This is definitely a first for me.

I’ve never ever thought that one day, I would be making my own homemade almond milk.

Honestly, I remember going to my mom’s a few years back and she’d always have a bunch of almonds soaking… I also remember finding it very odd, and well, not very tempting: I liked my almonds roasted and salted, thank you very much. 

She would, of course, tell me about how one could make their own almond milk using raw almonds, but I wouldn’t really pay much attention. You see, back then, I was way more into drinking beer than I was into drinking milk.

Oh, I could’ve easily entertained you for hours on the art of brewing your own beer and why home brewed beer was sooooo much better than store bought. But milk? No way. Even less so almond milk. Now THAT to me was just plain weird.

Besides, who drank milk anyway? It had no alcohol in it…

How times change. Look at me now. Here I am, making my very own almond milk at home.

AND LOVING IT!!!

People, I tell you, that stuff is U.N.B.E.L.I.E.V.A.B.L.Y good! I’m never going back to store bought.

I mean, I’ll still buy my usual unsweetened soy milk as back up, but you can be sure that from now on, I’ll be making a batch of this heavenly drink every single week-end.

It doesn’t really take that long to make, either. All you need is to make certain that you have at least a cup of almonds soaking.

The original recipe says that your almonds have to soak overnight, but really, I left mine to soak for well over 48 hours and all was fine. I guess one could also just leave their almonds in water and keep them in the fridge until the are ready to use them (so long as they don’t take a month, that is…)

So once your almonds have soaked for a sufficient amount of time, drain and rinse them… 

Add them to your blender, along with water, vanilla and dates, and blend on high until nice, creamy and frothy… about 3-4 minutes each time. You might have to do that in several batches, depending on your blender size. I had to make mine in 2 batches.

Or, you could make half a batch… but I don’t recommend this. You WILL regret it and wish that you had made the full batch!

Once all your almonds have been liquefied, you will want to strain your milk (or not… the stuff is actually very good as is, only it’s VERY thick! Still, I think that I will be keeping some of it to make smoothies in the future. You know how I like a chewable smoothie!). 

Use either cheesecloth or a fine mesh sieve and place it over a large pitcher. I opted to use both, but it was an overkill. One or the other will suffice. You can just let the milk drip and it will happen rather quickly, but if you’re impatient like me, don’t hesitate to help facilitate (and speed up) the process by pressing it down with a spoon.

Make sure to squeeze every last drop of liquid out of that almond meal, and this is what you will be left with:

– A great big bowl of wet almond meal (of course, you know me… I found ways to use that! And of course, I will fill you in very soon!)

– And more importantly, a great big pitcher of heavenly, delicious almond milk!

Now all that’s left to do is pour yourself a glass, sit back, and enjoy!

You can clean the kitchen later! 😉

Just this once… 

Oh, and try not to drink the whole pitcher in one go! 😉

HEAVENLY VANILLA ALMOND MILK
Source : All Binge and No Purge 

INGREDIENTS
(Yields 8 cups)

  • 2 cups raw almonds, soaked overnight
  • 8 cups water (not your soaking water)
  • 2 whole vanilla beans, finely chopped  (you could also use pure vanilla extract)
  • 12 dates, pitted and soaked overnight  (don’t discard the soaking liquid, you want to add it to your milk)

DIRECTIONS 

  1. Drain and rinse almonds
  2. Add all ingredients to your blender and spin on high for about 4 minutes. You might have to do that in several batches depending on your blender size. I had to make mine in 2 batches.
  3. Once all your almonds have been liquefied, strain your milk using either cheesecloth or a fine mesh sieve placed over a large pitcher. You can just let the milk drip and it will happen rather quickly, but you can help facilitate (and speed up) the process by pressing it down with a spoon.
  4. Make sure to squeeze every last drop of liquid out of that almond meal.
  5. The almond milk will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days (I dare you to keep it that long, though). One little thing is it tends to separate, so make sure to give it a good shake before each use.