Homemade Almond Milk

The first time I made homemade almond milk was during week six of my cooking school in front of twelve women who were taking notes on my every move. And you know what happened?

I made an enormous mess. Almond milk, water and pulp were EVERYWHERE – the table, my shoes, the vitamix. I wasn’t even sure I would have enough for everyone to taste!

Panic and embarrassment set in first. {not to mention my inner voice yelling at me for not trying this in advance} but then I just do what I always do when something doesn’t go as planned in the kitchen.

I laughed, sopped up the mess with a roll of paper towels and I moved on.

Despite having dumped most of the milk all over myself – there was still enough for everyone to get a taste and that was all any of us needed to be hooked.

And I will never {unless I’m in a pinch} buy almond milk again. It is that good.

The beauty of homemade almond milk is that you can control the ingredients, it can be made very quickly and it pretty much guarantees bragging rights to your friends.

It is also fairly inexpensive. Your biggest investment will be the nut milk bag {a whooping $10} and from there all you need is raw, organic almonds, dates, vanilla and water. Badaboom. Badabing.

And if you want to get a little fancy you can get some pretty milk bottles like these to put your newly pressed almond milk in.

This recipe came from my dear friend and Clinical nutritionist, Emily Potter and the recipe is so perfect I never feel like I need to alter it {which is very rare for me. Haha.}

And don’t forget to save your almond pulp! We are going to make some fantastic cookies next week with it!

Homemade Almond Milk

Makes 4 cups
Soak time – 6-12 hours, Active time – 10 minutes
Download the Almond Milk Recipe Here.

1 cup raw almonds
4 cups filtered or spring water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 medjool dates
1 dash cinnamon (optional)
1 nut milk bag

Soak the almonds and the dates together in a bowl for 6 – 12 hours.

Drain and rinse the almonds and remove the pits from the dates.

In a blender, add the almonds, dates, water, vanilla and cinnamon and blend until smooth.

Strain the almond mixture through a nutmilk bag, cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer into a bowl or pitcher. You’ll need to squeeze the bag quite a bit to get all the milk out.

BONUS TIP:

Reserve the almond pulp for baking. Spread the pulp onto a baking sheet and let it dry out in a warm oven – no higher than 200º.

Once dry you can pulse it through a food processor and use it for baking!