My family has been drinking almond milk for about 5 years now. We typically would buy 4 half gallons/week. Just recently I realized how incredibly easy it is to make. I can not believe that I was spending close to $4 for a half gallon carton. We were spending over $800/year just on milk! You can easily make it at home for less than $1, that’s a savings of about $600/year! This article will show you how to make your own almond milk.
There are a couple of things you must have in order to make your milk. A good quality blender, a nut milk bag to strain the pulp (I picked one up for about $8 on Amazon) and a container to store the milk in. The ingredients to make the milk is ridiculously simple!
Almond Milk Ingredients
1 Cup Almonds
6 Cups Water
5-6 Dates (I have also used 1-2 tablespoons of Agave when I’m out of dates)
Almond Milk Instructions
To make, simply soak your almonds for at least 4-5 hours. Generally I will soak mine overnight. Drain the water from the almonds and rinse them. Pour 6 Cups of water into your high speed blender, add the almonds and dates. Blend on a high speed for about 1-2 minutes. Once blended, place your nut milk bag into your container and strain the almond pulp out. Once the milk is pretty much through the bag, I will squeeze the pulp to get any extra liquid I can from it. After I’m done, I take the pulp from the bag and dry it out to use in other foods I might be making (cookies, breads, etc.) Store your milk in an airtight container in your refrigerator and ENJOY!
More Images of How to Make Almond Milk
As for the agave, yes there is controversy about it being similar to high fructose corn syrup. But it is an option.
My family doesn’t like the vanilla almond milk, as we find it too sweet (Just our preference.) But yes, you can add vanilla. I would try vanilla bean paste or pure vanilla extract. I experimented with our milk for awhile and found that you can change the consistency of the milk by the amount of water or almonds you add. For us, we found we liked 6C water to 1C almonds. If its too watery, add less water or more almonds and the opposite if it’s not as thin as you might like it. Best I can say is try it out and see what you think!
I have been thinking about trying to make our own almond milk. I’m just worried that it won’t taste as good as what I buy at the store. how would you say this compares to a brand name almond milk? I also prefer the vanilla kind so I wonder if adding vanilla to this would work. have you ever tried that?
It is easy making your own almond milk, but do some research on the agave…. and you’ll choose something else.