While Angela love the convenience of store-bought almond milk, sometimes it’s fun to make it yourself!
This recipe allows you to control the amount of sweetness and infuse flavours as well as play around with the thickness. It’s my go-to when we’re craving homemade dairy-free milk.
Plus, it’s super simple to make, requiring just 2 ingredients, 10 minutes, and a blender!
Nut Milk Basics
Here’s the short and sweet on making nut milk at home.
- Buy raw nuts.
- Soak the nuts overnight.
- Drain and rinse the soaked nuts.
- Blend the nuts with fresh water.
- Strain the nut milk.
- Sweeten, if desired.
- Chill, drink, enjoy.
- Wash, rinse, repeat once a week for nut milk happiness.
The procedure is unchanged by the nuts of your choice, but here’s some helpful information on which nuts to use.
- Always choose raw nuts. Not only do they last longer, but they also take much better to soaking and grinding and impart a light, clean flavour.
- Make sure the nuts are fresh and of the best quality you can afford. Rancid nuts make for rancid nut milk, and since nut milk involves very minimal processing and just two ingredients, buy the best quality you can afford.
- Avoid skins where possible. I’d never suggested that you should peel almonds or pecans, but when making peanut or hazelnut milk, you can remove their skins by soaking and rubbing them gently between clean kitchen towels. This makes for a less chalky texture and more flavour in the finished milk.
Blending and Straining Nut Milk
Post-soaking, drain and rinse your soaked nuts. Then add them to a blender with fresh water for blending. The blender really is the best tool for this job, but a food processor works too. Nut milk from a blender is just a bit creamier and sweeter.
After blending, I suggest straining for the most milk-like, drinkable nut milk. Some folks prefer to leave their nut milk unstrained, especially those with high-powered blenders, but note that unstrained milk will separate more in the fridge and will need to be mixed again before serving.
Alternative for nut milk bag?
Nut milk bags are popular among nut-milk making fans, but they aren’t required for straining. You can use a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth as an easy alternative. You can also use a clean tea towel (something thin with a loose weave like linen works best). A reader even suggested that a clean pair of pantyhose works well in a pinch.
Cinnamon Walnut Milk
Plain nut milk may be boring sometimes, thus we like to add some flavours and sweetener to it to improve the flavour. In this case, we use pitted dates, cardamom and cinnamon for the walnut milk. You can also add sweeteners such as honey, sugar, agave syrup, or maple syrup. However, we prefer to extract the sweetness from natural food, in this case, dates.
xoxo, Joe
How We Make Our Nutmilk – Beginner’s Guide
Ingredients
1 cup raw, unsalted walnut or any raw nuts without skins
2 cups water, plus more for soaking
Sweeteners, such as honey, sugar, agave syrup, or maple syrup (optional)
Methods
- Soak the nuts: Place the nuts in a medium bowl. Cover with about 1 inch of water. Cover the bowl with a cloth and let sit overnight at room temperature or for up to 2 days in the refrigerator. The nuts will plump as they absorb water and should feel a little squishy if you pinch them. The longer the nuts soak, the creamier the milk will be.
- Drain and rinse the nuts: Drain the nuts through a fine-mesh strainer or colander, then rinse them thoroughly under cool running water.
- Combine the cashews and water in a blender: Place the nuts in a blender (or a food processor) and add the 2 cups of water.
- Blend on high speed: Pulse the blender a few times to break up the nuts, then blend continuously on high speed for 3 minutes. The nuts should be broken down into a very fine meal, and the water should be white and opaque. (If using a food processor, process for 4 minutes total, pausing to scrape down the sides halfway through.)
- Strain out the nut meal: Line the fine-mesh strainer or colander with either an opened nut bag or 2 layers of cheesecloth and set over a measuring cup (or bowl if you don’t have one big enough). Pour the nut mixture through the strainer. Gather the nut bag or cheesecloth around the nut meal and twist close. Squeeze and press with clean hands to extract as much nut milk as possible. You should get about 2 cups.
- Sweeten to taste: Taste the nut milk, and if a sweeter drink is desired, add sweetener to taste.
- Refrigerate the nut milk: Store the nut milk in sealed containers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Save the nut meal for another use.
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