Made my own Almond Milk

[TSpacagna]

Ran out of almond milk for morning smoothie the other day.
Was gonna run to the store that evening and grab some more but remembered I had come across a recipe recently for making your own.
Already had a giant bag of almonds from Costco, so decided to try it.

Simple as can be:
Soak 1 cup of almonds overnight in 1 litre of water (or in hot water for 90 minutes)
Blend for two minutes
Strain through cheesecloth and done.
Allegedly will keep in the fridge for only a couple days, so may not recommend doing large batches unless you really use a lot of it
The leftover almond meal is also useful for making other snacks, adding to oatmeal, etc.

There's a bit more residual almond stuff in it than something you would purchase, but I don't mind it. I only use it to add to smoothies so there are usually chunks of stuff anyway.
Figure you can remove more by straining additional times or getting a finer mesh sieve.

Thought it may be useful for someone

[NotJen]

I spent a year making my own almond milk, then gave it up.  I didn't like having to always be on the hunt for cheap almonds (it didn't save me money), and it was time-consuming to use up the waste products (I used the pulp in smoothies, made crackers and granola, but it was a lot of work).  Maybe it was healthier, but I decided it was better for me to just buy a milk alternative.

I do keep making my own yogurt, though - way better than store-bought and less time consuming (I can make 2-weeks worth at once).

I bought a nut-milk bag for straining that worked great.  I also use it for my yogurt and straining chicken stock - so I've gotten a lot of value out of it even after I stopped making almond milk.

[Daley]

There's an easier way. I'll just leave one of my previous posts quoted here from the Aldi thread (trimmed slightly) for the sake of simplicity...

What I do is buy some bulk Bob's Red Mill almond flour (not meal, but blanched flour) from Sam's Club using a guest pass, and throw 1/8th of a cup of it and 8-16oz of water along with a pinch of salt into a cheap smoothie blender and run that for about 30 seconds, let it sit for a few minutes, and run it again for another 30 seconds.

Best almond milk ever, and it's literally made on demand - though you could probably do larger batches to refrigerate if you wanted. You can even control and add your own sweetener, a little oil, or flavors in small batches, too. No cheesecloth filtering, no soaking, just almond milk in a couple minutes. And if you want thicker almond milk, toss in a half teaspoon of unflavored fiber supplement at the same time. The psyllium does wonders to thicken.

Technically, 1/8c to 16oz gives you a similar calorie profile to unsweetened premade. At that ratio, even with the 10% premium for non-members, $15.40+tax and that 3lb sack gives you around 12.25 gallons of shelf stable almond milk mix, or $1.26/gallon, or 63¢/half gallon. Even if you double the almond flour (which I do), it's still cheaper than the cheapest almond milk on the market - and far richer and tastier.

Walmart also has a 4lb. bag of almond flour from Nature's Eats for $20 (so less hassle than trying to get it from Sam's without the membership), but the quality of almond flour just isn't the same. The Bob's makes a far creamier and less stale tasting milk.

Last tip for a treat:
Almond Flour Chocolate Mint "Milkshake"
1.5 C water (cold)
1/4 C almond flour
1 tsp ground psyllium fiber
pinch salt
sweetener to taste (stevia, agave, honey, sugar, whatever)
1 rounded tbsp dutch cocoa
fresh mint leaves (or splash mint extract)
1 tbsp oil (grapeseed works well)

Blend for 30 seconds, let sit for 2-5 minutes or until the foam visibly rises to the top. Blend for 30 seconds again, let sit another 2-5 minutes. Much less foam should rise to the top this time. Blend another 30 seconds. Drink.

This recipe also makes a decent sorbet if you have a churn.

[NorCal]

Maybe there's a better way?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJCTIPWPNtw

[Buffaloski Boris]

Ptf

[TSpacagna]

There's an easier way. I'll just leave one of my previous posts quoted here from the Aldi thread (trimmed slightly) for the sake of simplicity...

What I do is buy some bulk Bob's Red Mill almond flour (not meal, but blanched flour) from Sam's Club using a guest pass, and throw 1/8th of a cup of it and 8-16oz of water along with a pinch of salt into a cheap smoothie blender and run that for about 30 seconds, let it sit for a few minutes, and run it again for another 30 seconds.

Best almond milk ever, and it's literally made on demand - though you could probably do larger batches to refrigerate if you wanted. You can even control and add your own sweetener, a little oil, or flavors in small batches, too. No cheesecloth filtering, no soaking, just almond milk in a couple minutes. And if you want thicker almond milk, toss in a half teaspoon of unflavored fiber supplement at the same time. The psyllium does wonders to thicken.

Technically, 1/8c to 16oz gives you a similar calorie profile to unsweetened premade. At that ratio, even with the 10% premium for non-members, $15.40+tax and that 3lb sack gives you around 12.25 gallons of shelf stable almond milk mix, or $1.26/gallon, or 63¢/half gallon. Even if you double the almond flour (which I do), it's still cheaper than the cheapest almond milk on the market - and far richer and tastier.

Walmart also has a 4lb. bag of almond flour from Nature's Eats for $20 (so less hassle than trying to get it from Sam's without the membership), but the quality of almond flour just isn't the same. The Bob's makes a far creamier and less stale tasting milk.

That's awesome too, thanks for sharing

[powskier]

I think the milk industry is trying to get people to call these products something other than "milk" to differentiate from what comes out of  cow teats.
For some reason I can't see "nut juice " as a viable marketing alternative.

[MasterStache]

Pea Milk.

[Mr. Green]

You haven't lived until you've tried almond milking. It just doesn't get any fresher than when it's straight from the nut.

[Livingthedream55]

Anyone made Dr. Greger's (author of "How Not to Die" book & cookbook) recipe? I haven't tried it yet but loved the simplicity.

https://nutritionfacts.org/recipe/almond-milk/

Ingredients
2 tablespoons smooth, raw almond butter
2 cups water

Instructions
Combine the almond butter and water in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Transfer the milk to a glass bottle or jar with a tight-fitting lid and chill until ready to serve. Shake well before using.

[Livingthedream55]

Maybe there's a better way?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJCTIPWPNtw

OMG  That video is hysterical!!!!!!!!!  : 0 )

[afterthedark]

Anyone made Dr. Greger's (author of "How Not to Die" book & cookbook) recipe? I haven't tried it yet but loved the simplicity.

https://nutritionfacts.org/recipe/almond-milk/

Ingredients
2 tablespoons smooth, raw almond butter
2 cups water

Instructions
Combine the almond butter and water in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Transfer the milk to a glass bottle or jar with a tight-fitting lid and chill until ready to serve. Shake well before using.

I didn’t follow that recipe as such but certainly tried mixing almond butter and water. As I don’t have any type of blender the result was ...unsuccessful. As you might imagine oil and water don’t mix well without more agitation than you can manage manually.

The reason I was trying it at all was in the UK almonds are more expensive than the equivalent almond milk. We do have a lot of cheap oats and that is quite easy to make into milk, but I haven’t been able to make myself like the taste yet.

[Junco]

I've been wanting to try this. My GF loves almond milk, but I'm not positive if our local store sells almonds for much cheaper. Thanks for motivating me to try this.

I'm a big fan of making OAT MILK, which is pretty similar and dirt cheap. You just blend oats in water and strain. Adding vanilla and a little liquid sweetener (maple or agave) will improve flavor. Supposedly oat milk is really good in coffee but I haven't tried that yet.