There is no shortage of nut milk tutorials out there.  There are so many that I almost thought about skipping it as part of my DIY series.  I didn’t think that I could really add much to what you can already find.  Then I remembered the first time that I made my own almond milk and I realized that I did have something to add.

I was really excited to make my own almond milk since I always buy it.  I thought this would be perfect because I could save money and control all the things that went into my milk.  I followed the recipe and all the instructions exactly and poured out a glass and eagerly took a big sip.

And promptly spit it back out.

Instead of the creamy delicious drink I was expecting it tasted like dirty water.  Not the most appetizing thing.  I tried to figure out what I did wrong.  Maybe I used bad almonds? Did it matter that I used an old food processor instead of a fancy Vitamix? Did I not use good water?

I tried again, this time with brand new almonds, a fancy Vitamix, and cold filtered water.  I still got dirty water almond milk.  I tried tweaking every part of making the almond milk, using less water and more almonds, blending for a long time, anything I could think of to try and make the almond milk work.  Then by accident I ran out of the cheesecloth I was using to strain the almond milk and had to use a regular mesh strainer.  I thought I would have another bad batch, but I ended up with the creamy and delicious milk I had been looking for.

I tried it this way again and got the same result.  By not completely straining out all the blended almond pieces, I was able to recreate the same taste and texture as store bought almond milk.  Give this a try and start making your own milk instead of buying. Oh and P.S. you don’t need the fancy Vitamix…but it doesn’t hurt!

Here is my DIY almond milk with a slight tweak in technique.

DIY Almond Milk 

You will need a food processor/blender and a regular mesh strainer. You can use a nut milk bag or cheesecloth, but you might end up with the dirty almond water.

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 3 cups filtered water
•  optional: 1 tsp vanilla, 3-4 pitted dates to make it sweeter (I like it plain)

1. Place soaked almonds into a blender or food processor and pulse a few times to break up the almonds a little.
2. Add in the 3 cups of water.  Blend for a few minutes until the almonds are completely broken down.  If you have a high powered blender this will only take a minute.  Other blenders and food processors will need a little more time.
3. Place the mesh strainer over a large bowl and pour the milk over the strainer.  You might need to help push the water through the strainer with a spatula.  It’s ok if some of the almond pulp makes it through the strainer, in fact, that’s what you want!
4. Transfer the strained milk into a container and keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.  Keep the pulp and dry it out to use for other baking needs.