Do you have a baker on your Christmas list? Need a housewarming gift idea or wedding shower gift? Put together a basket or glove of goodies. First and foremost Vanilla Extract is a MUST. I made these last year for Christmas following Reclaiming Provincial's how to. I purchased my beans on Amazon-Premium Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla Beans $11.49.
What you will need:
- Vodka/Bourbon
- 8-16 Vanilla Beans
- 24 oz Glass jar &/or 4oz
- Knife
-Cut the beans in half.-Slice down the middle and scrap out the inside (caviar) & put it into a jar. This can be messy but it is what will flavor your extract.
-Top the jar with Vodka or Bourbon.
-Place the empty beans in the jar.
-Store in a cool dark place for at least 6 weeks.
Occasionally you want to shake the mixture.
-Strain and pour into 4oz jars for gifts.
-Top the 24oz bottle with more vodka/bourbon
My mixture lasted 12 months and we are heavy bakers. It will store indefinitely. The quality of the beans is more important than the quality of the alcohol. This will be much stronger than store bought.
On to the goodies. This photo was for a family wedding shower in May 2012. Their wedding theme was red and black taken from the invitation design. I noticed a lot of baking sheets and muffin pans on the registry. I ordered the accessories all in red and placed them inside the Oven Mitt and tied together with red ribbon.
Thanks for sharing this, these are great ideas!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this post. I love that bottle of vanilla extract..
ReplyDeleteI love making theme gift baskets! This is the perfect idea for one of my friends! Great post!
ReplyDeleteThese are all great ideas. You did a nice job. I love the bottle of vanilla.
ReplyDeleteI am a home baker. Anyone wanna give this to me for Christmas? I kid, I kid. I really like this idea though, and am very impressed with the recipe you linked to. Thanks for the ideas!
ReplyDelete