Hi guys! As you can probably tell Jenny and I are way into Christmas and love giving homemade gifts as presents. We already shared with you a cute wrapping situation for one of our banana bread recipes, and today we thought we would do homemade extracts. We are giving you recipes for five different kinds: lemon, grapefruit, vanilla, cinnamon, and orange. So you can either made all five, or pick you favorite and go with it. Extracts are really easy to make, the only thing you really need to give it is time, these extracts take about two weeks to make. This is a perfect recipe for you plan aheaders. In addition to these great extract recipes, we also have the designs for the labels ready for you to download, as well as instructions for the super cute wrapping. Lets get started! First, make your extracts:
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Homemade Extracts
Makes 1 cup each extract
Ingredients:
cinnamon extract:
1 cup brandy
4 cinnamon sticks
vanilla extract:
1 cup brandy
3 vanilla beans, split with the “caviar” scraped out
orange extract:
1 cup high quality vodka
peel of 5 oranges, ALL pith removed
lemon extract:
1 cup high quality vodka
peel of 5 lemons, ALL pith removed
grapefruit extract:
1 cup high quality vodka
peel of 3 ruby red grapefruits, ALL pith removed
Directions:
1. For each extract ,sterilize a 16 ounce jar and fill with the cinnamon sticks, vanilla beans or citrus peels.
2. Pour assigned liquor over each jar and tightly seal. Gently shake each jar and set aside in a dark, cool area.
3. Allow mixtures to infuse for at least 2 weeks before, straining and bottling for use.
**Gently shake each mixture up every couple of days.
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Now, lets get started on the packaging.
Here are the supplies:
1. Extract bottles. We really LOVE these ones! 8oz each.
2. Printable label sheets. We got these Avery labels that are full sheets.
3. Hemp Twine!
5. Medium (5×7) Craft Paper Bags. Like these!
6. Our designs printed on label sheets.
Extras: Glue gun, scissors and or an exacto
Here is how you do it:
1. Decant the extracts into the bottles. I like to do this first so there isn’t any spillage on my freshly printed labels.
2. Print out the custom labels, and then cut them out. I used scissors for the ovals and an exacto and ruler for the Happy Holidays.
3. Label all of the bottles.
4. Cut some hemp twine. You can determine the length by wrapping some twine around the tops of the bottles and deciding how many times you want the twine to go around. After you cut the twine, tie knots at the end of each side and snip off the extra length. Then take your cute tinsle pom poms, squirt some hot glue on one, and then press the knot part of the twine into the hot glue. I used a food skewer to do this, but other long pockey things would work too. Repeat this until you have pom poms at both ends of the twine, and on all the twine you’re going to need.
5. Take out the craft paper bags. I cut the tops off of them for two reasons. First, I didn’t want the zig zag edge to be visible, and second, I wanted the bag to end at the bottle cap. I cut about an inch to an inch and a half off the bags. Then insert the bottles into the bags and twist the bags around until they fit tight. Fold the corners of the bag at the bottom under.
6. Take your twine, and wrap it around the neck of the bottle while trying to include the folds of the paper. Once you get down to the right amount of twine left over, tie it off.
7. Now you have your Happy Holiday printed bands out. Simply center the words on the front of the bottle and press firmly on the label in the middle. Then follow the label around to the back on the bottle pressing firmly one side at a time.
8. You’re done! Go make people happy and give them this cute stuff you just made!
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
tag @SpoonForkBacon and #SpoonForkBacon on Instagram
Hello,thank you for this info.It is really a great help for me.And also is there anyway you can help me how to make banana extract and calamansi extract pls?Thank you.
Anyone tried ginger extract?
Do you use the same quantity as baking recipes call for?
No, you can not make extracts w/o using alcohol. It will all cook out when you bake/cook with it. Look at the extracts in the store they are all have an alcohol content.
To Luna – I have always used a dark rum, I think by using different liqurors it will just take on a little different flavor.
I am a former newspaper food writer. According to the Mayo Clinic and Food Network sites, alcohol does NOT all cook out, even with very long cooking times. You are left with 5 to 85% alcohol AFTER cooking, depending on what it is.
I was wondering the same thing about the scraped out seeds. Do you put them in with scraped out empty beans or use for something else?
You can do either, but because vanilla beans can be quite expensive I tend to save and store the caviar in an empty lipgloss jar ( you can get them at drugstores it online) and use for things like creme anglaise or custards. Good luck!
So after you split the vanilla beans and scrape the seeds out, what do you do with the seeds? Do you add it all in the jar or just the scraped, “empty” beans?
That’s interesting! I’ve always made vanilla extract using high quality vodka, not brandy. I wonder what the taste difference is. I might give these a try and see!
What is the shelf life??? And storage for these lovely extracts???
I am going for it~~ thanks!!!
BEAUTIFUL!!!
Question: Can I substitute something for the alcohol?
~ <3 Anika
I was wondering the same thing.
Do you have a recipe for almond extract
love this! but what can i use it for?
Anything! Great for flavoring baked goods :)
These sound wonderful, to keep and to gift. But, how can I make them alcohol free?
Thanks for sharing this. As soon as my vanilla bean baste arrives, I will be making some extract.
Is there a way to make this without alcohol?
Me too, want to know.
I want to know this as well!!
Can you make without alcohol?
Yes! You can replace the alcohol with a food-grade glycerin
What a lovely idea! The holidays are now over, but I’m definitely going to give a try to these, maybe all of them. Well, you can never start holiday preparations too early… Thanks for sharing this!
Hi, Great website—love the extracts, but question? well really 2 questions?
1. Almond extract?
2. All other recipes I found for Vanilla extract said it took 8 weeks. Yours is the only
site I have found so far that has all the other recipes, labels, wrapping tips – yours is
a one stop shopping site! Just wondering about the difference in time? and Almond
recipe– I would greatly appreciate an email. thank you and I will be following you.
Brenda
Looks great to try. Do you have to sterilze or prep the extract bottles any special way after your online purchase before decanting your liquid off?
I have some vanilla extract sitting my a cupboard just waiting for Christmas to come! I want to try my hand at some other extracts as well–have you ever tried homemade almond?
Another idea for the citrus zest is infusing table sugar with it. Put some minced zest in a jar of sugar. Shake every few days for a week or so (it will look slightly damp), dump it onto something flat to air dry. Break up any sugar cubes that have formed and put in a pretty jar. Try making an Orange Cocoa or coffee. Whatever you want to try it in!
I have read that you cannot make homemade almond extract due to the small amount of arsenic (I think) that is contained in the almonds that becomes concentrated during the extract process.
Almonds contain trace amounts of cyanide. In fact, if you have the genetic marker to taste cyanide, it tastes like almonds.
These are great flavors. I’ve made vanilla extract a little different than yours and larger quantity but love the smaller quantity and various flavors. Orange and Cinnamon sound delish. I love your labels. How do you get the letters that way? I’d like to be able to do that.
Nice blog. It’s my first time stopping by. I will be back again.
Jennifer, I have no clue how to make raspberry or bubble gum, but I do know you can purchase the little drams of both raspberry and bubble gum flavorings. LORANN OILS makes both of those flavors and many others. I use them when I make hard tack candy, I’ve also used them in cookies and other recipes. Hope that helps.
I’ve been looking everywhere on the Internet for a recipe for raspberry extract or bubble gum flavoring…. Any idea how I could make either of those?? Any info would be appreciated, even if you know a place to purchase either of these!!
Hey! great ideas!!!
What do you use them for?? ♥
Love these!! I am definitely going to try this!
I had no clue it was this easy! I’m definitely making myself some extract tomorrow.
Hey there – I’m excited to make these for my kitchen and the holidays. What do you suppose the shelf life is on these recipes? Thanks!