Pressure Cooker Peppermint Extract gives a clean, refreshing minty burst for food both sweet and savory! Your house is gonna smell like a dentist office wonderland . . . in a good way.
Caution: Never make Extract in a stovetop pressure cooker or near an open flame. My recipes are written for electric pressure cookers only. Always use a Natural Release, never a quick release.
For more information on making Pressure Cooker Extract, see this article: Instant Pot Vanilla Extract Research
Peppermint Extract! For how badly I hated everything mint as a child, it is easily one of my top 5 flavors as an adult, especially when paired with chocolate. I can sense all of you nodding your heads in agreement right now.
Is there anything more calming than the fragrance of peppermint? I wish I could pump the smell through my central AC. I’d be the happiest, most chilled out mama my kids have ever seen!
This extract took me a few tries. Before settling on this dried peppermint from Penzeys (which if you’ve never shopped at Penzeys, you must immediately!) I tried fresh mint and regular dried mint leaves from the spice isle. The fresh mint smelled good, but didn’t taste very strong and the dried mint leaves had a soapy, strange taste that I didn’t like. But dried peppermint leaves? That smell and taste is right on and I wish I could wash my hair with it!
Perfect for whipped cream, homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream, chocolate mint Crio Bru, (yes I talk about Crio Bru too much, I know!) and of course chocolate mint brownies (as pictured). I also see a showstopper cheesecake in this peppermint extracts future! Perhaps a spin on this Triple Chocolate Cheesecake? I’ve even put a dash in my Tzatziki sauce before and it was a very, very good idea!
Now go whip up some Pressure Cooker Peppermint Extract and please let me know if you figure out how to pump that smell through your house 24/7.
Be sure and check out the other Pressure Cooker Extract recipes : Vanilla, Lemon, Cinnamon, and Maple.
And just look what my sister Cami made up for us! Free printable extract labels for all the extracts posted about here.
Enjoy!
PrintPressure Cooker Peppermint Extract
Fresh, minty, refreshing Pressure Cooker Peppermint Extract made easy and quick in the pressure cooker.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
- Category: Extract
- Method: Pressure cooker
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- ¼ cup dried peppermint leaves
- About 1 cup Vodka (I like red label Smirnoff Vodka 80 proof)
Instructions
- Place the peppermint leaves in a pint size Mason jar and add vodka, leaving 1 ½-2 inches of headspace. Top with a canning lid and ring and barely tighten.
- Add 1 cup of water to the pressure cooker pot and place trivet inside. Put the Mason jar on the trivet. Secure the lid and turn pressure release knob to a sealed position. Cook at high pressure for 30 minutes.
- When cooking is complete, use a natural release.
- Carefully remove the Mason jar, swirl it lightly, and place on a cooling rack overnight.
- Once cooled, top with a pourable lid and use in all your favorite recipes that call for peppermint or mint extract.
Notes
- Caution: Never make Extract in a stovetop pressure cooker or near an open flame. My recipes are written for electric pressure cookers only. Always use a Natural Release, never a quick release.
- Alcohol smell may be strong at first but will diminish over a week or two. If still overpowering at that point, return to the pressure cooker for another 30 minutes.
- The pressure cooker will fit up to three jars at a time, so feel free to double or triple the recipe.
Keywords: instant pot extract, homemade extract, food gift
Can you use essential oils instead of leaves?
Donna, well…I’m not sure, but now I want to try it. Is that a common thing to infuse oils into alcohol to make an extract? I’ve never heard of this.
I can’t imagine that you would want to. An extract is very similar to an essential oil. If you have a food safe essential oil, I would just use that in my recipe instead, just maybe a little less. With an extraction, such as this, you are using a solvent (vodka) to extract the essential oils from the leaves.
Out of curiosity, afyer taking the extracts out of the pressure cooker, is the alcohol all cooked out?
★★★★★
Rebecca, no, not at all. In fact, I’ve tested it and it only goes down 1-5 points. That’s the great thing about doing it in jars with a lid because it keeps that alcohol percentage higher which means it will have a longer shelf life and continue to extract flavor over time. I tried it without a lid before and it cut the percentage way down
I wouldn’t recommend putting it “in” the purifier. But, if you had a way to have the air go through something (either “going in” or “going out”) , you could maybe do that. I guess it depends on your purifier. I have an air intake that uses 20×20 filters for my AC and I just add drops there (but those filters get changed out often during summer so it’s not actually touching the parts. And granted, the air goes out first and then comes back in from there so the scents are faint, but present. I also have Scentsy warmers and Essential Oil misters which can do more on their own and switch out a bit more frequently (rather than having the same scent for 30 days, etc.)
Great tips, thank you Stephanie!
I don’t know if anyone answered this for you…but if you have a Central Air system that uses Air Filters, just drip the essence onto your new Air Filters when you replace them. More or less to your liking. the scent will be the strongest when it’s new and fade over time (but you could add more through out the life-cycle of your filter if it fades faster than you change them out.
People also sprinkle some inside the toilet paper roll. Each time it spins…presto!!
Maybe Essential Oil more so that Extract – but you get the idea. 😉
Stephanie, so I could put drops of my peppermint extract in my air purifier?
Hello! How much does this yield? One cup only?
Thanks!
Becca, yep, just over 1 cup
Ok thank you! We’re doing all homemade Christmas gifts this year so I need to fill 36, 4 oz bottles of your amazing peppermint extract! (That’s 18th-ing your recipe….) any suggestions!? Haha
Rebeccah, Let’s see, if you did 12 mason jars (which would be 4 batches with 3 jars each) and filled the jars to about an inch and a half from the top, I think you would get what you needed. But heavens knows my math skills struggle!
I made it with fresh Chocolate mint leaves, but filled the entire jar with the leaves and it came out incredible 🙂
Deb, Oh my goodness! I’m kind of flipping out right now! I need to try this. Where do I fine chocolate mint leaves? Did you grow them yourself?
So I made this today and it’s almost black and smells “herby” like a tea, did I use the wrong kind of peppermint?
Lisa, What did you use for your peppermint? I would say it does smell quite a bit like my peppermint tea. But it’s a really nice minty smell.
Would doing different flavors of extract in the pressure cooker at the same time mix/muddle the flavors? Like if I put in one jar of mint and another of almond, would I have 2 jars of almond-mint?
Jessie, I made these extracts 2-3 at a time. The only one I worried much about was the maple because it was so over powering. But I didn’t have issues with the others.
Hi! These extracts are awesome! Quick question: can you use fresh mint? I have several different kinds growing and would love to use fresh if possible. Thanks!
Alice, For sure! I went with the dried because it came out stronger. So if you use fresh, just use a good handful in your jar. Let me know how it turns out ????
Ok, I seriously need a pressure cooker! These extracts sound so good! Tell me which cooker to get as I can only buy one! 🙂
Cecilia
Cecilia, Ha! I swear I’ve heard you say that 10 times! Go with the Instant Pot Duo or the Fagor Lux Mulitcooker. You can’t go wrong with either of them!
Can you use the glycerin in place of the vodka in all of the extract recipes you’ve posted? Or only the vanilla?
Sherri, I’ve actually never tried it. I suspect that it will work but they may need to sit for a couple weeks after they are made to really get a good punch of flavor. The viscosity of the glycerin slows the flavor infusion a bit.
Do you strain out the peppermint leaves after processing?
Toni, you can, but I just leave them in there so the flavor can continue to extract. Once I get closer to the bottom of the bottle, I plan on straining them so I don’t have to deal with the leaves being in the way.