Homemade Almond Milk

I don’t buy almond milk regularly, but sometimes I like to add it to my smoothies (when it’s not like, ten below). I was talking to a friend a few weeks ago and she had some almonds soaking in a bowl on her kitchen counter. She told me she makes her own almond milk regularly. She has a baby my daughter’s age so I figured if she could do it, I could at least try it once.

Homemade is (almost) always better so I picked up a big ol’ bag of almonds from Costco and made me some milk!

 

Now that I’ve made my first batch of almond milk, I’m now realizing this bag from Costco will last me a lifetime (I think there’s almond butter in my future).

I measured out 1 cup of almonds, covered them with water, then let them sit overnight.

 

The next day, I drained the water, rinsed the almonds, then added them to my food processor. Next, I poured 2 cups of water in with the almonds and started to pulse. I blended the almonds for a couple of minutes (or maybe around 4?) until it was a white liquid.

 

 

Next came the tricky part. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t that tricky I’m just..special.

So, get out your cheesecloth or nut bag (yes, those are a thing). I picked cheesecloth. I attempted to cover a colander with my cheesecloth and place a bowl beneath the colander. I poured the almond milk over the cheesecloth and I think I kept most of the almond meal out….but my almond milk may be a little chunky.

 

Kind of a mess…but this is on me not the almond milk process. I just need to become more familiar with my cheesecloth I think.

 

Almond meal mess.

You might notice some maple syrup back there in that picture….After I had a little bowl of almond milk, I added some maple syrup just to sweeten it a touch. I just added it to taste. You could use honey, stevia, sugar-or nothing! You could also add vanilla, cinnamon, whatever you’d like really. I think next time I will try some vanilla bean.

As for what to do with the almond meal, I’m not sure yet. I know I can add it to muffins or breads but I haven’t really looked into it. I stuck it in the refrigerator so hopefully I can think of something soon!

 

I tried some in my coffee too! 🙂 Yum.

 

Have you ever made almond milk? Any ideas on what to do with almond meal?