Skip to main content

Homemade Vanilla Extract with the Instant Pot

If you are looking for a great little gift this holiday season, this homemade vanilla extract is perfect! It makes a great small gift on it's own or wrapped up with a holiday cookie cutter or gift card. During the holidays, I like to have a small gift ready for those I encounter. This makes a great gift for:
  • Neighbors
  • Coworkers, the ones I like ☺
  • Teachers in combination with a gift card
  • Household helpers (nanny, house cleaner, pet sitter)
  • Friends
  • Relatives that you're going to see but don't normally buy a gift for
To make your own vanilla extract, you'll need:
A few safety precautions to keep in mind:
  • DO NOT use a stove top pressure cooker to do this, it would be very dangerous. You must use an electric pressure cooker.
  • Use mason jars which are intended for canning, otherwise they can break under the pressure in your Instant Pot.
  • I recommend gifting your vanilla in amber glass bottles because the colored glass helps to keep the vanilla from breaking down in the light. I used these 4 oz sized bottles.
Directions:
  1.  Fill each mason jar almost to the top with alcohol.
  2.  Cut each vanilla bean in half and split.
  3.  Add several split beans to each jar. For a half pint jar, add 7-9 bean halves.
  4.  Put the lid on the mason jar loosely. The lid will help to keep water out of your extract but if it's on too tight it's hard to get the lid off later.
  5.  Place in the bottom of your and Instant Pot add 1 cup of water.
  6.  Place the lid on your Instant Pot and set to Pressure Cook on high for 30 minutes. Turn off the keep warm setting.
  7. When the pressure cook is finished, allow the pressure to release naturally and allow the jars to cool. It takes about 30 minutes for the pressure to release but the jars were hot for at least an hour.
  8.  Fill the bottles, adding 2-3 split bean halves to the new jars. The extract will continue to strengthen with the beans in the bottle. 
  9.  Tag for gifting!
A few tips....
  •  As you use the extract you can top it up with more alcohol, I'd suggest using the same kind of booze you used in the original to keep a consistent flavor.
  •  The beans need to remain covered, if you aren't going to top up, you'll need to remove them.
Cost analysis

I made 19 4oz bottles of bourbon vanilla extract, on supplies I spent:
  •  25 grade B vanilla beans 34.95
  •  24 4oz amber glass bottles with lids 22.58 (I have 5 bottles left for another project)
  •  2.5 liters of Evan Williams bourbon was a little under 30.00 (I bought 1 1.75L and one .75L bottle)
For a total of $87.53 or $4.60 per bottle!

This post main contain affiliate links, if you make a purchase using one of these links this blog may receive a small commission. Thank you for your support.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trader Joe's Weight Watchers shopping list

Trader Joe's has long been one of my favorite places to grocery shop! Not only do they have staples but they have amazing frozen food and lots of unique items that other stores don't carry. It's basically a hippie paradise of alternative foods. It's also amazing when you don't have lot of time to cook or meal prep because they have so many great pre-made and frozen foods. We can't meal prep all the time now can we? The really annoying thing about my TJ's store is there is NO internet or cell reception! Which means I cannot check point values while I'm in the store. Thus, it has been challenging for me to shop there and took a lot of trips to put this list together. If there are other must-haves from TJs please comment and I will update! If you're looking to save a few bucks on more basic items, check out my Aldi shopping list here . Or if you are new to WW check out my tips for getting your kitchen ready. All point values below were upda
Post a Comment
Read more

Weight Watchers on a budget - Aldi shopping list

I joined Weight Watchers in an attempt to get healthy! While I thought I ate pretty healthy, there was a lot of sugar and carbs in my diet and not enough vegetables. To keep WW more affordable, I recommend shopping mostly at Aldi where fruit and vegetables are very affordable compared to "mainstream" stores. If you're new to Aldi, c heck out my post on shopping there as it has a few quirks. If you need help with kitchen equipment that can help you with WW, check out my post on preparing your kitchen for success . I also really like Trader Joe's for fancier items, check out my TJs shopping list for WW  before your next trip there. So what should you buy to help you on your WW journey? All point values below were updated in March 2021 on the MyWW+ program, the points listed are for the blue plan. I recommend using your scanner to double check point values. Let's start with the fun stuff, the snacks! A lot of my snacks on the program are fruits and raw v
Post a Comment
Read more

Frugal weight loss solutions - itrackbites review

Last year, I bit the bullet and paid for a weight loss program for the first time with a goal to lose 20lbs. I did Weight Watchers online for about 6 months, after my intro price ended it was $20 a month but I did loose the weight I wanted. Now, for something that works, $20 a month doesn't feel like too much to me and I wasn't doing well with the free solutions like My Fitness Pal. I think when there is money on the line I am more willing to do the hard work! Nevertheless, I want to save money wherever I can. In some online Weight Watchers groups, I heard about itrackbites. It's basically a Weight Watchers knock off and I do like a good generic! Itrackbites has several free options for old Weight Watchers plans and a lot of people use it when they want to follow an older plan. For the newest Weight Watchers plan, Freestyle, you have to pay for the yearly fee. This also gives you access to some additional options on the itrackbites app like the food scanner and a restau
Post a Comment
Read more