Get the biggest bang for your Vanilla Bean Buck with the great tips below!
Beanilla vanilla beans are high quality, full size, fragrant, and produce the best extract to ever come out of my kitchen. In fact, they are so incredible, I can use half the amount of beans I normally do and still get potent, flavorful vanilla in under an hour using this Pressure Cooker Vanilla Extract method.
Since I’ve covered vanilla extract and all the FAQ’s here, today I wanted to teach you how to get the most out of those vanilla beans. It’s no secret that vanilla beans are getting more expensive with each month that passes by, and word has it that they are going to make another big jump next year. Which means store-bought vanilla extract is going to get more and more pricey too!
My suggestion? Order the best vanilla beans money can buy from Beanilla, start brewing your own vanilla and save money in the long run. Not only can you keep circulating your stash of homemade vanilla extract, but there are many other tricks you can do with your left over vanilla beans to really get all you can out of them.
And that is the point of today’s post! How to Get the Most out of your Vanilla Beans. I’m going to teach you today how to get every last drop of vanilla goodness out of those precious beans. Here we go!
Rotate, Rotate, Rotate
This tip was given to me by dear friend, Rich Lum. If you’ve ever made Pressure Cooker Vanilla Extract, I’m sure you know exactly who he is. You can keep your vanilla extract going for YEARS using this method! Start out with 3 dark, aromatic batches of Pressure Cooker Vanilla Extract. Label them 1, 2, and 3. When jar 1 is half gone, add 1 extra bean . . .
Top it off with some fresh vodka. My favorite is red label Smirnoff . . .
Then cap number 1, date it, and back of the line it goes to naturally infuse back to dark, rich, aromatic vanilla extract. No need to pressure cook again. Just let it sit and do its thing as you move through jars number 2 and 3. As each jar becomes half empty, add a bean, top it with vodka, move it to the back of the line, and repeat. Think of the money savings! It’s HUGE!
Check out the difference here! Stunning!
If you use up a jar of vanilla extract, don’t toss those beans! The following are all excellent ways to make sure no amount of vanilla flavoring goes to waste.
Vanilla Bean Paste
Rich, syrupy, speckled vanilla bean paste is an absolute treasure. You can buy it for a billion bucks, or use your left over vanilla extract beans to make this dreamy paste. Vanilla Bean Paste is actually more intense than vanilla extract and has the bonus of all those beautiful vanilla bean flecks to make any dish feel even more fancy. Check out this refined sugar-free recipe for Homemade Vanilla Bean Paste.
Vanilla Salt
I know what you’re thinking. Vanilla Salt? What in the world would I use that for? Answer: Like, EVERYTHING! I love sprinkling it on my granola before it goes in to bake, but really there are so many more ways to use it. Sprinkle it on cookies before baking, homemade popcorn, sweet potatoes, homemade fudge, caramel, etc, etc. Just let your beans dry out on a paper towel lined plate for a few days, then slit or chop and shake with the salt of your choice. Quick tip: avoid noniodized salt to prevent an off flavor. Instead use sea salt, kosher salt, Maldon, fleur de sel, or grey sea salt.
Vanilla Sugar
This here is my favorite use. There is nothing like the smell of vanilla sugar. My goodness, it is glorious. Just let your beans dry out like in the vanilla salt above, place them in some sugar, and shake it all about. Presto Change – o: Heavenly Scented Vanilla Sugar. A good ratio is about 1 bean to 2 cups of sugar. However, I tend to just throw what I have into my sugar container and call it a day. Check out how I used Vanilla Sugar in this Crio Bru Mason Jar gift. It’s a stunner this one.
Grind ’em up
Finally, to get every single bit of vanilla potential out of your beans, dry them out, and throw them in a spice grinder. I don’t exactly have the best spice grinder in the world, so I couldn’t get it completely smooth, but a quick shake through a fine mesh sieve left me with some pretty impressive vanilla bean fairy dust. I’ve been sprinkling this in just about everything: sugar, salt, pancake batter, yogurt, whipped cream, etc, etc. Just a pinch goes a LONG way,
Aside from all these ideas, I’ve also used leftover extract beans to flavor Infused Water, Wassail, Yogurt (I throw it in while the milk is heating to 180 degrees), Poached Pears (recipe in Master the Electric Pressure Cooker), Infused Honey Syrup, Crio Bru, and this incredible Chocolate Syrup.
Well that about covers it! If you have any other ideas, do tell! I would love to hear your tricks and I’m sure others would to.
You might also be interested in how to make Instant Pot Gourmet Vanilla Extract like Coconut Vanilla, Cinnamon Vanilla, and Chocolate Vanilla. It’s amazing!
If you are making vanilla extract for gift giving, be sure and check out Cami’s amazing extract labels.
Enjoy!
My vanilla flavor is weak. I used Costco vodka. I pressure cooked twice, each time for 1 hour, thinking I would get a stronger vanilla flavor, but no. Please help. I used Madagascar beans I ordered on Amazon. My vanilla has been bottled for at least 4 months. I want better, more intense, vanilla flavor.
Thanks so much!!
Beth
Beth, Hmm, that’s interesting. After 4 months your vanilla should be very intense, even if you hadn’t pressure cooked it. I’m guessing it was the beans. Were they brittle? Smell off? Not very fragrant?
Beth, I use Costco vodka in this recipe and it works every time. I’m guessing you experienced a problem either because of the vanilla beans or you pressure cooked it for too long.
HI – i just made my first batch of extract a couple weeks ago, and now looking at doing some other things with my beans. I realize extract is alcohol and can sit ‘forever’, but how long can you keep vanilla bean paste, salt sugar around? Do they need to be stored in a special way? Can you freeze the paste if it won’t get used for a while, or does it need that?
Lisa, good question. I researched it a bit and found this https://www.epicurious.com/ingredients/how-to-buy-and-store-vanilla-beans-extract-article
Sound like they have a 2-3 year shelf life. However, my homemade vanilla bean paste doesn’t have the additives that storebought does so to be safe, I’d probably store it in the fridge after a few months.
Do you put the vanilla beans into the brown jars when gifting or do you keep the beans? Thanks
Lyn, I always gift them with at least 1 bean so the flavor will keep infusing.
My wife loves vanilla Earl Grey Tea – Tetley used to make it but stopped. Now she uses loose tea (getting rid of those teabags with literally Dog millions of bits of plastic in them) and vanilla beans. Doug
How many times can you rotate through the jars making new vanilla with a half full vanilla jar?
Also, how long should the vanilla sit after pressuring it in the Instant Pot before pouring half of the vanilla from the mason jar to a 4 oz jar to give it away?
Cathy, I’ve done it twice, but my friend Rich says he just keeps doing it over and over again! If you can wait 2 weeks before gifting it, that is best. The smell of vanilla is much stronger than and the alcohol smell is diminished.
Thank you so much for your recipe! I ordered and received the Beanilla vanilla beans. You said in this portion of your blog that you use half the beans you normally do if from Beanilla. Do you use 2-3 or 5-6 beans? Thank you so much!
Michelle, They are the best beans ever! You are going to love them! I use 5 Beanilla beans for a 1 pint jar. I was using 8 beans before I discovered Beanilla.
Thank you SO much! That’s what I went with. They are in my Instant Pot and am waiting for the pin to drop. So excited! I’m gifting the vanilla to my MIL for Christmas. 🙂
Michelle, she’ll love it! Such a great gift for hard to shop for people too! You’re basically giving them a jar of gold 😉
I’ve been wanting to make my own vanilla, and this gave me just the little nudge I needed! I’m so excited! I used the code, and it worked great for me. Thanks!
Aubri, I’m so excited for you! To this day it’s one of my favorite things to make. To go from clear vodka to dark brown in minutes is so gratifying 🙂
The code is not working
Thanks for the heads up! It’s good to go now!