Holidays and baking go hand in hand and I find I use more vanilla at that time of year than any other. As we all know, however, real vanilla is pricy, and I don’t like the artificial ones. 10 or 15 years ago, I searched how to make homemade vanilla and I’ve never turned back to store bought. I always have a bottle prepared and I make more for Christmas Gifts.

There are many recipes on how to make vanilla, using different alcohols and different vanilla beans, in varying amounts of both vodka and vanilla. I’ve adapted my recipe over the years until I’ve come to a recipe I like.

To call it a recipe is really stretching it, there are only two ingredients: vanilla beans and vodka. While you can use any beans and vodka you prefer, I like Madagascar Vanilla beans and Skye Vodka. I don’t use the cheap vodka because, if I won’t drink it, I sure don’t want it in my food.

Since the intent is to use this batch as Christmas gifts, we bought two 1.75L bottles of Sky Vodka and a package of 26 Organic Madagascar vanilla beans.

Once all the vanilla beans are split, put 13 in each bottle, put the lid on and shake.

Store in a dark closet or pantry, shaking every week or so for 1-3 months, depending on how intense you want the flavor. The longer it sits, the more intense the flavor.

The great thing about homemade vanilla is, once this bottle is empty, there’s no need to throw away the bottle and beans. Simply refill with vodka and start the process again. You should be able to get at least two batches from each bottle.

Let the Holiday baking commence.