Easy Alcohol Free Vanilla Extract Recipe

Sharing is caring!

I’m sharing an easy alcohol free vanilla extract recipe for those that have medical or religious reasons for not using alcohol. If you enjoy baking, cooking, and flavoring a variety of foods and beverages, I want to encourage you to try making your own vanilla extract. I’ll show you how to do it!

Homemade extract tastes better than imitation stuff.  If you need to avoid alcohol due to medical or religious reasons, you can make extract without alcohol very easily. All you need are just three ingredients. Water, vegetable glycerin, and the ingredient you want to extract the flavor from!

Easy Alcohol-Free Vanilla Extract Recipe

To make alcohol free vanilla extract, pour three parts of food grade non-GMO vegetable glycerin and one part of filtered water over sliced and chopped Madagascar vanilla beans in a glass jar. Add a lid and shake the jar when you remember. Your extract will be ready in about 5 to 6 months!

I’ll walk you through how to make it. It’s so simple.

This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no cost to you if you place a qualifying purchase through any of the links. Read my full disclosure here. Thanks for your support!

Tools you may need

Any glass jar with lid – Mason jars work great here, but you can reuse old glass pasta jars and lids, or other similar jars. I don’t like using plastic lids with solvents that extract, so use a coated metal lid or cork if you can. You can also use swing-top or flip-top glass bottles like you would use for making beer of kombucha.

Measuring cup – If your jar doesn’t already have measurements marked on the side, you will need a separate measuring cup so that you can prepare your mixture.

Cutting board – For slicing and cutting your vanilla beans.

Sharp knife

Ingredients

Madagascar vanilla beans – You can buy Tahitian vanilla beans but they are more for scent rather than flavor. Go with Madagascar vanilla beans that will give you the flavor that you’re familiar with.

And if you can buy organic vanilla beans, I think that’s better, but buy what you can afford. Either way, it will be better and cheaper than what you get from a store.

Non-GMO Food Grade Vegetable Glycerin – You will need three parts of vegetable glycerin for this recipe. But be careful that it’s from a non-GMO source and that it says “Food Grade” on the label. There are other kinds of vegetable glycerin that are made for the beauty and cosmetic industry, so be careful that you get the food grade kind.

Water – Use filtered water if you can. I love using my Berkey water filter for all my recipes. But if all you have is tap water, let a glass of water sit out overnight so that the chlorine evaporates.

How to make alcohol free vanilla extract

The quantity that you make is entirely up to you. But for this recipe, I’ll be making one half-pint of alcohol free vanilla extract which is 8 ounces. To make it, I’ll mix together 3/4 cups of vegetable glycerin, 1/4 cup of filtered water, and four vanilla beans.

If you want to make a larger quantity, just scale the recipe up to suit your needs! I personally like to keep several jars of vanilla extract going because I use it in a ton of recipes plus my morning coffee.

And you can use this simple recipe for almost any alcohol free extract recipe. Just swap out the vanilla beans for whatever else you want to extract! Blanched almonds for almond extract, citrus peels like lemon zest for lemon extract, lime zest for lime extract, orange zest for orange extract, and even chocolate for chocolate extract!

Here are the steps to make vanilla extract without alcohol.

First, slice your vanilla beans in half lengthwise. You’ll see the inside of the bean pod and all those tiny vanilla bean seeds which gives vanilla its distinct flavor.

Then cut the beans into shorter sections and fit them into your jar.

If you want to mix your liquids together in a separate measuring cup, that’s fine. Here, I’ll just add it to my jar with my beans. So I’m adding 2 ounces or 1/4 cup of filtered water to my jar with the vanilla beans.

Then add 6 ounces or 3/4 cup of vegetable glycerin to your jar. The glycerin is a thick syrupy liquid.

In a half pint mason jar, your vanilla beans and liquid should reach the middle thread on the jar. Be sure to leave some room and empty space at the top of your jar so that you can shake it periodically.

Then, put the lid on your jar and give it a good shake.

Set it on your counter or in a cabinet out of direct sunlight, and shake it every day or as you can remember for the first week or two. After that, shake it whenever you see it and remember.

I don’t know if shaking the jar speeds up the process or not, but it makes you feel productive when you do it. It does seem to loosen more of the vanilla bean seeds, though, which is what gives vanilla extract its delicious flavor.

Your vanilla extract will take 5 to 6 months to resemble the extract you’re used to using. But the flavor improves and gets even better over time.

You may choose to take out your vanilla beans and start another batch of extract in a separate jar, but I highly recommend leaving your vanilla beans inside your extract jar. Because as I mentioned before, the flavor gets a lot better over time…as long as you leave the vanilla beans inside your jar to continue extracting.

Some sources say that alcohol-free extract will go bad after a year while others say it doesn’t go bad. So be sure to check your extract before using it in recipes. It should look, smell, and taste perfect. If not, toss it.

I prefer to keep several jars of vanilla extract going at all times so that I can simply refill the handy jar I keep in my cupboard when it starts to get low. I like to be sure to keep the vanilla beans covered with the liquid at all times.

And that’s all there is to it! It’s very simple and easy to make alcohol free vanilla extract. I want to encourage you to make some!

Recipe card

10 things you probably didn’t know about vanilla beans.

It’s fun to learn new things. That said, here are some fun facts about vanilla beans!

1. Vanilla beans are the fruit of the vanilla orchid (Vanilla planifolia) which grows in tropical climates (a.k.a. hot and humid).
2. The beans (or pods) contain tiny seeds that give the rich, aromatic flavor people expect with vanilla.
3. The pods are long, thin, and dark brown or black when cured.
4. Vanilla orchids are native to Mexico, but are now cultivated in tropical regions around the world. Some of the main vanilla-growing regions are Madagascar, Mexico, and Tahiti.
5. Madagascar vanilla beans are famous for their smooth and creamy flavor and taste.
6. Tahitian vanilla beans are smaller than Madagascar beans and have a fruity and floral flavor.
7. Vanilla orchids are often pollinated by hand because the specific bees or hummingbirds that are native to Mexico are not found in other parts of the world.
8. Vanilla beans are harvested when they are green and must undergo a long curing and drying process to develop their full flavor.
9. After being picked, vanilla beans undergo a process of blanching, sweating, drying, and curing, which takes several weeks and is crucial for developing its characteristic flavor.
10. Because of the labor-intensive process of growing, harvesting, and curing vanilla beans, vanilla is one of the most expensive spices in the world.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use alcohol-free vanilla extract in baking or cooking?

Yes, you can use alcohol-free vanilla extract exactly as you would use other vanilla extract.

Does alcohol-free vanilla extract taste the same as regular vanilla extract?

If you make vanilla extract with vegetable glycerin, your extract will have a sweeter flavor than if you had used alcohol as the solvent. But since you use such a small amount of vanilla extract in recipes, you won’t notice the difference.

What is the shelf life of alcohol-free vanilla extract?

While vanilla extract made with alcohol will keep indefinitely, extract made with water and vegetable glycerin is less certain. Some sources say that it will go bad within a year and others say that it won’t go bad. I personally haven’t seen my alcohol-free vanilla extract go bad.

I do recommend using clean utensils every time you have to get some extract out of your jar, though. That way you don’t introduce any contaminants. It’s also important to keep your jar out of direct sunlight.

Shop This Post

Madagascar Vanilla Beans, Organic

Vegetable Glycerin, non-GMO

Flip Top Glass Bottles

Half Pint Mason Jars

Pin It For Later!

Other Related Posts

Easy Homemade Vanilla Extract Recipe (with alcohol)

Ceylon Cinnamon Extract Recipe