Time to make Vanilla for the Holidays! {Beanilla Giveaway}
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Can you believe the holiday season is just a few short months away?! Thanksgiving is just 77 days away! What the what?!!!!
Many of us do some amount of baking for the holidays, whether it’s just a batch of your favorite cookies, fudge wreath, or baking for a holiday party or gift giving. Chances are your recipes are going to call for vanilla. Vanilla extract and vanilla beans are such essential items in a holiday baking spice cabinet.
Last year I shared how easy and much more economical it is to make your own vanilla. It’s so simple to make but needs to sit at least 6-8 weeks before you can use it, so get started now to have plenty of vanilla extract on hand for your holiday baking. Download and Print the free homemade vanilla labels Kelly made and you’ll have a fantastic gift ready to pass out to friends and family in December.
You’ll notice vanilla beans can be pretty pricy at the grocery store, so if you plan to make more than one bottle of extract I highly suggest purchasing your beans online, from places such as at Beanilla.com. right now they have 25 Madagascar Vanilla Beans for $25 + FREE shipping! that’s a fantastic price!
Now is the time to make vanilla for the holidays
- recipe and step-by step instructions to make homemade vanilla extract
- download and print free Homemade Vanilla label
- shop beanilla.com for vanilla beans and bottles
WIN IT! GIVEAWAY ENDED
My friends at Beanilla would like to help two lucky TidyMom readers get their vanilla going this year with an awesome $150 prize pack of vanilla making supplies!
Each winner will receive:
- 1 Package (vacuum sealed) of 5 Madagascar Vanilla Beans
- 1 Package (vacuum sealed) of 5 Tonga Vanilla Beans
- 1 Package (vacuum sealed) of 5 Indonesian Vanilla Beans
- 1 Package (vacuum sealed) of 5 Mexican Vanilla Beans
- 1 Package (vacuum sealed) of 5 Ugandan Vanilla Beans
- 1 Package (vacuum sealed) of 5 Indian Vanilla Beans
- 1 Package (vacuum sealed) of 3 Tahitian Vanilla Beans (Tahiti)
- 7 Clear Glass Bottles, 8.5 oz w/ Swingtop
- 1 Vanilla Bean Sampler (7 glass vials containing 3 beans of each variety)
How to enter:
- leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite recipe with vanilla!
- Then simply complete the steps in the giveaway widget below. Personal information will not be shared or used for any kind of mailing list, it’s simply used by me to select and contact the winner.
If you don’t see the widget, be patient because it might take a minute to load (especially with Internet Explorer 9). Or you can click here to for the entry form if you have any questions, you can contact me via email
Disclaimer: this post is a collaboration with Beanilla. All opinions, views and love of vanilla are all my own.
Hi there, I'm Cheryl!
As a wife, mom, and caffeine enthusiast, my journey has taken me from bustling mornings with my family to sharing delicious recipes, home care tips, and heartfelt decorating insights with wonderful readers like you. My love for baking, photography, and tidiness shines through every post I craft. Dive into my world and discover the art of homemaking, one tidy moment at a time. Read more...
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Please respect my work, recipes and photographs. If you do use a recipe in your own writing, please give proper credit and link back to the original post.
LOVE LOVE LOVE my Beanilla Vanilla Beans – use them for everything!!
Petite Vanilla Bean Scones
Any kind of cookie!
Mexican rice pudding with lots of Mexican vanilla, raisins and cinnamon. 🙂
I love banana pudding with vanilla cookies layered in it!
I love adding vanilla to my waffles! 😀
My favorite recipe I make with vanilla is my homemade vanilla almond milk! Love it and make it several times a week.
awesome giveaway! WANT
Chocolate Chocolate chip cookies! Yum!
Vanilla ice cream
Warm tapioca pudding with extra vanilla. It was my mom’s comfort food.
I don’t really have a favorite vanilla recipe – although once I put too much vanilla in a batch of toffee bars and they were fantastic! I did have a vanilla poppy seed bread once that was so much better than lemon poppy seed and I intend to add that to my recipe collection. And I always substitute vanilla for almond extract in a recipe, since I love vanilla and don’t like almond flavoring.
Nothing beats classic chocolate chip cookies with really good vanilla!
Vanilla ice cream, and real whipped cream – I made some vanilla extract with Tahitian beans, and it makes these two simple things exquisite.
Chocolate Chip Cookies and Rolled Sugar cookies!!! Yumm!! I do a lot of baking at Christmas time and vanilla is a huge staple in my kitchen!!! =)
I actually plan on making my own vanilla as Christmas gifts so this would be so perfect! What a fabulous gift to give, the gift that keeps on giving! 🙂
I am loving my homemade vanilla extract, especially in banana bread muffins (Averie Cooks- Six Banana Bread)
Vanilla extract, ricotta, splenda mixed & chilled, top with a few mini chocolate chips.
I use vanilla in almost everything I bake and french toast like others have said and I do make kahlua as well as others but I love it in my homemade banana bread with toffee pieces as well. I always get rave reviews and even though I use other spices as well I feel without vanilla it just is not the same! I have been researching how to make many extracts too from scratch and I cannot wait to get into this!
I love baking anything that requires vanilla. I love making chocolate chip cookies.
I love to make vanilla bean ice cream this time of year and then my Grandma’s Bread pudding with a vanilla hard sauce during the holidays….yummy! Thanks for the give away!
Caramels of all flavors!
Mine is simple. Vanilla sugar! I take two cups of sugar per giant Beanilla vanilla bean and scrape out the sweet insides and toss with my sugar and use in just about everything from tea, coffee, on toast, in desserts, and I’ve even used it to caramelize onions!
Real whipped cream – nothing better 🙂
I have been on a Mexican Horchata kick lately. White rice soaked with whole cinnamon sticks and a little vanilla then blended with water, milk of choice and sweetener of choice until smooth (or strain thru cheese cloth for extra smooth texture). Lovely iced…
One of my favorite recipes with vanilla is my Chocolate Meringue pie. I usually have to hide it afterwards or make 2….one for my husband and son to fuss over and the other for family gatherings. It always goes quick and I’ve yet to have leftovers!
I love vanilla cake, vanilla bean ice cream, and sugar cookies.
I am in the waiting process of my first batch of vanilla- one red stag and one rum. They will be done by the end of October, just in time for Christmas baking! 🙂 CANNOT WAIT!
Chocolate Chip and Pretzel Bars
(I got this recipe from food and wine and I ALWAYS get awesome compliments on it. Put a scoop of HOMEMADE vanilla ice-cream and caramel sauce.. TO DIE FOR!)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
One 12-ounce bag bittersweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups mini pretzels, coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a 9-by-13-inch metal baking pan with parchment paper, allowing overhang on the 2 long ends. In a bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat the butter with both sugars at medium speed until light, 1 minute. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. At low speed, beat in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chips and pretzels. Spread the batter in the pan and top with the sprinkles. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden; the center will still be a little gooey. Transfer the pan to a rack and let cool completely. Run the tip of a knife around the side of the pan and lift the bar out using the parchment paper. Cut into 24 squares and serve.
Sugar cookies!! The soft kind 🙂
I love using Vanilla Paste in everything that you can see the specks of vanilla. Like creme anglaise, sugar cookies, cupcakes! Lets see my favorite recipe using vanilla is probably when I made a cream cheese frosting! YUM!
I love to make homemade icing for cookies and cakes. Nothing tastes better!!!!
Right now one of my FAVORITE ways to use vanilla is in a whole line of Impossible Pies. You know the kind that you mix up all the ingredients and just pour it into a pie plate. While it’s baking it makes it’s own crust. Our favorite so far is vanilla with a tiny bit of chocolate shaved onto the top when it comes out of the oven.
Vanilla Sugar, Pound Cake, almost everything I bake!
Mmm. Meyer Lemon vanilla bean marmalade. Delicious.
I just finished canning pear vanilla jam to give as gifts during the holidays. It’s delicious. Found it on the foodinjars site.
What a great giveaway… hmmm… my favorite recipe using vanilla has to be vanilla bean buttercream! SOOOO yummy!!!!
I love to make floating islands and chocolate chip cookies of course!
Always a good dose of vanilla in chocolate chip cookies, a classic!
Vanilla cupcakes are my favorite.
Chocolate chip cookies of course! I’ve been making my own vanilla since you posted the “recipe” last time and love knowing what is (and isn’t) in it! Thanks –
I always start with my vanilla cupcake and butter cream (from scratch of course, recipes whenever I make cupcakes for people. I figure out what their tastes are and add filling, swap out booze and other flavoring specific to their taste! mmmm now i wanna make cupcakes
I use a slash of vanilla in smoothies sometimes!
I have never made my own vanilla Extract but this looks very easy and looking forward to trying it.
Lets see I love vanilla in homemade ice cream, vanilla cupcakes and I love it in coffee.
How can one pick a favorite recipe with vanilla?? 🙂 But since I must, chocolate chip cookies are the first thing to come to mind!
Vanilla….it is so wonderful for sssoooo many things. Perhaps homemade vanilla cheesecake and oatmeal raisin cookies are two faves!:). Hard to choose.
Wacky cake is our go to cake recipe… Great for gatherings with food allergic family and friends! I always use extra vanilla, home extracted, of course!
I love using lots of vanilla in my baking – especially chocolate chip cookies!! Vanilla makes everything better!
It’s so hard to pick a favorite thing for vanilla since I use it almost every day. I guess if I had to pick one thing, it would be buttercream frosting. ~ MamaGing
Oh my gosh,,, favorite,,, how can I pick just one favorite… anything I make, I make with my homemade vanilla, and homemade vanilla sugar…. the latest has been deep dish snickerdoodles, stuffed with carmels… And by the way, one time my better half purchased vanilla beans at another site,,,,, YUCK, they were dry, yucky, and molded almost within two weeks…. Sooooooooooo I don’t purchase anywhere anymore except Beanilla!!!!!! Thanks for a chance at such a great prize…..
Simple, delicious French toast on a Saturday morning with my husband… We triple the vanilla, use fresh brown eggs from the far, down the street, and thick, homemade Amish wheat bread. Topped, of course, with only 100% real Medium Amber maple syrup. I’m salivating now… Can’t wait for the weekend!