{"id":10370,"date":"2012-05-22T17:10:43","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T22:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=10370"},"modified":"2012-05-23T06:44:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-23T11:44:16","slug":"i-made-vanilla-extract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=10370","title":{"rendered":"I Am Making Vanilla Extract"},"content":{"rendered":"

A company called Beanilla<\/a> sent Jordan and me some vanilla beans and little bottles so we can try our hands at making our own vanilla extract.<\/h3>\n

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They sent two kinds of beans, Ugandan and Tahitian. \u00a0I kept the Ugandan beans which were much smaller and mailed the other packet along with one of the bottles to Jordan so she can make her own concoction. \u00a0Making vanilla extract is not a fast process. \u00a0Although assembling everything is quick, I must now wait three to six months so that the beans and vodka (yes, you read that right) can get to know each other and then marry.<\/h3>\n

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I did some on-line research about making vanilla extract and was surprised to see all of the information out there. \u00a0Some people take this very seriously. \u00a0<\/em>They even age it in oak. \u00a0I learned that there are only two ingredients in the extract – vanilla beans and vodka. \u00a0The kind and quality of vodka isn’t as important as you would think. Since we already had some in our bar<\/a>, I just used it.<\/h3>\n

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The ratios of beans to vodka vary depending on how many beans you have. \u00a0I used three beans and 12 ounces of vodka. \u00a0The first thing I did was sterilize the bottle. \u00a0Then I sliced open a pod and scraped out what was inside. \u00a0Then I put both the pod and the innards, also called caviar, into the bottle. \u00a0I did this for each pod.<\/h3>\n

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Then I added the vodka.<\/h3>\n

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Then I sealed the bottle so that the mixture will not evaporate. \u00a0It will go into a dark cabinet away from the light. \u00a0For the first week I will shake it everyday. \u00a0After that, I will only shake it once a week.<\/h3>\n

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Although it can be used sooner, getting the best flavor will take six months. \u00a0That means it will for sure be ready for my Christmas baking. \u00a0The beans will flavor the vodka for up to a year so as I remove extract for baking, I can add more vodka.<\/h3>\n

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I am so excited about all of this. \u00a0I have decided that I will not bake my favorite chocolate chip cookies again until I can use my own homemade vanilla extract. \u00a0Hmmmmmm, that should be sometime in November. \u00a0I’ll give you a progress report midway through.<\/h3>\n

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Take care.<\/h3>\n

Although Beanilla provided the beans and bottle, we were not paid to write this blog entry, and the opinions are ours.<\/p>\n

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Linking to\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A company called Beanilla sent Jordan and me some vanilla beans and little bottles so we can try our hands at making our own vanilla extract.     They sent two kinds of beans, Ugandan and Tahitian. \u00a0I kept the Ugandan beans which were much smaller and mailed the other packet along with one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10370"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10370"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10402,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10370\/revisions\/10402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}