Almond Milk

I've wanted to give almond milk a go for a while but the cost of almonds mostly put me off, but after a trip to Unicorn in Manchester I thought I'd pick up a bag and give it a go.

The vast majority of milk recipes I find  seem to be American but usefully almond milk all of the recipes seemed to follow the rule of 1 part almonds to 2 part water, so I just used a cup to measure everything out.

• 1 cup of raw whole almonds
• 2 cups of water
• 2 dates, pitted
• piece of muslin or cheesecloth

Leave the almonds to soak for at least 6 hours in a covered bowl of water. For best results use filtered water rather than straight out of the tap.

Once soaked drain the almonds discarding the water.

Put the soaked almonds, water and dates in a blender and start on a low speed to break up the almonds and then move to a higher speed. Blend for a few minutes until smooth.

Over a container pour the contents of the blender into the cheesecloth and form into a bag, squeezing all of the milk out. It will take a while to get all of the milk out. You may need to filter the milk a few times depending on the quality of the cloth you're using.

Notes: When I first started the blender on a low speed it sounded like I had put rocks in it and gave my blender very suspicious looks. This is just the whole almonds being initially broken up so don't panic. Also I'm trying to find a use for the bits of almond that are left over after straining and will post any uses I find.

If you're interested in why soaking is such an amazing and essential thing check out this article.