Almond Milk

Almond milk is so easy to make at home and does not contain the huge list of ingredients that the commercial brands will have you thinking are necessary!

Almond milk that you make at home contains almonds and water.  That’s it.  You can choose to add some sweetener if you want but that is completely optional.

When you read this list of ingredients of a leading brand of almond milk you may be surprised to know that it contains just 2% almonds.  The rest of the ingredients give it the taste, colour, consistency, thickness and shelf stability that consumers want. Filtered water, almonds, evaporated cane juice, calcium carbonate, sea salt, potassium citrate, carrageenan, sunflower lecithin, vitamin A palmitate, vitamin D2, d-alpha-tocopherol (natural vitamin E).

Would you prefer an almond milk that was 25% almonds, cheap and easy to make…

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup raw almonds 1 L water

Nut milk bag, muslin cloth or new chux cloth 1 L Jug

METHOD:

Place the almonds in a large bowl and cover with water.  Allow to soak for a few hours or preferably overnight. 

Feel free to change the water a few times if it becomes cloudy.  The longer you leave your almonds to soak the more they will start to sprout (you may be able to see the tiny shoots starting to form at the tip of each of these almonds after 12 hours soaking).  Try not to leave for longer than 24 hours.

Drain the almonds and place in a high powered blender with 1 litre of filtered water.

Blitz the almonds and water at high speed for about 1 minute.  You want the almonds to be well broken down and the water to look creamy.  Depending on your blender you may need to increase the time to achieve this result.

Place the nut milk bag over a jug and pour the almond water mixture into the bag.  Squeeze the bag so that all the liquid is extracted from the almond pulp.  The more you squeeze the creamier your milk will be.

Once you have squeezed every last drop out, transfer the milk into an airtight bottle and store in the fridge.

You will notice that the milk separates on long standing because it doesn’t contain any stabilisers but a quick shake of the bottle rectifies that!

Enjoy your creamy nut milk cold from the fridge!

Fresh almond milk has a shelf life about 3 days, so you are better to make small batches more frequently.

A note from Gracious Goodness :

If you would like a sweeter version feel free to add a small amount of sugar or vanilla extract to your almond milk.  I prefer to keep my milk plain to improve it’s versatility but it is completely up to you!!

Nothing needs to go to waste with this recipe : the left over almond pulp can be added to cakes and muffins whilst it is moist or dried out in a low oven or dehydrator and kept in the pantry, ready to be used as almond meal in other recipes.

Hope this recipe saves you some money at the supermarket and you love the pure taste of natural almond milk.

Sandra xo