Home made nut milk

When Isaac first started to wean I made him hemp milk for his Weetabix and banana at breakfast time. What with one thing and another I stopped making fresh milk and slipped into buying soya milk. I've noticed that he is now quite snotty for much of the time. I'm aware that kids in nursery are renowned for being snotty, but I also know that my child isn't usually a snotty boy and that soya is very mucous forming. As we don't drink cow milk at home (you wanna know why? Aside from dairy farming being barbaric, read this, terrifying stuff to be sure) he consumes quite a lot of soya by way of milk and yoghurt. I'm not so keen on this as un-fermented soya (i.e.: pretty much everything we eat - milks, tofu, meat substitutes etc) isn't the wonder food stuff it's cracked up to be. Read about that here.

I don't really measure things when making milk, but I usually end up with about a litre at the end of it all.

Ingredients

-Approx 125g almonds*

-Sweetener (if desired) - I use agave nectar, but maple syrup works well too

-Water*

*The more/less nuts/water you use will change the consistency/creaminess of the milk.

Tools needed

-Blender - a good one

-Straining device - you can buy special nut milk bags, but I use a muslin square or a sieve

-Storage for finished product

Method

1. Soak the almonds in warm water overnight. Ensure they are covered completely by the water and there is room for them to swell. (Obvsiously it's going to cool, but that's ok!) Soaking them loosens the skins, increases the size of the nut, increases the nutritional value of the nut and makes the nutrients easier for your body to access, makes them easier to blend and improves the quality of the milk.

2. Empty the water and rinse the nuts. Peel the nuts. Sounds hard, but it's actually quite fun. You sort of squeeze them and they pop out of their skins! Be careful though, they don't half shoot out at a ferocious rate of knots! I've lost a few down the side of the cooker before!

3. Blend with water. My blender is a push down from the top sort of whizzer and can pulse/blend about 1/3 litre water at once so I divide the nuts into thirds and do it equally. I add a squeeze/pour of syrup to the nuts at this stage. The amount you use with depend entirely on how sweet you like your milk. I suggest starting with about a tablespoon for the entire litre. You might not even want to add sweetener if you're sweet enough already! I tend to pulse it all a few times then leave it whizzing for about 30 seconds...or as long and it will before it overheats...poor old whizzer that it is.

4. Strain. I put my muslin square over the neck of a wide jug and poke it down a bit so it forms a sort of bowl then fix it in place with an elastic band. Pour the water and pulverised nuts into the muslin. When as much of the fluid has strained through as is going to on its own, remove the elastic band, wring/twist the muslin  above the waste nuts and squeeze down forcing the excess out. Keep wringing and squeezing until all the excess has been squeezed out. You'll be surprised how much extra comes out! You could use a bowl and a sieve just as easily, but I don't expect it would be as effective as using a muslin. As I do mine in 1/3 litre batches I tend to pour one lot into the muslin/jug and then whiz the next lot while the first lot is straining. I only wring & squeeze when all of the nuts have been whizzed and strained.

5. Pour into storage receptacle. I used a glass bottle obtained quite cheaply from Ikea. Glass is better for storage of anything period. Plastic leaks all kinds of nasties and alters flavour. You'll need to shake it each time before you use it because the almond content will separate from the water. 

You needn't waste the remnants; I'm told it can be used in baking, but I've never been that adventurous!

I've made a couple of litres of almond milk now and Isaac likes it! I've made it both with and without skins on the nuts and I prefer without. The latter attempt owes to pure laziness on my part, but the extra effort really is worth it. Leaving the skins on is also much harder on your blender. You could make almond milk without soaking the almonds, but you'd need to blanch them because the skins are very bitter. It wouldn't be as nutritious as made with soaked nuts though. A good recipe for that method can be found here.

I assume the same recipe could be applied to any nuts, but would need to be modified. Hazelnuts have different skins so I don't know how that would work, you'd probably have to leave them on. Hemp milk is best made with de-hulled hemp seeds and no soaking required! The taste, however, is quite earthy and possibly acquired. I like natural tasting stuff though.

Here ends my nutty spiel. Despite my waffle it really is easy to do!