Andrea

By cnash

Details

Servings 1
Adapted from frugallysustainable.com

Preparation

Step 1

How to Make Homemade Almond Milk

How to Make Homemade Almond Milk

You can absolutely drive out to your local store and buy almond milk – but once you’ve had it fresh, the rich taste will keep you coming back for more! And guess what? It’s super easy to make.

Optional Add-Ins

(I like to add 1 teaspoon to the mix)

3. Place your almonds, four cups of pure, filtered water, and any optional add-ins in a high-speed blender — I love

my Vitamix

for this — and blend on high until the mixture becomes frothy…approximately 1-2 minutes.

4. Pour the contents of the blender through a

5. Store the milk in the refrigerator. It should keep for up to 3 days. Shake the jar prior to use.

…yum! Or you could dehydrate them for use as a coating for chicken and fish. Perhaps make almond butter. What about using them as a body or facial scrub?

Isn’t this amazing, Andrea?! I just discovered the wonders of homemade almond milk last month and blogged about it as well! We’re addicted now

I make 1-2 batches a week! My favorite combo is medjool dates and cinnamon. I dehydrate the pulp to use in baked goods, or I use the raw pulp to make freezer fudge. Still looking for more ways to use the raw pulp though. Also, after some experimentation, I lowered the water to 3 cups and that’s what we use as our coffee creamer in the morning!

I would dry the skins, then grind them to a meal. You could then add them to any number of things as a nutritious fiber – breads, porridge, granola, etc.. Think of it as something like wheat germ! Also, if you have chickens or other livestock, you can add it to their feed.

I am not sure where you live, but here in Maryland, there are a couple of places that I get my almonds from: frankferd.com (they only deliver to PA, MD, DC & VA) and naturalzing.com (they ship all over). If you have a friend or two, order in bulk and split the cost and the bounty.

Most “organic” stuff (by the way, I still have to find a fruit which is not “organic”… what a silly term) really has no added value and is way overpriced. I bet in a blind test you would not spot the difference between organic and not. You need good almond, that’s all, organic or not.

I do not know about your tap water ,but mine is awful~!!! It will effect the taste of everything! I use good pure water and have for years. I have combated several major illnesses and water can and does make a difference~!

Andrea, I love making my own almond milk. We make ours the same way. YUMMMMM! Another fun thing to try sometime is to sub your almonds for equal amounts of dried coconut. It’s so much cheaper and easier than buying and processing coconut. The nice perk with this is you get a bit of coconut oil out during the straining process. I use it to moisturize my hands and lips.

So, pour it on your weeds then, maybe?

I love Almond Milk too. I have never made it before, but I am willing to try. I did make some homemade soy milk before though. Yummy!

That looks super easy and I love my Vitamix, too!!!!

I use my poor Vitamix for everything! I’m so thankful for it

Been making it for awhile now, and nothing compares. I remove the skins and I don’t remove the pulp. I like mine a little creamier. There’s nothing better than sprouted buckwheat, blueberries, a dash of maple syrup and fresh, homemade almond milk!

Thank you so very much for posting this! I’ve often wondered how I could make this at home. I absolutely LOVE almond milk and now I will be so happy to try homemade almond milk! Thank you again.

Could you dehydrate the pulp and it be almond meal to use in replacement of flour in gluten free items? Thanks for the info.

I am so excited to try this and I was wondering if anyone knew what the cost differences were between buying and making your own almond milk. Both my toddlers drink it and I am buying it constantly so I would like if I could make it myself. Also do you think my regular ol’ blender can manage to make the milk or will I burn up the motor leaving it on for 1-2 minutes? Oh and how would I do a coconut version of this? That sounds awesome!! Andrea I love your blog so much and you have been inspiring me daily to be more conscious of the way I live and for that I am so grateful!!

Cynthia, I don’t remember the cost comparison exactly – Googled it – looks like almonds are 3 1/3 cups to the pound. Almonds where I live are 6.99 a pound (3.99 on sale) so that comes to about $1-2 per quart of almond milk. Also, soaking the almonds softens them – my blender has no trouble making the milk. Hope this helps!

Thanks for posting that. That is definitely not the frugal option considering Silk Almond Milk costs $3 per 2 quarts on the West Coast. After you add up the cost of the cheese cloth, depreciation costs of the blender, and the time it takes to make this stuff, this homemade stuff costs WAY more than store bought. Even if I bought local California almonds in bulk, $4.18 / lb, it would still cost roughly $3 for 2 quarts when you include the costs of the cheese cloth, etc… I think I’ll stick to Silk Almond Milk. Besides, the ingredients in Silk Almond Milk are completely fine and healthy. There is nothing controversial in it like carrageenan.

http://joyofblending.com/if-your-blender-has-the-power-use-it/

…but you do have cane sugar or some other form of added ‘ose (fructose, sucrose, etc.), which is a major concern to many people. I checked every brand of almond milk in my local Vons yesterday and all of them, including the boxed versions on the shelves and not in the dairy case, contained some form of sugar, by the way, that also included those labeled ‘organic’ . Personally, I’d much rather control the amount of sugar I consume by making my own almond milk than leave it to the manufacturer. Sugar is a slow death and it’s in everything processed…including foods where there is no need to add it.

Hi! I love almond milk, and was excited to try this, but my milk tasted very watery. Like almond flavored water. Not sure what I did wrong, but I didn’t use organic almonds, maybe that’s it? I don’t know. Anyway, I saved the almond meal and added 1/2 cup to my bread recipe, (didn’t change anything else), and it is possible the MOST DELICIOUS loaf of bread I have ever made. It doesn’t taste nutty or almondy, it just tastes BETTER than plain bread. I plan to add the rest to my granola the next time I make it.

@Jeannine: Mine always comes out watery too. I make cookies with the mash, I’ll have to try adding it to bread. Does anyone know of a way to make it thicker, like the consistency of regular milk? If so, please share.

I got it a little thicker. I used 1 cup soaked almonds and removed the skins (pour boiling water over them and let them sit 3 minutes, then pinch and they shoot right out of their skins). I used 2.5 to 3 cups of water instead of 4. I added 10 dates and 2 glops of vanilla extract. I let my high speed blender go for a full 2 minutes.

It finally hit me: Why am I beating myself up for forgetting to pick up some silk milk at the store yesterday? I’ve got raw, unpasteurized almonds in my freezer. What am I waiting for? Well now I’m waiting for them to soak. But I love homemade almond milk, especially because I don’t put in all the ingredients listed on commercially prepared nut milks. Pure, clean almond milk! I can’t wait. It’s been awhile since I’ve made it and I couldn’t remember the proportions. I don’t add sweetener, but I do add a vanilla bean. Pure and Simple. That’s the way we like it. Thanks so much for the quick refresher!

LOVED this recipe!! Made it this morning and now this evening it’s nice and cold and PERFECT with my pumpkin cookies that just came out of the oven!! I have a question, and I’m sure it’s a repeat, so I apologize right now, what can I do with the pulp? I kept it in the ‘fridge, and am thinking about adding it to muffins and to pancakes this weekend. Any other suggestions??

So I have an almond milk addicted 2 year old and we did find that making it ourselves may not be as cost effective as buying it in a carton at the store but I had to try it anyways since we are on a serious homemade kick. (Even my husband has apple cider brewing in our closet lol!) My almond milk was fairly watery tasting though. The instructions were fairly easy and I don’t feel like I missed anything. TBH, I used a flour sack as it’s just what I had and it seems like finding cheese cloth was harder than I suspected and I wanted to wait to order a milk bag if I thought this was something to continue. Could that have been it? Could it have been that I didn’t process the nuts enough? I apologize, I’m a total boob when it comes to homemaking stuff and I’m trying! Or was this all normal? It certainly doesn’t taste bad, just very watery but still a good color.

Great recipe! I love your optional add-ins

how would i make almond butter from the spent pulp?

I just made my first batch and have a question. Is there anyway to make it thicker? Thanks

Yum yum! Thank you for teaxhing me to make my very first almond milk! Some thoughts…

I’ve never actually had almond milk before, but I LOVE almonds, so I am sure the milk from them is very good. I can across a recipe that calls for almond milk and where I live they don’t sell it at the stores, so if I want any I have to make it. I am definitely going to try this! Thanks!!

Can you dry the pulp in a dehydrator and then blend to powder and use as a flour substitute?

Would anybody be able to explain to me why almonds will keep for months in the fridge, but when you blend them up with water all of a sudden its only good for a couple days?? im so confused about how that works!!

A few things are happening when you make almond milk, all of which make it easier for microbes (microbes = bacteria and/or fungi) to grow:

1) adding water (microbes need water to grow)

2) increasing surface area of the almonds by breaking them up into tiny bits (makes it easier for the microbes to access them)

3) introducing small amounts of microbes (commercial almonds are sterilized, which means that any microbes on the almonds are killed; as soon as the nuts touch anything that is not sterile–which is basically anything in your kitchen that hasn’t just been boiled–they are no longer sterile)

Hi my son and I make our own almond milk but you know the water you let your almonds soak in is very very good for your house hold plants as well as any out door plants so you dont even have to waste that. also the left over almonds you can place in the oven on the lowest setting for about 3 hours to dry and you have your own almond meal and we use this for all kinds of baking very good

Well, I priced the almonds at naturalzing.com. ($14 for a pound!) I’ll keep buying Silk Almond Milk. I have noticed that once you figure in equipment, shipping, etc… you are not saving money ordering in bulk and cooking out of super pails. For instance today I’d pay $1.56 per pound for organic hard red wheat with shipping and I’d have to order a 45 pound pail to get that price. I can hop over to kingauthorflour and get ten pounds of already ground organic whole wheat flour for $1.61 a pound. (Yes they are doing .12 shipping on orders over $12!) No bucket but I won’t need a bucket or a grain mill. The idea of grinding your own grain, making your own milks and yogurts etc sounds so nice, wouldn’t bulk buying be grand? For some reason it is not as affordable as it should be. That’s capitalism for you, charge whatever people are willing to pay. If not many are willing to pay it, you can make ends meet by charging the customers you have even more. The organic market is usually out of my price range all together. I can afford Silk, its a decent product, I don’t need to be baking cookies and bread with leftover almond pulp, I’m watching the carbs.

Try buying in bulk on Amazon. You can get raw almonds for about $4.50 a pound. And if you are watching your carbs you are much better of using almond flour or meal to bake with. Just dehydrate the pulp in your oven for a few hours on a low heat and use it in place of flour. Tons of low carb/ gluten free/ paleo recipes available for baked goods from cookies to breads using almond meal instead of flour. I’m on a budget too. If you make the milk yourself then use the pulp to replace the flour you would buy in addition it actually ends up being economical. It’s slightly more expensive than buying but better for you and ends up being less $ when you consider the almond flour you get out of the left overs.

my son can’t tolerate milk at all, so we have switched to almond milk (i think it’s a healthier option for everyone in the fam anyway.) i’m thinking about making my own milk and came across your great tutorial. thanks! was wondering, tho, with the store bought stuff, they supplement calcium. is there a healthy way to add calcium to this? or another way we can get calcium in his diet? i suppose we could just use pills.

I just take a hand full of almonds (I don’t soak them), throw them in the blender, grind them up,pour in some water. I don’t strain the almonds, if too thick add more water. Another thing you can do is roast some of the almonds and that will give it a nut like flavor. Splash some vanilla or different flavor. Cinnamon is good. your “milk” is a little chewy but good.

Another thing I do is to add anything that sounds good as a sweetener, fruit, dates, . Should you use fruit taste and make sure it is sweet! then freeze it into popsicles or ice cubes and put into a glass of almond milk. Big thing is, if you combine things you like, you will like what you make!

Do not strain the almond milk if you can help it (if you used peeled almonds). The fiber is like a natural thickener in the milk and it it is good for you. There is about 300 mgs of Calcium per 3 ounces of almond milk(if you use 1c almonds 2c water), so no need to add calcium. The body only really needs about 350 mgs of calcium per day if you are getting the 4,000 units of vitamin D-3 you should get per day. (you need that much to absorb the calcium). You can also make other nut milks, sesame(high in calcium), walnut, pumpkin(high in zinc) and mix them for variety. You need to strain the sesame pulp out though, because it is high in oxalic acid. Sesame milk is super yummy.

As far as cost, I would rather spend a bit more and put the effort into making a healthy drink, than buy that junk they call almond milk from the store. In the end, my health care costs would be lower because I am healthier for doing it this way. I cannot believe all the junk they are adding to the commercial stuff now, and who really knows what they are doing to those almonds? They could be exposed to chemicals in the process. I doubt they are using blenders to mush them up.

I use 1/2 cup of almonds, peeled, to 2 cups of water, add a big teaspoon of coconut oil, and also add a teaspoon or two of Coconut Cream Concentrate from Tropical Traditions. It is plenty flavorful and “milky”. After all, cows milk isn’t thick, is it? But there is some fat in it, and that’s why I like the coconut oil. It makes a big difference and it is very good for you.

Hi Mary i was really excited to read your comment and how you learned about making Almond milk ectat Ann Wigmore. Could you email me the how i can make the sesame seed milk. I have unhulled organic sesame seeds um do you need to take off the husk to or is it ok to leave on? I so look forward to hearing from you Cheers Jan

Another great use for the leftover almond pulp…make marzipan!

Hello! I’m wanting to start making my own almond milk seeing that buying it from the store is very costly and not only that, but I’m trying to cut back on throwing things away (i.e the packaging it comes in) so i’ll be investing in some glass milk bottles. Anyways, my question for you is, If I’m wanting to make a gallon of almond milk what ratio’s of almonds and water should I use? Do I double the recipe?

Just made my first batch. Added a little bit of honey as a sweetener.

When I made it into milk in my vitamix, it was almost sour bitter tasting and I couldn’t drink it. It tastes awful. Even with sweetener added.

For everyone commenting that store bought is cheaper than the homemade, I think you are missing the point maybe. The reason I am considering making it is bc my 2.5 year old still drinks milk 4 times a day so I try to mix almond milk in to reduce her cow’s milk intake. Every almond milk I have found available to buy all have added synthetic “vitamins” aka chemicals added to it which I do not want & really do us no good but can do us harm actually. Do some research. No one knew calcium supplements could cause heart issues until a major study came out about it. No thanks, I want pure food w/out “fortifed” additives, and whoever said organic is no different based on a taste test, does not understand what oranic means at all, it has nothing to do w/taste & everything to do w/not having chemicals etc. used on it.

Thank you so much for this recipe! It is so easy and yummy too! I added the vanilla extract and it was wonderful!

Hi, just made my first batch. I added vanilla, cinnamon and palm sugar. It turned out great. Also, I was able to work the left over almond meal into treats with honey, egg whites, and cinnamon. Thank you very much. Ang

For that matter, do you think the same method could be used to make pecan milk? I have a fair amount of pecans on hand. I’ve already made some yummy delicious pecan butter.

Enter your email address to get Frugally Sustainable tips, and my ebook, delivered straight to your inbox for FREE!!!

How To Make Money When Living Off-Grid