I Buy Cheap Vodka

I know, I know, I am poor and shouldn't be buying vodka.

It is bad for my health, I shouldn't be buying vodka.

I don't buy vodka to drink though. I buy it to make things with. I have been making our homemade vanilla extract for a few years now and am currently attempting to make mint extract. We cook and bake a lot at home and so we go through quite a bit of vanilla extract. It is expensive at the store and I had found blogs a while back that showed me how to make it for cheaper. It is simple. I split 10 vanilla beans in a liter of cheap vodka and let it sit for a few months and the end result is vanilla extract. You can choose to strain the solids out but I leave mine in while we are using the bottle. When we get about half way done with the current bottle we start a new one so it will be ready in time and we wont have to try to find a deal on it. You can also top up your current bottle with new vodka a couple times before your beans are spent.

We bought a live mint plant not too long ago to make some food with and when we were done I planted it outside. It hasn't been long but that plant has gotten quite big. We have been picking the leaves off to add to our water. It helps to get more water down if you don't like plain water. I had a bright idea when I realized I had to start a new bottle of vanilla this week that maybe I could use the leaves to make mint extract as well. I did a little looking around online and sure enough there were sites that said they put bruised mint leaves in vodka and let sit for a while and had mint extract. I got a bunch of mint leaves and bruised them. I put them into a canning jar and poured the cheap vodka over the top. They are up high in my cupboard to sit and mix for a while. I am excited to see if this turns out as well as the vanilla extract.

Making these extracts at home are an easy way to save money if you do a lot of home baking.

Have you ever made any extracts at home? Which ones? Did you like them?