Almond Milk + Ice Cream

I decided to go back to eating vegetarian. I'm also considering going vegan, but I'm going to work my way there, slowly substituting out animal products in my diet. One of the easiest ingredients to substitute is milk. In the past I used soy milk for vegan baking, but I never tried almond milk. Talking to a friend about this, he said, "Almond milk? How do you even make that?!"A quick Google search took me this page: I was so impressed with the simplicity of the process, that I decided at once to try it myself.

Almond Milk Ingredients:

1 c almonds (I used raw, unsalted)

4 c water

cheesecloth

Let the almonds soak in water for 6 hours. Drain the water. Put the almonds and 4 c clean water in a blender. (Depending on the consistency milk you like, use between 3-6 c water.) At this point I realized not all the water would fit into my blender, so I first put only 2 c in and blended.

Next strain the mixture through cheesecloth into a bowl. While doing this you will notice a paste of chopped nuts left in the bottom of the blender. Before pouring this through the cloth, I addd the remaining 2 c water, and blended again. When pouring the new mixture out, the paste was almost gone.

Press the liquid through the cheesecloth. You will have some nut remains left. These you can either toss or toast in the oven, using them in other recipes as you see fit. (Breadcrumbs, perhaps?)

After straining once, pour the mixture through cheesecloth again, without pressing all the liquid through. You have just made almond milk!

This almond milk will keep for about 4-5 days in the fridge, longer if in a sterilized jar.

It's time to start cooking with almond milk!

First, I wanted to make ice cream. I found 3 recipes online in this blog. I decided to make the "Rich Chocolate and Banana Almond Milk Ice Cream". I made it a bit differently than described in the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 c almond milk

2 ripe bananas

2 T sugar

2 heaping T cocoa powder

**1/2 t almond extract ---an addition I made

*This requires an ice cream maker*

The recipe suggested using the microwave to heat the milk, sugar, and cocoa together, then blend with the bananas. I thought these steps were a bit unnecessary, and mixed it the way I usually make ice cream: put everything in a bowl and mix. I mashed the banana first, then whisked everything together.

I also used this nice bitter hot chocolate cocoa we have. It comes in a crumb consistency. I added this later during the mixing process. The result was a almond banana ice cream with chocolate chips. I'm not sure if blending everything together would change the texture, but this came out like a sorbet. The result was good. I think next time I will try the blender to see if the taste is even better.