Easy Homemade Extracts
The holidays are coming. The holidays can be expensive. Holiday season means more baking and more baking usually means more extracts. Extracts can be expensive. And since you’ll be spending your dough on gifts, why not save some as you make cookies?
There are other perks to making your own extracts:
You know exactly what you’re getting because you control what goes in them.
It’s going to taste better.
It's an easy way to add a bit of homemade goodness to gift baskets.
It’s foolproof.
It’s a great way for the kiddos to help you prep for the holiday season (Hello! Teacher gifts, anyone?).
Not to mention the bragging rights! Who doesn’t want to talk up their cookies a bit by saying they’re made with your very own homemade extract? Move over Martha, Mrs. Claus is comin’ to town!
If you start now (late September, early Octoberish), your extracts should be perfect for the holiday baking season.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Glass containers with tight-fitting lids. It can be anything, really. I use rubber-corked bottles and mason jars because I always have them on hand.
Clear alcohol. I use rum and vodka.
Fruit and/or vanilla beans. Look, there are a TON of extracts you can make. I’m just focusing on four this week and selfishly because they are the four I need to give YOU an awesome month of blog’s in December.
Here’s what you need to do:
Purchase two bottles of booze, one bottle of white rum and one bottle of vodka. I went bottom shelf, you should too. One bottle for every two flavors.
Vanilla - Get decent quality beans if you can. I like Madagascar vanilla beans for extract. You’ll get a better deal if you buy them in bulk. Take each bean and slice it down the middle, be sure to not cut all the way through. Use your hands to gently peel the beans open so the insides are exposed. This will help give your extract that delicious warm vanilla flavor. I used three beans. You’re welcome to use more.
Grapefruit - I grabbed one large, good looking organic grapefruit from the store. I washed the rind really well and let it air dry. Using a sharp knife or a veggie peeler, remove the rind from the entire grapefruit, putting the peels into the glass jar as you go.
Orange - Same deal, pick up healthy looking fruit, one or two large organic oranges should do, and clean them really well. Peel the rinds and put them in the jar to await their boozy bath. Be careful to avoid the pithy parts of the fruit, you don’t want that in your extract.
Lemon - I used two organic lemons for my extracts. Cleaned them up, peeled them down and shoved them in a jar to party until it’s cookie time in December!
Once you have your beans and fruit in their glass containers, divide your rum and vodka between the jars. Be sure to fully cover the vanilla beans and the fruit rinds. You want your extract to soak up all of their goodness.
What’s next? Shake, shake, shake your extract once a day. Have your kid shake it. Your husband shake it. Have each student take a turn shaking it. Be creative if you don’t feel like doing it. Just give it a good 15 second shake and you’ll up your extract flavor game instantly.
I’ll be posting updates of color change on social media, so be sure to follow along at TheHeirloomLady on Instagram and Facebook.