Homemade Almond Milk

My sister just recently posted that Almond Milk is one of the number one healthiest milks.  Lucky for her, I just perfected it.  I have to be honest here, this recipe was a bit of a plague to me.  I tried this one time and I liked it ok but to be honest, it tasted like extremely skim milk with too much of an almond taste. This began my many months of testing and research to find the right recipe.  My recipe needed to do 3 things: Save me money, taste thick like milk, and not taste like I am eating straight almonds. Luckily, I finally found all three.  After much trial and error, I have finally found the right recipe!

 I am going to begin by giving the basic recipe then below I will give tips to remember.

Basic Recipe

½ cup Almonds

4 cups Water

1 tbsp Maple Syrup

¾ tsp Vanilla Extract

½ tsp Guar Gum

• Soak almonds in water for at least 4-6 hour. (Update: The longer you let them sit, the creamier they are. I soak mine in the fridge for a couple days if I can.)

• Drain and put in blender with water and process until smooth.

• Put in strainer and strain out almond pulp.

• Mix milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and guar gum together in a jar.  Immediately shake it up and it’s ready to serve.

• Shake before serving each time.

Total cost is around 95 cents to make a quart.  I purchased the guar gum at the local health food store or it can be ordered online.  I purchased the rest of the ingredients at Walmart, Aldis, and Sam’s Club.

Tips to Remember:

IMPORTANT: I can’t stress this one enough!  Freeze your almonds that you do not use in almond milk.  I tested and tested this recipe and finally found that the bitter taste was my almonds.  They had went sour and did not taste good at all in my milk!  So, I keep my bag in the freezer. 

Use Whole Natural Almonds.  Do not use roasted or anything like that.  When soaking them, you will know once they are ready because they will be double in size.  I prefer to soak mine overnight. 

To drain them:  if you have cheesecloth, a lot of recipes recommend using this.  I already had 2 strainers so that is what I use.  I first strain it through the big strainer and then through the little strainer.

When adding the ingredients, add the guar gum last.  I let it sit once for about 10 minutes and it became a thick ball.

How is my recipe different than all the other recipes on the internet?  

 I use less almonds (others call for ¾ to 1 cup) plus I use Guar Gum.  I have yet to find a recipe that includes this.  Guar Gum is an all natural thickening agent that has 8 times the thickening power as cornstarch.

Customize it to your taste:

• If you like a more almond taste, use ¾ cup almonds. 
• If you want your drink to taste thicker, then use ¾ tsp guar gum. 
• If you want your milk to taste more like skim milk, use ¼ tsp guar gum.

What do I do with all the leftover almond pulp?

Use it! I add it to my oatmeal or my pancake recipe or you put it in with a cookie recipe.  These are all great ways to use it so you don't have to throw it away.

Pancake Recipe:

1 cup flour
1 cup almond milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
Whatever almond pulp you have leftover.

Mix all of these together and start cooking!  These pancakes freeze really good so you can throw on in the microwave and head out the door.  When I make almond milk for this, I don't even add the guar gum, extract, or syrup.  I use just the straight almond milk since I am just cooking with it.

Stingily Yours,

The Stingy Sister