How to milk an almond : Almond Milk Tutorial
Everyone knows you can milk a cow, a goat, a sheep, and even a coconut. Luckily for all of us dairy free folks, you can also milk nuts. Well you can’t physically “milk” them, but you can extract the liquid from the nuts.
Almond milk is a fantastic alternative to cow’s milk. It’s low in calories and high in protein. It takes a little getting used to, but once you make the switch from regular milk you won’t want to go back.
While it’s readily available on most grocery store’s shelves, the packaged almond milk has a lot of additives, stabilizers, and preservatives. It’s slightly time consuming, but extremely beneficial to make your own almond milk at home. And it’s easy. Here’s how:
What you need:
1 pound raw almonds
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
11 cups filtered water
1 tablespoon honey or 1 medjool date (optional)
Juicer (I use the Hamilton Beach Juicer from Amazon)
Glass jar
Mesh strainer
Ziploc bag
To Prepare:
1. Cover 1 pound of almonds in 4 cups of water with 1/8 teaspoon salt in a glass bowl. Soak in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours (36 max). Drain the water half way through and add 4 cups fresh water for the remaining time.
2. Drain and rinse the almonds. They will look about twice the size that they were before soaking.
3. Line the pulp bin of your juicer with a ziploc bag. This will help with the cleanup, and is also a great way to save all of the pulp for almond crackers (recipe to come!).
4. Combine 2 cups of water with the almonds, then pour through your juicer in batches.
5. Gather the pulp from the ziploc and combine it with another cup of water. Stir the mixture, and then run it through the juicer one more time (we don’t want to waste any precious milk!).
7. Stir in the remaining 1/8 teaspoon sea salt.
8. Pour through a fine mesh strainer and store in a covered glass container for a week.
Now the rest is up to you! If you like your almond milk a little thinner, then add a little more water, or strain through cheesecloth. If you want it a little sweeter for baking or ice cream, add some honey or juice in a couple of dates.
I use almond milk in most of my recipes. Click HERE to see them all!
Oh and beware of milk mustaches 
Shared this week on Allergy-Free Wednesdays and Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays
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I’m such a fan of your site, that I gave you a Liebster Award! Chickity check it out, and thanks for posting all of these awesome recipes. Blogs like yours truly make a diff for folks like me. http://thescdexperiment.com/2011/12/31/i-got-a-liebster-award-wooohooooo/
How long does the almond milk keep? Can you freeze some for later use? Thanks so much!
It will keep in the fridge for about a week. I haven’t frozen it, but I don’t see why not!
I freeze my almond milk in 1-2 cup batches and it works great. It seperates a little, but I shake it up and use it for baking and smoothies with no problem.
Oh my gosh, this is brilliant! I just decided I was going to try to make almond milk, but didn’t think of using the juicer!!! Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I have always avoided buying almond milk because it is so overly engineered. This looks doable. Comment/question: I have a manual juicer. Can I use it to make milk? Thanks.
I’m not sure Patty. I takes quite a bit of energy to juice them. I think a blender would be better and then squeeze it through a cheesecloth
That is a great idea! I may blend first, then squeeze in hand juicer and use a cheesecloth. Will let you know how it turns out. Thanks so much. BTW, I made a tart with your almond-coconut crust, and it was wonderful! Thanks again.
I just got a second hand juicer and I totally want to try this. My current recipe uses a blender. Pinning this.
This is fantastic information to have as we drink/use almond milk daily. Thank you for sharing this great tutorial at Allergy-Free Wednesdays last week! We hope to see you again this week.
~AFW Hostesses
Quick question before I try this: How much milk does this recipe make?
Thanks for asking! You should get about 3 cups out of it depending on the juicer you use and how thick you want to make it.
I’m very new to the specific carbohydrate diet – currently on day 5 so I’m trying to learn as much as I can. I’ve been researching sites with instructions on how to make almond milk – thank you for putting this on your site. I do have a few questions…you mention storing the almond milk in a glass container. Is there a specific reason for this? Is a plastic container acceptable? Also, the pulp that is leftover – is this the same as the almond flour/almond meal that can be purchased for baking, etc.? I noticed a few other sites recommended peeling the almonds after soaking. It seems you don’t peel yours. Is there a difference in the outcome depending on whether or not you peel? Thank you!
Hi Amy – I don’t use much plastic in my kitchen for health reasons, but it will work just fine. The pulp is not the same as the flour, unless you dehydrate it first and then grind it up really finely, but it will have the skins in it so you won’t get as good of results baking with it as you will with blanched almond flour. Check out my Almond Flour page at the top of my home page. Some take the skins off because they find them a little bitter but that’s too much work for me! I don’t mind the taste.
I love your take on making Almond Milk.
mine is
Soaked almonds [never thought to soak them in salted water though... will have to try that]
I freeze the soaked almonds i don’t use.
1/2cup of almonds
2cups water
dash of cinnamon
pinch of salt
Blend in my VitaMix and strain through a Nut Milk bag. take me less then 5 mins. obviously except for soaking the almonds…lol
forgot my 1 medjool date pitted
Can almond milk or the left over mash be used to make almond cheese or yogurt?
This looks so easy! How many cups is 1 pound of almonds?