I can't remember where I initially saw this on the internets, but as soon as I did I knew I'd be giving it a crack. I followed a recipe over at Chocolate and Zucchini, but I did 500ml of white rum and about 6 beans. The one pictured on the left I made for us in December last year and it'll be ready mid February, the right hand one is a gift for a friend's birthday and it'll be ready to use in March.
To purchase the vanilla beans I sceptically went to ebay Australia and guess what, yep I got over 30 nice juicy fat beans for about $30 including postage, which in my books is excellent.
The beauty of making the extract is that you can top it up over time with more alcohol and refresh the beans.
EDIT: The lovely graphic I've used on my label came from Twig and Thistle's Valentine goodie bag freebie.
handmade goodies to gift
