Recipe for homemade almond milk & sort of a pumpkin NotNog

MILK ‘N COOKIES! MILK IN RECIPES! MILK ON TOP OF CEREAL! MILK – MILK – MILK! WE WANT MILK!

I’m lactose intolerant so I avoid dairy as much as possible (apart from life cultured dairy – which seems to be fine – thank God!)

A great alternative I got introduced to in Wichita, KS, 3 years ago is Almond Milk. It’s very well known by nearly everyone nowadays, but back then, I’d never heard of it! And still here in Holland, Almond Milk can only be purchased in health food stores at ridiculous high prices! So…. it’s time to make our own!

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It’s dead easy all you’ll need is:

•  1 cup soaked raw almonds
• 3 cups water
• 1/2 tsp lecithin – optional – it acts as an emulsifier and you can choose sunflower or soy
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch sea salt
• stevia or a sweetener of choice for a sweeter version of the milk

Start by soaking the almonds in water for at least 8 hours – preferably overnight up to 24 hours. Rinse the almonds well every 8 – 10 hours and refresh the soaking water. The water will turn brownish and filthy looking.

I used a slightly different ratio as you can see on the picture above. I wanted to create an almond cream milk – as a replacement of full fat milk – and I needed the almond pulp to stay fairly coarse — why?! You can read that down below where I give you options on what to do with the left-over almond pulp!

I use a nut milk bag to strain my “almond smoothie” but you can use a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth in a strainer as well.

Remember a homemade almond milk will usually go bad in a couple of days! So don’t make more than you can drink / eat / use!

If you’re wondering what to do with the leftover pulp, there are loads of options! I sometimes dehydrate the pulp by spreading it evenly on a baking tray and turning the oven on at the lowest temperature possible – 100° F – for as long as it takes to get the pulp completely dry. OR when I’m impatient I bake the pulp at 250 °F for as long as it takes to get it to dry completely.

After it’s dried, a quick blitz in the food processor and you have (raw) almond flour, which is fantastic in muffins, pancakes, cookies, breads, etc.

At other days I turn the pulp into a granola. I usually don’t blitz the almonds into a complete mush/pulp when wanting to make granola. I keep the almonds coarsely chopped like the pictures above. You will get less milk out of the almonds obviously, but the granola tastes super great so I’m willing to sacrifice

I mix the small almond-pieces with an equal part rolled oats some vanilla extract a little raw honey or maple syrup, some cinnamon, a dash of salt and a few tablespoons coconut flour. I then add a few tablespoons liquid coconut milk + a few tablespoons applesauce (to cut the fat content in half!) I use as much wet ingredients until it forms a nice crumble. I bake this mixture at 350° F for about 25 minutes, turning the granola after 15 minutes to make sure I keep it from burning. It’s delicious served with fresh almond milk — yeah, we’re reconstructing the almonds after taking forever to deconstruct them into two different recipes lol

Most of all.. enjoy the experiment in the kitchen en enjoy the outcome! I know I love me a cup of fresh made almond milk and after reading this post… I hope you do too!

It’s almost Halloween so I thought I’d give you a special treat! Pumpkin Spice Almond Milk

1. Add 1/3 cup pumpkin puree to
2. 1 1/2 cups almond milk,
3. along with 1/2 to 1 tsp – to taste – pumpkin pie spice
4. +  (vanilla) stevia, honey or maple syrup to sweeten.
5. Blend and enjoy!

A second option is to blend 1/2 apple + 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract along with the above ingredients for a very special, fallish and different – in a refreshing way – taste!

This recipe also creates a great fake Pumpkin Eggnog – you just have to adjust the ratio – for one person use:

• 1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
• 1/2 apple
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• maple syrup to taste
• vodka – optional
• ice – optional

Add everything into the blender and mix until smooth – serve chilled and enjoy!

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