Raspberry Vanilla Vodka

In case you were on the edge of your seat, I realized that I forgot to post the final pictures of the fruits of the great flavored vodka experiment, which was a subpart of the great vanilla bean extravaganza. I found this in my iphoto, and have to post it because it is just so pretty...

Phase III: Vodka!

As... the final phase of my vanilla extravaganza, I give you Vodka (man, now that I think about it I could have done a whole 12 days of vanilla thing for Christmas. Ah well, c'est la vie).

Now, I looked this up as well, and there are all kinds of ideas out there on things to do with vodka (I mean really, everything, hot peppers, fruit, you name it). I read something about how you could make cinnamon vodka, and decided to make cinnamon vanilla (because if you think I'm obsessed with vanilla, wait until you see how much cinnamon I go through on a daily basis). The word was that it tastes really delicious with ginger ale. So, having cinnamon sticks and (obviously) vanilla beans, I went for it:

I'll say this. This was most definitively NOT delicious. I think it was the cinnamon, or maybe I don't like spicy alcohol. Whatever, there was no way I was going to drink it or give it to anyone, so luckily I only used a bit of vodka and half a vanilla bean. Anyhow, live and learn. So, I decided to move onto something I KNOW I like... raspberries!

Let me introduce you to raspberry vanilla vodka: the test batch.


In case you're wondering how it worked out, let me introduce you to raspberry vanilla vodka: the giant batch.


I'm just going to say it. This stuff is ridiculously good. I mean, seriously, seriously good. Yay for martinis!!

The Great Vanilla Project: Phase II

Ok, so I realize many posts have been vanilla-centric lately, but frankly what with work and holidays and traveling and monitoring the activities of little Miss Charlotte and attempting to be better about making new stuff for my shop, I don't have a lot of free time left and what little there is appears to be largely occupied with thinking of ways to use the mass quantities of leftover vanilla beans I have from the extract project.

Having googled this extensively, I arrived at two obvious things. Vanilla sugar for baking, and infused vodka. Because seriously, what could I want other than delicious cookies and delicious drinks. So.... here you go...

1. Vanilla sugar: this is about as easy as it gets. You take a vanilla bean, split it, and put it in a container with sugar. Let it sit there. Apparently, if you replace the sugar the bean can last for a really long time, and the sugar is great for drinks, baking, tea, and so on. As you can see, I buried the beans half way then shook it around to mix it:

In case you noticed, I needed somewhere to put all this stuff. Fortunately, the internet provided. It turns out, there is really seriously somewhere that sells everything. Like, for instance, my new friends at Specialty Bottles.

So now, I have jars of sugar to go with my extract!


Next post.... VODKA!

The Great Vanilla Project, Week 1

Ok, this is very exciting. This is the one week update on the vanilla-tastic experiment. You can't believe how much darker it is! It also actually tastes vanilla-ish, rather than completely Cognac-ish.
Yay!

On other news, the appearance of candy corn pumpkins in the stores is also nothing to sneeze at.

Vanilla-tastic

Ok, I am SO excited about this.

I recently heard about how its possible to actually make your own vanilla extract. I immediately decided that my Christmas gifts were going to be very heavy on extract. So, I searched the internets far and wide, and found a number of sources of vanilla beans (they are so much cheaper than at the grocery store its actually ridiculous).

I got mine at Beanilla. I picked out Bourbon vanilla beans (instead of Tahitian, or Mexican, or Madagascar or the other choices). Mainly, I picked it because I don't know much about it and the sites I read said that that would give the most traditional vanilla flavor. I got half a pound. This is because I didn't want to be short, and I wanted to make a lot of extract, and I didn't really know how much vanilla beans weigh. Trust me on this on - NO ONE needs half a pound of vanilla beans. NO ONE.

So, today I got this in the mail (see how that is a crap-ton of vanilla beans?)

Then I, needed something to put them in. Based on the advice of the person who got me started on this, I used cognac (this would be more rewarding for someone who likes cognac, because I had maybe 1 drink worth of it left after I made room for the beans, and there was no way I could stomach that stuff). You can use vodka too. Since I realized I had a lifetime supply of vanilla beans, I spontaneously expanded my Christmas list, and bought 2 bottles. I will now be the proud owner of 6 cups of extract. I might need to kill the jewelry store and start a bake shop!

Then, based on this website I cut up the beans length wise, and scraped out the "caviar". You can't imagine how good this smelled. The site I read recommended a minimum of .8oz beans/cup alcohol (thats the FDA requirement for an extract), but said more was better. I did a little bit more than that.


I cut them in half the other direction, and stuck them in the bottle. Now I have to shake it every day for a week, then periodically turn it. In a few months (like, by Christmas), I will have delicious vanilla (or at least I seriously hope so)

By the way. If anyone knows what to do with a large amount of left over vanilla beans, by all means please speak up.