Almond Milk

My youngest, Little Bear, has had quite the time in his little year on Earth, with terrible itch-all-over-open-sores-in-all-the-cracks eczema.  While I was nursing him, I tried to narrow down what exactly was causing him to break out so badly, and finally decided it was eggs and soy.  But I've had my suspicions about dairy.  Now that Bear is a ripe old one year and I'm no longer nursing (yay I can eat scrambled eggs again!), it's easier to see what he's reacting to, and I do believe the whole milk is bothering him.  My friend Steph has been making almond milk for awhile now, and so after a personal tutorial...here I am.  Making almond milk!

The recipe:

raw almonds soaked in water for at least 8 hours (with a dash of salt)

(I soaked enough for about 4 batches, to hopefully last the week)

3/4 tsp vanilla

2 TBSP real maple syrup

4 cups water

Drain and rinse the almonds, add 1 1/4 cups of almonds to your blender.  I have a food processor.  It was messy, but got the job done.

Add in about 2 of the 4 cups of water, and blend for 60-90 seconds, until almonds are tiny bits and pieces.

 

 Add in the vanilla and maple syrup while blending, and the rest of the water, if you can.  My food processor couldn't handle that much liquid without making a HUGE mess, so I left a little bit out for the time being.






Get a cheesecloth (I used a flour sack cloth) and drape over a pitcher.  Pour the almond milk in.  This is when I added the rest of the water, right into the cloth!  Allow to drain into the pitcher.  Then grab that cloth, gather the top together, and wring out the rest of the liquid until all you have left is pulp, or "almond meal."

I spread out the almond meal from each batch on a cookie sheet, and baked it in the oven at 170 degrees for several hours, until it's all dried out.  Then you can food process it and bam!  You have expensive and fancy almond flour!  Or leave it more granular and Google up some recipes for it!  Yum!!

I feel like such a farmer, or chef after all this!  What a great feeling to be able to make milk for my little baby!  And know EXACTLY what's in it!  I just about put on my pioneer apron in celebration of this little moment.  I gave my little Bear a bottle full of fresh almond milk, and he drank it right up!