I feel like this is starting to get too weak, I will then take the vanilla beans out, cut them open, scrape out the vanilla stuff and add it in. And I feel like you can get a couple extra bottles that way. So that's why I say at the beginning, it's kind of a sticker shock when you're like, I have to get the beans are expensive, but I have already made probably two bottles worth out of these beans and I'm gonna get some more use, maybe not quite too. But I am, well, maybe now with this, with the amount I put in that's probably been two. And I will still get more life out of these, which is really exciting. And now I've got my second one going. So it's kind of cool. This obviously, bourbon is dark, but when I first put this in, it was all white with, because it was vodka. It was all white with the beans inside and slowly, week after week, it was getting darker and getting darker and getting darker. And so I had this beautiful vanilla extract. Now I'm gonna need a label them so I don't forget. It's a good thing their different sizes. And so, yeah, this will be ready in six weeks. So I'm gonna fill this up, put them in my cupboard, make sure you shake them. And then you can use them for different things, but that is literally how hard it is to make homemade vanilla extract. It tastes incredible and if you do a lot of baking, if you're gonna be using it a lot, it's definitely worth the investment because the price is really, really good. It's homemade. There's nothing added, there's no sugar, there's no anything else added. It's just the pure vanilla extract and it tastes incredible. Okay, guys, now it's your turn to go ahead and try your hands at making homemade vanilla extract.