Best way to create rich vanilla extract or paste

Sa_a_Ebach_53731

living in Germany I am having trouble finding really good and affordable vanilla extract. So I set out to do my own. I happened to find this page:

http://www.vanillareview.com/make-vanilla-extract/

It's very good. The recipe is very simple.

1) Cut up 20 vanilla pods

2) Scrape out seed

3) Put it in a bottle of vodka or rum

4) Wait for six months

5) Shake regularly for the first month then occasionally

Good, but I was wondering if there is a faster and better way. I don't want to wait for six months. So here is what I did.

1) Cut 20 pods into 1/4 inch pieces

2) Put them in a pot with 1 bottle of rum

3) Blend everything for a minute

4) Put the mixture into a canning jar, seal tightly

5) Put the glass into a 80°C water bath for 2 hours

6) Let glass cool completely (so the alcohol doesn't escape)

7) Run mixture through a coffee filter

8) Put back into bottle

Here is a picture of the final liquid in the bottle.

I lost about 1/5 of the liquid in the filtration process.

So, this worked fine I guess. I have strongly flavoured vanilla rum. But compared to the commercial stuff, I find that it is not as strong. I also wonder if this method of heating the vanilla will degrade it like coffee is degrading in taste after you heat it and let it cool.

Here's my main question: Do you know of any other method, that would be superior to my recipe (which is ok, but not that great)?

I remember using the cold brewing method with my isi. Could this work? What about other methods? What about creating paste? I have heard in the ATKRadio-Podcast that paste usually is even more flavourful than extract? And what about not using alcohol? I have read that you can substute the alcohol with sugary syrup like corn syrup or glycerin.

Looking forward to your ideas.

Loving chefsteps in the mean time. You guys have the best community around.

Sasa

Matt_67991

I still use commercial extract, mostly.

Have you tried cutting up the scraped beans more finely? This increases the surface area, and speeds transfer of flavourful/aromatic compounds, like in the chefsteps creme anglaise. The ISI certainly works well though for speeding the transfer as well. See, chefsteps bitters. You might have better luck with a more concentrated brew ratio as well, but that makes it more important to have a more efficient filtration system. Maybe a Buchner funnel?