Not Just a Man's World

Making paleo custard required almond milk.  I couldn’t find any in the supermarket and was intrigued by how easy it might be to make.  The recipes I found looked easy enough, if a little fiddly.

The finished product was delicious and creamy like whole milk (though it definitely had the sweet flavour of almonds).  But making almond milk takes patience.  It is definitely fiddy and messy and it’s not something that can be made and used straight away.  First you have to soak the nuts overnight, and then once you’ve made the milk you need to leave it to develop for 24 hours.  If you are making your milk to use for something specific then make sure that you plan ahead.

How to make almond milk

The steps below make 2 litres.  However, if you are making this as a first batch for limited use, I would recommend halving the ingredients to make 1 litre the first time.

Before starting, a warning about food processors and liquidisers.  I have a heavy-duty liquidiser and having seen a picture of the almonds pre-soaking in a liquidiser jug I thought it should be fine.  However, in the process of making the milk I nearly blew out the motor of the liquidiser and failed to successfully blend all of the nuts.  It definitely needs a more open-style food processer where there is a larger surface area for the nuts to be attacked by the blades and you can easily mix them about if any don’t seem to be being pureed.

The kit you need

• Blender or food processor
• Cheesecloth/mesh bag for straining
• Large bowl
• Fine wire mesh (eg. coffee filter) or muslin bag
• Optional second jug/bowl if you can’t strain directly into the final storage container
• 2 litre storage jug with lid (you need to be able to shake it and store in the fridge)

Ingredients

• 450-500g (1 lb) raw shelled almonds
• A few pinches of salt
• 2-2.5 litres water

Step 1

Place the almonds in a large bowl (or your food processor) with enough water to cover the almonds and with a little extra water above this to allow for swelling.  Leave to soak overnight.

Step 2

Blend the nuts into a thick almond puree, ensuring that all the nuts are blended.  The finer you can get it to blend the more goodness will go into the nut milk and the less you will have leftover (though the leftovers can also be used for cooking and I’ll cover this in a separate post).

Step 3

Place the cheesecloth or mesh bag over the bowl, scoop some puree into it and squeeze the goodness out of the puree, leaving the remnants as dry as possible. 

If you’ve used a full half kilo of nuts then I recommend doing this in at least two batches.  The smaller the quantity in the cheesecloth, the better your chances of getting your hands round it enough to squeeze all the goodness out of the nut mix.

Do not add any more water at this stage.

I recommend that you keep the squeezed out nut remnants.  They still have some goodness and can be used elsewhere.

Step 4

Pour the almond cream that you now have in the bowl into the storage jug or a second bowl/jug straining it through the fine mesh.  You will be left with a fine white paste in the bottom which you should squeeze as much liquid out of as possible. 

You may need to keep stirring this about and removing some to keep the cream moving through the mesh.  I was left with about 2 teaspoons of white paste by the end.

Again, keep the paste since you can use it.

Step 5

Add water up to the total amount that you want, making the mix as thick or thin as you would like.

If you are a fan of full fat milk and you used 450-500g nuts then mixing it up to 2 litres should give something similar to the consistency you like.  If you prefer skimmed milk then you may want to water this down further.  Experiment but always be aware that once water is added you can’t take any out and it is probably better to leave it too thick and have to add some water later on than thin it too much as this stage.

For an almond cream then mix it up to 1 litre (based on 450-500g of nuts).

Once this is done, put the container in the fridge and leave for 24 hours.

Step 6

After 24 hours you may find that it has separated slightly but it should also have thickened up a fraction.

Shake the milk up and taste a tiny bit.  It probably tastes a bit flat.

Add salt a pinch at a time, shaking thoroughly after adding each pinch and tasting the milk again.  As you add the salt you should find that it starts to get a fuller, creamier flavour but take care not to add too much salt, otherwise you may make it taste salty and ruin the whole batch.  If in doubt, stop adding salt if you are happy that the flavour seems full, nutty and creamy.

Your almond milk is now ready to drink.  It needs storing in the fridge and it should keep for about a week (though so far we’ve not had it last long enough to find out what happens when it goes off).

Related posts:

1. Paleo recipes: almond milk leftovers
2. Paleo recipes: almond banana pancakes
3. Paleo recipes: pork cooked in coconut milk
4. Paleo recipes: Cockles in Coconut Milk (Macunim ao Coco)