Am I going to kill anyone by making homemade vanilla extract as Christmas gifts? (Tito’s and Vanilla Bean Pod)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No worries. Keep alcohol content ABV around 25% to be sure. Could go higher if you want, but not needed.

And for the love of God use something better quality than Titos vodka! LMAO! They buy that stuff by the semi truck load from major distillers in the midwest who distill grain alcohol for automobiles and the industrial chemical industries. Then they ship it to TX to run through a copper pot still to legally call it pot-distilled.

It's like a fancy restaurant buying meat from McDonalds, adding some seasoning and paying a chef $100/hr to cook it, and using that for their $70 burgers.

Tito's is 40% alcohol and distilled six times. It's mostly just alcohol and water at that point. And no, nothing is going to grow in that.

[Anonymous]

I'd be sure your recipients will really want it.

Personally I would not use a homemade solution like this no matter who made it. Just too ick for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd be sure your recipients will really want it.

Personally I would not use a homemade solution like this no matter who made it. Just too ick for me.

Yet you eat in restaurants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be sure your recipients will really want it.

Personally I would not use a homemade solution like this no matter who made it. Just too ick for me.

Yet you eat in restaurants.

I do but there are two huge differences:
- Restaurants are monitored and certified by the health department and people who work in them have some training
- (Realizing the above doesn't guarantee compliance) the kitchens are hidden from me in restaurants, and I don't know what the inside of people's homes who are preparing the food look like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be sure your recipients will really want it.

Personally I would not use a homemade solution like this no matter who made it. Just too ick for me.

Yet you eat in restaurants.

Prepared restaurant food isn't the same as packaged shelf-stable products.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be sure your recipients will really want it.

Personally I would not use a homemade solution like this no matter who made it. Just too ick for me.

Yet you eat in restaurants.

I do but there are two huge differences:
- Restaurants are monitored and certified by the health department and people who work in them have some training
- (Realizing the above doesn't guarantee compliance) the kitchens are hidden from me in restaurants, and I don't know what the inside of people's homes who are preparing the food look like.

I totally get the reluctance to eat items people made in their home kitchens because the general public has differing opinions on cleanliness and knowledge of/compliance with safe food handling practices, but it’s hard enough to contaminate a bottle of alcohol that’s only been opened once or twice that I don’t think that’s a legitimate concern with this particular gift.

[Anonymous]

Do cocoa mix or something. Vanilla won’t be better.

[Anonymous]

You do not need Titos or any other expensive alcohol. It's all the same for vanilla extract. If you were making drinks, that's different. You are baking with it.

[Anonymous]

OP, I am an experienced and accomplished home cook and baker and I am usually pretty leery of these kinds of homemade gifts. First of all, for my own baking I invest in high quality vanilla and wouldn't reach for a jar of this kind of homemade vanilla extract. Most home gift baked goods are from occasional bakers who like the idea of something homemade but life experience has taught me 1) it's rarely worth the calories, 2) rarely as good as something I can make myself, 3) like many excellent bakers I am also a moderate eater so I don't need other people's offerings cluttering up my cupboard. There are some exceptions from tried and true friend bakers.

Anyway, I concur with a previous poster that odds are such a novelty gift would most likely sit unused for long times before being tossed out. If you must make something homemade, make something that can he eaten with a few days, especially if there are children and husbands around.

Proceed carefully.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op here. Thanks PPs!! Bourbon is a great idea!

People are going to think you don't know what Bourbon vanilla is.

I'm a pretty serious baker, and when people give me homemade vanilla, I use it, but it's not something I cherish or save for special occasions. Go ahead and use Tito's or whatever's on sale.

[Anonymous]

You guys are dicks. I'd love your homemade vanilla extract, and use it as soon as it is strong enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are dicks. I'd love your homemade vanilla extract, and use it as soon as it is strong enough.

You don't help yourself speaking like this. This is what I guarantee you will happen to OP's homemade vanilla. Some will be used till gone. Some will be used a few times and thrown away eventually. Some will never be used for a range of reasons from not a baker to not trusting it.

That's the reality of homemade gifts. OP is really doing this to pat herself on her back, not for her friends.

[Anonymous]

I'd put it on a shelf and never use it. I'm wary about homemade concoctions and would have a vague sense of discomfort so I'd never end up opening it.

Homemade cookies, cakes, and fudge? I'm in.

Someone can tell me that I'm irrational, restaurants are have risks, etc. but I'm just telling you how I'd feel and what's appetizing to me. I'm not going to be dong a logic exercise in my kitchen.

[Anonymous]

You can give vanilla sugar, OP. Put a vanilla bean into some sugar in a pretty jar and that’s it. Though your intended recipients are not likely as snobby or neurotic as the specimens on this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not titos. Do it in bourbon. When the beans are "done" (they're not), bury them in sugar and make vanilla sugar. When they're dried out from that, they're still not spent, so use them to make custard or flan, and/or ice cream, or just infuse some cream. If you're clever, use the infused cream to make fudge)

Give the people you love best a bottle of bourbon vanilla, some vanilla sugar, and some good coffee (and some of that fudge, if you have any left).

Totally agree with this and all of the follow on uses too!