Anyone who loves to bake knows that extracts can be costly. You pay a big price for a teeny-eeny bottle of any kind of extract in the grocery stores when you can easily make your own in much larger amounts for far less money at home. There are many recipes out there for extracts but they all follow a very similar formula. I first started looking into it while trying to find different things to do with the mint in my garden aside from drying it and making my beloved peppermint tea. This is the peppermint extract recipe I chose to use: Log In I plan on also making some lemon extract as well as orange. And some in my church go to Mexico about three times a year. They have a trip coming up and I plan to ask one of those going to bring back some vanilla bean for me, as I hear that it is way less expensive there than here. That way I can make some good real vanilla extract, too. I usually opt to buy imitation because of the price, so the real thing would be a treat. Especially if I can make it myself and get it fairly cheaply.
We actually do not use extracts but sometimes my husband would concoct something. One time he made a chili extract from red pepper. He said that he made it because we had a lot of pepper (our backyard had 3 plants that were fruiting). Now, if I want something hot, all I need to do is mix some drops of the chili extract.
