Within the past year I discovered I was unable to tolerate milk, along with a whole other slew of fun things. On a quest to find a suitable replacement I discovered almond milk. Out of all the different “milk alternatives”, almond milk had the best flavor, that was not too overpowering, not to mention it’s creamy, and super healthy! I can’t talk enough about how great almonds are for you. I have decided in order to get the most nutrition out of this great product, I had to make it myself. It is really unknown the exact process manufacturer’s use to make almond milk, whether or not it is raw or cooked. Making your own is quite simple and the end result is much tastier and fresh than any store bought almond milk.
Raw Almond Milk
The ratio I have found to be most like “milk” is 1:3 - almonds: water
- 1 cup almonds
- water for soaking
- 3 cups water
*this recipe yields about 3 cups of almond milk
First you need to soak the almonds in water overnight, I do 12 hrs – in the fridge.
Then drain and rinse the almonds, you can visibly see how much they “plump” during this process.
Place soaked almonds in vita-mix or other high powered blender, add 3 cups of water and blend. At this point you could add dates/honey/sweetener of choice/cocoa powder/vanilla – just depends on your plan for this milk. I keep mine plain for daily use.
Pour milk through strainer, I prefer a fine chinoise, to remove the pulp. They also make nut milk bags or cheesecloth would work as well. For best results you may have to strain twice.
See how creamy it is! Yum. Nothing like homemade nut milk.
That’s it. Super easy and fresh.
You are left with this pulp – I’m working on a recipe to repurpose it, but because of the process, it is not left with much flavor and is quite bland. If you have any great ideas, please chime in!
*It keeps in an airtight container for up to 1 week in the fridge, I re-use my old almond butter glass jars
*add cocoa and sweetener of choice while blending to make yummy chocolate milk
*add vanilla and sweetener for vanilla almond milk
*use 2 cups of water instead or 3 for more of a heavy cream texture
Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article
Hi Michelle,
Would a Cuisinart/food processor work? I don’t have a Vitamix and my blender can barely handle my morning smoothies.
Christina, I have made almond milk in my food processor, and it does work~ It is a little more tricky to remove the liquid, because food processors aren’t really meant for holding that much liquid. So you may have to make it in smaller batches. And definitely strain it twice to remove as much pulp as possible. Cheesecloths, nutmilk bags, or a very fine sieve should work. Please let us know how it works for you!
Hello!
I just made this in my favorite blender and it worked really well. I added some coconut sap syrup for an enzymatic kick and it is awesome! I used cheese cloth over a sink basket strainer and it was fine. The almond pulp was tasty, too. It reminds me of pecan sandies cookies, I wonder if this can be made into a kind of cookie like that. Yummy!
Kelly Brozna has a recipe using the leftover pulp in the Spunky Coconut Cookbook. They are
chocolate heart shaped cookies and the only have 5 ingredients in them! I haven’t made them
yet, but just like Michelle, all her recipes are wonderful, so I think it would be worth a try!!