How to Make Almond Milk (& Flour)

You'll always see almonds soaking in a bowl at my mom's house. Before I started making things from scratch myself, I'd go over to her house and look at the almonds soaking in a bowl, preparing themselves for their transformation to milk, and think she was such a hippie.Little did I know, that a couple years later, I'd be following in her footsteps. At the time, making almond milk seemed like such a daunting process, and I was even slightly intimidated by it. Turns out, it's actually one of the easiest things to start making and stop buying.Almond milk, like coconut milk, can be substituted for milk in most recipes. After milking the tiny almond nipples, you can dry the pulp out and make almond flour! (Just kidding almonds don't have nipples...but you can dry the pulp out to make flour.) Okay, ready, steady, let's make almond milk! 

Ingredients

1 cup blanched almonds4 cups filtered water, plus more for soaking 

How it's Made

Put almonds in a small bowl and cover with water to soak overnight. The next day, drain, transfer to blender and add 4 cups of filtered water. Blend for 4 minutes and drain using a fine sieve, nut-bag, or cheese-cloth--really try to squeeze out as much as you can (the drier the left-over pulp, the better for making flour later.)My current method of straining the almond and coconut milk is the following contraption, intended for making jellies.Save the pulp! Freeze it for later, use it in baking, or dry it out and make almond flour. I usually store it in a container in the freezer until I have a lot, and then I make a batch of flour. 

How to Make Almond Flour

Preheat the oven to as low as it goes. Squeeze as much liquid out as you can. Spread the flour out the best you can, breaking up the big clumps, on a cookie sheet. Put the tray in the oven and leave it to dry out for about 2-3 hours. Keep in mind, you're not baking/cooking the almond flour, just drying it out. You can test how its done by rubbing it between your fingers. If the feel moist at all, then out it back in the oven to dry out some more. You want to make sure it's fully dry to that it doesn't mold while being stored.Once dried, transfer to a dry blender and blend for a few seconds to break down the remaining clumps...and that's it! Just  tip: almond flour absorbs moisture slightly more the regular flour, so you may need to add more liquid if using this in your baking.