It's A Total Waste Of Time To Make Your Own Vanilla Extract

When you're baking up some sweet treats in the kitchen, chances are you'll need to add in a little bit of vanilla extract. The flavoring is often found in dessert recipes and is used to amplify your treats' flavors. While it may be easy to buy a bottle of vanilla extract from the grocery store, you may be tempted to make your own. After all, vanilla beans are pretty easy to come by.

But before you dive headfirst into making the flavoring, you might want to reconsider the time and effort it will take. Plenty of recipes suggest that making some DIY vanilla extract is as simple as tossing a few vanilla beans into a bottle of vodka, then allowing it to rest for up to a year. However, this is actually an infusion – not an extract.

The actual process of creating vanilla extract is much more intensive and difficult to do at home. If you're looking for a pure vanilla extract flavor, you're better off buying a bottle at the grocery store. 

Creating a true vanilla extract is a lot more complicated than simply allowing vanilla beans to soak in a bottle of vodka. The differences even start as early on as selecting the beans. In a professional production, vanilla extract is often created using a variety of beans, sourced from different farmers — not just whatever is easily available at the store. This careful process helps create more complex flavors in the completed extract.

Those beans are then processed using either hot or cold extractions, both of which involve using ethanol. Hot extractions combine the beans with ethanol and pressurize the mixture to create a darker product, with flavor notes of caramel or oak. Cold extractions run the beans through cycles of different ethanol amounts, creating a lighter, fruity-tasting extract.

Both of these processes create far more intense flavors than you would achieve at home with a simple vanilla bean and vodka combination. Whether the extract is made using hot or cold methods, it can take months to produce and requires consistent efforts to manufacture.

If you really want to add some fresh vanilla flavor to your bakes, consider using the beans themselves. You can slice the pods open, scrape out the inner specks, and add them directly into your recipe. Just be sure to cut the amount called for in half — the flavors are a little more intense, so you won't need as much if you're using the beans.

Soaking some vanilla beans in a bottle of vodka may not produce the homemade vanilla extract you're craving, but it isn't a bad idea when used for adding a splash of flavor to your cocktails. By infusing the vodka with the flavor from the beans, you can create a spirit that adds an extra dose of flavor to your drinks. Allow the liquid to steep for a few days, then swap it into your favorite vodka cocktail recipe.

Though it may be tempting to consider whipping up a batch of homemade vanilla extract, it's not worth the time and effort it will take you. Instead, leave the production to the professionals, and keep buying bottles off the grocery store shelves.