It seems everyone has made homemade almond milk … except me!
I decided to change that. I use a lot of almond milk .. I love it! I don’t have a problem with dairy (obviously – I make my own cheese!), but I really just love the flavor and consistency of almond milk – especially in coffee!
I made this 2 ways, to see which would work better: in my non-high speed blender, and in my juicer! I would like to credit Danielle from Against all Grain for the juicer method.
Method #1: The blender
Ingredients:
1 pound raw almonds
11 cups filtered water
Combine 1 pound almonds with 4 cups filtered water in a large bowl. Let soak in the fridge for 12 hours. After 12 hours are up, drain the water, and add another 4 cups water to the almond. Let soak another 12 hours – for a total of 24 hours.
Your almonds should have bulked up in size during this time.
Drain the water off the almonds.
Place in a blender with 3 cups water. Blend away and ta-da!
At this point, I placed the mixture in a nut bag, and let the milk drain through. (Apparently, I did not take any pictures of this however). This is the only part that slightly annoyed me. I had to keep wringing the “milk” out of the nut bag to get the liquid to come through. I did get some almond milk, but only about 2 cups. It seemed to me a lot of work to only get that much milk.
It was very tasty though!
Method #2: The juicer
Ingredients:
1 pound raw almonds
11 cups filtered water
Combine 1 pound almonds with 4 cups filtered water in a large bowl. Let soak in the fridge for 12 hours. After 12 hours are up, drain the water, and add another 4 cups water to the almonds. Let soak another 12 hours – for a total of 24 hours.
I have read that you can soak them only 8 hours and that is enough time, I let them go the full 24.
Drain the almonds, and run through the juicer with 3 cups filtered water. I placed a bag in the container that holds the pulp, to make it easier to remove. Honestly, I don’t think that is neccesary. In my juicer, the pulp is pretty easy to remove from the container.
As you can see, there are some bigger pieces of almonds, among the smaller almond meal.
I ran it through the juicer twice, trying to get out all the juice I could!
I ended up with about 3 1/2 cups almond milk, so I definitely got more milk than with the blender method. And I didn’t have to sit there and squeeze it out myself! Not so good on my carpal tunnel!
The finished product!
And what did I do with all the leftover almond pulp? I made this ice cream for starters! The rest I dried out in a very low temperature oven, and am using it as almond flour! Or, as my husband calls it, almond granola! It is a little thicker than the almond meal you might buy in the store, but has worked great sprinkled on yogurt! I kept it in the oven a really long time, so it got all brown and toasted.
Personally, I don’t see myself making almond milk on a regular basis. I pay $4-6 per pound of raw almonds, depending on if I find them on sale, so for 1 quart of almond milk, this time it cost me about $5. I can buy a 1/2 gallon of almond milk for $3.50. So it saves me a little money to buy it. And when I buy almonds, I have so many other things I want to do with them! (Almond butter, almond maple flax butter, almond coconut butter, nuts for snacking, nuts for cookies, nuts for yogurt…. I could go on and on! Almonds do not last around here!)
However, I think this is a great thing to know how to make if almond milk ever goes out of style!
Thanks to everyone for your encouragement yesterday … I finished day one of boot camp, and so far am feeling good! Just slightly tired
This post is linked to Fat Tuesday.
I never even thought to make almond milk at home! I once made cheese, and it was a lot of work for not a lot of cheese. Tasted good though!
Biz recently posted..No More Mallows!
I made my own almond milk once! I did it in my vitamix and strained it in a coffee filter haha. It works in a pinch, but I usually just buy almond milk!
I definitely agree with that! It was fun to do though!
I have done this Jane…it is absolutely delicious! I use it in the green smoothies I make
m.
maria recently posted..oils used for hair care
Thanks Maria! I use it in everything – love it in cereal (although I don’t eat a lot of it), and especially coffee! Sometimes I will heat it up to have at the end of the day … very soothing to me!
Thanks for the tutorial, Jane! Although I don’t plain to make any at the moment, it’s good to tuck away for future references.
Jane recently posted..IT BEGINS AGAIN
Awesome! Then I consider my post a success!
Jane, you are so cute! Great job! I’ve done it too but cleaned almonds from the hulls. MY men both love it, but it’s too much work to take the skin off every almond. I pre-soaked it to make it easy though.
http://www.cowboycountryvegetarian.blogspot.com
Oh my gosh, I can’t imagine how much work that is!!! Although it probably is pretty therapeutic too!
Therapeutic would be if they would skin the almond and I watched…:)
http://www.cowboycountryvegetarian.blogspot.com
Congrats on finishing day one of boot camp!
I make almond milk….but mostly for the almond flour! I mean, I love the almond milk too, but for that part it isn’t enough cheaper than store bought. Somehow when I calculated my cost (which I don’t remember the details of) it was slightly cheaper, but just barely. However, when I added in the savings from almond flour (which I spend more than $8 a pound on, the savings went up a lot!
My almond flour was super fine…but that is probably from using the vita-mix. It actually works better for me than some of the almond flours I buy! Plus I figure it’s healthier since the almonds have been soaked and I use the dehydrator to dry out the pulp into flour.
Not that you asked for all that description…I just got carried away!
Lisa recently posted..Vanilla Donuts with Lemon Cheesecake Frosting (Grain/Gluten-Free, Sugar-Free option)
Thank you Lisa … I always appreciate your comments! I hadn’t considered the cost of almond flour but you are right! It is so expensive to buy, and it was nice not to have to dig into my stock of almond flour, but use this!
Sweet!!
I’ve never made almond milk before (it seems like it would be really expensive to do). I just buy it.
I had no idea you could make it in the juicer. That’s really cool.
Thanks so much for the pingback!! I hope you like the ice cream! I always make almond milk using a cup of almonds at a time (and I peel them too) – this makes straining easier and the milk super silky! I get about 4 cups of milk from a cup of dry nuts. Thanks again – let me know how you enjoy the frozen goodness – it’s very rich so a little goes a long way!
Shira recently posted..Recipe: Killer Kale Pesto
Thank you! The ice cream was awesome!!! I saw you peeled the almonds … guess I was just lazy, but maybe it would make straining easier! I should have listened to you
Too funny! I didn’t realize you used my Almond Milk recipe too
Oh well – a worthwhile experience and a great post! Thanks again!
Shira recently posted..Recipe: Killer Kale Pesto
And glad to hear the ice cream was a success! I still have a few popsicles I made in the freezer. They are a great treat at night!
Shira recently posted..Recipe: Killer Kale Pesto
I wish you would have included the nut bag picture because I have no idea what that is and I am afraid to google it
I don’t use an awful lot of almond milk but it is nice to know you can make it if you need to.
Rhonda recently posted..Low Fat Chicken Corn Soup
omg, that is too funny! Here you go: http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Nut-Milk-Bag-Elaina-Planet/dp/B001UEPGFY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1331162757&sr=8-2
Mine looked pretty much like that … it has a more fine mesh on it than cheesecloth …
How interesting, I thought I knew of every kitchen doo dad there is. Thanks for the info!
Rhonda recently posted..Low Fat Chicken Corn Soup
Jane, Isn’t it fun to make something like Almond Milk yourself! I liked hearing your analysis on which technique was more efficient. And I never thought to use the almond remains as flour. So smart!
-E
erin @ yummy supper recently posted..WALNUT CAKE
This looks really delicious! A great idea to make almond milk at home, yum!
sara recently posted..Dark Chocolate Brownies with Raspberry Goat Cheese Topping