Homemade Gift Week: Homemade Vanilla Extract & Vanilla Sugar {Powernap}
Homemade Gift Week: Don’t forget to enter below to enter the Duda Farm Fresh Giveaway for a Meyer Lemons, a $25 Williams-Sonoma giftcard and a KitchenAid Artisan 5-Quart Stand Mixer in Majestic Yellow. Entry rules below, click here for contest introduction.
To wrap home homemade gift week I am talking about the two ultimate Powernap (quick and easy!) recipes for the holiday season: homemade vanilla extract and vanilla sugar. Both of these require nothing more than filling containers with one ingredients and sticking in vanilla beans. Sounds too good to be true? It’s not! Once I discovered just how easy it was to make my own vanilla extract I never went back to buying the jarred stuff again. I use it all the time in baking and I can guarantee your friends and fellow bakers will love receiving it as a gift.
I’ve included the methods for homemade vanilla extract and vanilla sugar below. In the mean time, to conclude homemade gift week here are some more of my favorite simple homemade edible gifts from around the web:
Cranberry Chews, Georgia Pellegrini – The Girl Hunter
Tropical Chocolate Bark, Big Girls, Small Kitchen
Peppermint Chocolate Bark (with webisode)
Peppermint Hot Fudge Sauce (with webisode)
Homemade Pancake Syrup, Simple Bites
Hot Chocolate Mix with Peppermint Marshmallows, Family Fresh Cooking
Really Perfect Shortbread, Bluebonnets & Brownies
Crunchy White Chocolate Cranberry Bark, Savoring the Thyme
Gin Fruit and Brandy Fruit, Food52
Many thanks to my current blogging sponsor: Red Mittens and her Chewy Gooey Monster Cookies
Rules for Homemade Gift Giveaway & KitchenAid mixer grand prize!:
1. Leave a comment sharing what your favorite homemade edible gift to give or receive.
2. Subscribe to The Naptime Chef newsletter (upper right hand corner) – I’ll check!
3. Become a fan of The Naptime Chef on Facebook
4. Visit Duda’s website and tell me what recipe you would like to try to make using meyer lemons (use the ‘Older Entries’ link at the bottom of the page to view even more recipes). Leave a comment telling me which recipe.
5. 1 Extra Entry: Share the link to this post with your friends on Facebook and link to @TheNaptimeChef Facebook fanpage
6. 1 Extra Entry: Tweet about this giveaway on Twitter and link to hashtag @TheNaptimeChef
7. 1 Extra Entry: Follow me on Stumbleupon and stumble this entry by clicking the green thumbs up.
8. 6 Extra Entries: Share the post about this article from my Facebook fanpage to at least 10 friends to help The Naptime Chef get to 4,000 fans by New Years! (I can see who shares what, so I will note when you share!)
9. Weekly winners will be announced on Sunday December 11th at 7:00am ET, Sunday December 18th at 7:00am ET, and Monday December 26th at 7:00am ET. The GRAND PRIZE drawing for the KitchenAid mixer will be announced on December 30th at 7:00opm.
10. All winners will be selected by Random.org. Each week the contest for the Meyer Lemon Tote and $25 giftcard will start fresh. Entries from the previous week will not be considered. The grand prize drawing pool will include all entries from the start of the contest on December 5th at 7:00amET through December 29th at 9:00pm ET.
Disclosure: I received the same products the winner will receive. The items were generously donated by Duda Farm Fresh Foods but the opinions and recipe expressed are entirely my own.
Recipe
Homemade Vanilla Extract & Vanilla Sugar
Ingredients
Vanilla Extract:
| 8 | ounces clear vodka |
| 1 | large vanilla bean |
Vanilla Sugar:
| 1 | cup granulated sugar |
| 1 | large vanilla bean |
Instructions
1. To make the extract: Slit the vanilla bean down the middle and fold it into an 8-ounce jar filled with vodka. Allow the jar to rest in a cool, dry place for 6 to 8 weeks and give it a gentle swirl every few days. The vodka will turn a deep dark brown and become infused with the vanilla flavor. Begin using when desired. As your supply begins to get low simply remove the old vanilla bean, refill the jar with more vodka and add a fresh vanilla bean. Your homemade vanilla extract supply will be endless!
2. For the vanilla sugar: pour the sugar into an attract jar. Slit the vanilla bean down the center and cut it in half. Bury the two halves in the sugar and it is become naturally infused with vanilla flavors. Use as soon as desired.
Naptime Notes
Naptime Recipe Serving ideas
The extracts and sugars are idea for baking. Try sprinkling the vanilla sugar over scones and cookies!
Naptime Stopwatch
5 minutes prep time per gift
Naptime Reviews
Bakers and cooks alike will love these flavorful homemade gifts!
Hey Kelsey, thanks so much for the link love! <3
Happy to – your homemade giftie recipes are awesome!! 🙂
I shared on faccebook.
http://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=171108316321208&id=100003177327043
I like to harvest ginger from my garden and puree it in the blender. Then I put it in sterile jars, cover with olive oil and give it to friends for the holidays.
I want to make preserved meyer lemons so I can recreate the chicken with preserved lemons that former mother in law used to make.
What a great giveaway! I always send out cookie mix (in a pretty jar) to the family out of state. They look forward to it every year.
peppermint bark! Love, love love it! Also, any christmas cookie is fine with me, but especially snickerdoodles!
That turkey with the meyer lemons looks so delicious! I will keep it in mind for next Thanksgiving!
i am sooo going to try the meyer lemon herb cauliflower bean dip if i win the lemons…and ill be honest, i just love fresh home made lemonade too! so ill be sure to make that as well