Skip to main content

Homemade Almond Milk

I've been wanting to make almond milk from scratch for some time, but it always seemed like too much work. But when I came across this recipe on Oh She Glows, I thought, this is doable. As always, I made a couple of exceptions: I didn't have a nut-milk bag, and I didn't use vanilla, because buying dried vanilla beans is expensive! I thought the flavors from the dates and cinnamon would be plenty.

I soaked my raw almonds--and dates, which is suggested if they are not very soft to start with--for about five hours. The recipe doesn't say how much water to soak them in, but I just made sure they were well covered with water. (You can also soak them over night.)


Then I drained and rinsed the soaked almonds and dates.


I then blended the almonds and dates with 3.5 cups of water on high for about a minute. 

Next, I thought I would use my fine-mesh strainer plus a cheesecloth to strain the liquid from the pulp, but the cheesecloth turned out to be more trouble than it was worth, and the fine-mesh strainer was plenty fine on its own to keep the pulp out. I poured the blender contents into the strainer, removing pulp as it filled up and got clogged, to make room for more blender contents.


Eventually I got all my liquid through with a significant amount of pulp leftover on the side (I thought I might do something creative with this, but it just ended up in the trash).


I have to say, this is the best almond milk I've tasted. I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that it's sweetened with dates and cinnamon, but it also just tastes so fresh--because it is! The recipe says it only keeps 3-5 days, so this isn't the most practical recipe for one person, unless that one person consumes a whole lot of almond milk. I still have some left seven days later, and while it doesn't taste or smell bad, I'm still a little reluctant to use it (but that hasn't stopped me).

So this probably won't be a regular thing, but if I ever needed to use a lot of almond milk for a recipe, I might go through the trouble to do it again. It was so delicious!

Labels

Labels:

Comments

shirley said…
I think it would be worth it for a special recipe, or drinking it instead of something sweet. Well done by the way.
January 11, 2015 at 2:26 AM
Lee Davidson said…
Update: I just ate some delicious refrigerator oatmeal, which had only steel-cut oats soaked in this almond milk, which I placed in the refrigerator last night in a Ball jar. Perfect use for this recipe!
January 11, 2015 at 4:34 AM
Unknown said…
Lee, I used to make almond milk all the time, with basically this recipe. I discovered that you can use a regular kitchen towel to strain the almonds. It's much easier!!
January 11, 2015 at 4:59 AM
Lee Davidson said…
Great tip, Tova! Did you ever find any good use for the pulp? I hated to throw it out.
January 11, 2015 at 5:06 AM
Post a Comment

People Liked to Read...

Play of Summer

Even though it is still technically spring time, the summer college semester begins in one week, the weather is consistently sunny and mid-80s, and baseball season is in full bloom. I embrace this time of year as a time to extend my outside activities beyond my nightly walks, to bike rides, benefit runs, beach days, and a newfound interest in softball. Yesterday Joe and I began the day with a 7:25am 5K run to benefit the Child Abuse Council . One of Tampa's largest and most regular 5Ks, the Gunn Allen Financial May Classic brought out over 1,500 of Tampa's athletes and do-gooders. Since it was a last-minute decision for us to register, we did not have a a chance to train, but we had both been keeping a somewhat regular exercise schedule in the weeks leading up to the run. Our goal was to finish, preferably to finish running. And we did. 36 minutes of concrete pounding, rhythmic breathing, and humanistic awareness, and we had completed our first 5K together, having run th...
7 comments
Read more

A Three-Race Finale

So, after the Nike Women's Half Marathon I ran in DC, I told myself I'd take a rest afterward. But then someone kept tempting me to sign up for races. And because I was on a PR roll, I thought, hey, why not--let's end the spring race season with a bang. So I ran three races on the three weekends following Nike: the Police Appreciation 10K, Miles for Moffitt 5-Mile, and the Secret Service 5K. I PR'd two out of three, and finally got my 5K (official) PR I'd been hoping for. Interestingly, I placed eighth in my age group for all three races. Police Appreciation 10K - 5/5/13 Official Time: 0:49:46 Official Avg Pace: 8:00 mins/mile Age Group Place: 8/45 The unseasonably cool and breezy weather that morning made for a great race through scenic downtown St. Pete. Even though we learned later that we were led backward through the course as it was designed, which explains why we only saw the back sides of mile markers, we still ran the correct distance.  ...
4 comments
Read more

My Ulele Feast with the Tampa Bay Bloggers; Or, That Time I Ate Alligator

Monday night, I had the delightful opportunity to be among the  Tampa Bay Bloggers  on a tasting event* at  Ulele  (pronounced yoo-LAY-lee), a newish restaurant along Tampa's River Walk, which is in a revitalization phase. The restaurant, which opened this past fall, has already received several significant commendations:  One of the Top 100 Restaurants in the U.S. (by Open Table),  One of the Best New Restaurants in Florida (by  Florida Trend ); Best Overall Restaurant (by Yelp Tampa Bay); and, its most recent achievement,  the  #7 spot for Top 50 Restaurants in Tampa Bay , as scored by Laura Reiley of the  Tampa Bay Times .  So I felt honored to eat there, and I'd been wanting to go since it opened, but reservations were always difficult to get. When I saw the call for bloggers to attend this event, I jumped at the opportunity! Fortunately, I was chosen--among may others: That's a lot of hungry bloggers! A...
4 comments
Read more