My daughter and I have issues with regular dairy milk, so we usually substitute in coconut or unsweetened almond milk.  However, I want to minimize the additives  found in typical off the shelf almond milk so I decided to make my own this morning.

Almond Milk

• Soak (Sprout) Raw Almonds in water 8-12 hours or overnight
•  After soaking, rinse/drain almonds in colander under cold water
  

  Straining the soaked, raw almonds

Working in Batches

• Put 2 cups of filtered water and 1/2 cups of almonds in blender.

• Optional: Add splash of Vanilla and sprinkle of stevia to sweeten

• Blend 50-90 seconds until all almonds have been broken up and liquefied.  I used my Blendtec Blender

• Pour almond milk either through strainer/sieve, nutmilk bag or cheesecloth into a glass jar that can be tightly sealed.  Since I only had a strainer/sieve on hand, that is what I used.

 

• Use a spatula to press any residual milk through sieve. You will have pulp leftover in strainer/sieve.  You can either use this pulp at later time to dehydrate to make cookies with or even blend further into a nut butter.  I put mine into my Earthmaker compost bin.

• Repeat steps until all almonds have been used to make milk.

• When jar is full, tightly close and place in refrigerator.  Use within 3-5 days.

Tips:

• Making Almond milk is 4:1 ratio Water to Almonds.
• Make sure to use RAW organic (if possible) almonds.  Not salted or roasted
• Filtered and, if possible, distilled water is best.
• A nut milk bag is probably your best option of efficient milk extraction.  Can be reused-just wash in top rack of dishwasher.

I used this milk to make a chia pudding recipe which I will post later and a favorite smoothie recipe of mine for lunch:  Chocolate Covered Strawberry.  I could  truly taste the difference.  The smoothie was more delicious with homemade almond milk than using store bought.

Please let me know if you attempt to make your own almond milk and how you like it.