Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Instant Pot Vanilla (and Cinnamon) Extract


I have made homemade vanilla extract for several years, putting lots of good beans in vodka and leaving them to sit for 3+ months. I much prefer the couple of hours it takes from beginning to end in an Instant Pot with this method.

Since vanilla beans have quadrupled in price over the past few years, I have also started making cinnamon extract using 5-6 cinnamon sticks (and gave that as teacher gifts this Christmas). Cinnamon extract can be use in any food/drink where you want the taste of cinnamon without the grit, like Mexican Hot Chocolate, added to maple syrup, etc.



The picture is before and after. The cinnamon is already a little dark, because I put it in the jar with the vodka a couple of weeks ago and left it to sit until I was ready to do vanilla (I had extra cinnamon from a package and didn't want to bother with a ziplock, since I wanted to try this, anyway; I’m cheap, I mean budget conscious that way). 


Left is vodka vanilla and right is rum vanilla. Our favorite is bourbon vanilla, but we don't have any right now, so I saved beans for that.

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