Finished vanilla! and Christmas cookies

It's all ready to go! After more than two months of steeping in my cupboard, I've bottled and started giving away my homemade vanilla extract. I used some in my whole wheat m&m cookies tonight, and they tasted fine. I was a little worried because the extract isn't nearly as dark as I thought it would be. About a week ago, I was searching this problem online and came across Jamie Deen's (one of Paula's sons, who I usually find annoying) recipe for making vanilla extract. He heats and simmers the vodka on the stove before adding it to the beans. Does the heat draw out the vanilla faster than room temperature vodka? I should know this but I don't.

Vanilla update

Last month, I began the process of making my own vanilla extract as Christmas presents for my friends. Well, it's been a month, and since then I decided that the three cups I started out with were not going to be enough, so I bought another bottle of vodka, and more vanilla beans. This time, I bought the beans on Amazon, which gave me 7 beans for $7.95. And it was free shipping and they arrived at my house in three days! Since I didn't have another large Bell jar for the extract, I simply added the beans to the vodka bottle. This second batch was made about two weeks ago. But you'll notice that the color of the vodkas are very similar. I think that they will be ready for Christmas, and now I just have to buy the bottles to put them in!

Experiment time

Last year I had a brilliant idea. I should make my own vanilla extract. It's easy enough, vanilla beans, vodka and time. I can do that. Well, of course I forgot about it until this week. I decided to try it today while my noon rogani rose. All week I had been searching the local grocery stores and online for the best price on beans. Prices ranged from $4 to $8 per bean. And I would have to pay shipping for the $3 beans. Until I remembered the city's Mediterranean food store. I buy my pastry flour there for $.69 a pound! I can't find it that cheap anywhere else. So I stopped there this morning and was able to buy my beans for $2.99 each. So great. Anyways, the process of making the extract is easy enough.

I had a bottle of vodka, 40% alcohol. I guess the higher the alcohol content, the better.