Adventures in {DIY Almond Milk}

I'm sitting here sipping my coffee with almond milk, as I do every morning.  The only difference is that the almond milk in my coffee is HOMEMADE, and SOoooo Delicious (pun intended).   :)

How I went 2.5 years buying store-bought almond milk in a carton, I have no idea.  So many other bloggers and even a good friend, Katie of Zenutrition make their own milk at home.  Finally, last week as I was ordering a few books from Amazon, I remembered to purchase a nut milk bag, which is a fine mesh bag used to separate the milk from the almond pulp.

Almond Milk (4 cups)

4 c filtered water (mine is distilled/mineralized)

1 c organic almonds

1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional)

2 tsp honey (optional)

1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Directions:

Step 1:   Cover almonds by 2 inches in filtered water overnight (8-12 hours). They will have plumped up by morning.   Drain and rinse. 

Step 2:  Put 4 c filtered water and 1 cup almonds into a blender and blend for 2 minutes, until almond chunks are fine and milk is frothy.  Mine even frothed up through the top of my blender!

During the blending....

 Step 3:  I found that the easiest way to strain and get the milk into an old milk bottle was this method:

Straining through the nut milk bag and funneling into the glass container.

Wring the nut milk out of the bag by twisting it and squeezing until pulp in the bag is fairly dry. 

Step 4 (Optional):   Take the strained milk and whizzz again if you're adding any flavorings like the cinnamon, honey and vanilla.  You can stir it in, but this is the most efficient way of mixing honey in.  You could also use liquid stevia and whatever else you'd like to flavor the milk.   I'm sure I'll eventually get creative and try savory milk flavors.

Finished product: delicious, pure, almond milk!

That's it!  Due to not having the added gums like carrageenan and guar gum, this milk will separate and require a shake prior to each use.  The container is from a local dairy producer, Caulders, and works perfectly.  Glass is an ideal storage method, as it won't leach any toxins or plastics into your precious finished product.

BONUS: the leftover pulp, which is being dried out in the oven at 170 degrees for a couple hours...can be used for baking!

So, this method of DIY is actually not more cost effective than buying it at the store.  If your almonds are $6.49 per pound like mine were, that works out to 3 cups of almonds (3 batches), each batch costing $2.19.  At the store, I normally pay $1.79 or so for 4 cups of almond milk.

However, the results are a rich, delicious, fresh milk that you know does not contain any additives or preservatives.  It's super easy to make and doesn't require the waste of purchasing a tetrapack container that will end up in a landfill somewhere.   Green it up and make your own!  Enjoy.