Creamy Vanilla Almond-Coconut Milk

In an effort to keep my family healthy, I've incorporated Almond Milk into things I'm making fresh or baking - namely muffins and smoothies. My favorite Almond Milk was the Blue Diamond Vanilla Almond-Coconut milk - until I found out that it contains carrageenan. Carrageenan is a seaweed derived food additive, used in a variety of products to keep them from separating, and has been shown to cause gastrointestinal problems in humans as well as cancer in lab rats. Well, that pretty much did me in for the Blue Diamond brand (find a list of other brands and info HERE). After a lengthy discussion with my little sister, I decided to try my hand at making it homemade...and WOW! It is so easy, and the flavor is fabulous!

I looked at over 15 recipes and techniques for making Almond Milk before venturing out on my own, and this is the recipe I came up with. The milk should be made in small batches (per the recipe), unless you drink a lot of it.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup raw almonds
3 cups water (I use filtered) -- this is not the water you put over the almonds on day 1
3/4 cup non-sweetened, dehydrated coconut flakes*
3 tsp. vanilla-honey (or regular honey plus 1/2 tsp vanilla extract)*
Pinch of Pink Himalayan salt

Day 1

Place 1 cup raw almonds in a bowl and cover with water. SOAK almonds 24 hours to soften. If you do not soak 24 hours, you will have digestive upset due to the phytic acid almonds contain.

Day 2

1. Bring 2 of the 3 cups of water to a boil and pour over the coconut. Let sit 30 minutes.
2. Drain the almonds and rinse well.
3. After 30 minutes, place ALL of the ingredients (including the coconut and 2 cups water) in a high powered blender. I use a Ninja, but a regular blender will work.
4. Blend 2-5 minutes - depending on the type of blender you are using. The mixture should be creamy looking with bits of almond pulp left.
5. Strain mixture through cheesecloth or a nut bag into a bowl. SQUEEZE, squeeze, squeeze to get all of the milk out of the mixture. I tripled my cheesecloth to make sure none of the pulp escaped.
6. Place Almond Milk in a tightly sealed container (I used canning jars). Keeps 2-4 days in refrigerator.

This recipe makes at 3 cups. The water can be increased or decreased depending on how thick you like your milk. The consistency of this recipe is between 1% and 2% cows milk.

*Coconut is optional - make plain Almond milk by eliminating the coconut. You will add the 3 cups of water in with the almonds and other ingredients and blend.

*This recipe does not have to be sweetened, but I have also seen recipes where people blend a date or two to sweeten their milk - I prefer my vanilla honey. This step can also be eliminated to make plain Almond Milk.


Initial Cost of making homemade Almond Milk:

$4.97   -   large package of cheesecloth
$3.59   -   7oz dehydrated coconut flakes
$9.97   -   32oz (2lb bag) raw almonds

$18.53     TOTAL (give or take a few dollars - depending on what you sweeten with)

If 1 cup of almonds makes 3 cups of Almond Milk. I measured 7 cups of almonds in the 2lb bag. That would be 21 cups of Almond Milk depending on how much liquid you use. The cheesecloth will be a purchase you make every so often. So let's say it costs $13 for the supplies/ingredients - that is $.62 per cup. If you are buying it in the store, you will pay an average of $3 for 32oz. or $.75 per cup - and if you don't use the store bought quick enough, it curdles and goes bad. That is pouring money down the drain...for real.

One Last Tidbit on Price - I don't know if you've priced almond meal/flour lately, but it isn't cheap. You can dry out the pulp that is left after straining the milk in a large sheet cake pan on low heat (175*) for a couple of hours - stirring as needed. This can be kept in the frig or frozen and used when a recipe calls for flour. WIN!

**For those of you who are interested in fortifying your milk - go HERE**

VANILLA HONEY - last winter I had some vanilla bean pods leftover from my pear butter. I simply placed the pods in a container of honey and voilà - yummy vanilla honey.