Almond Milk is wonderfully nutritious and is a perfect alternative for those with dairy allergies, but the store-bought version can be rather expensive. Here is a mouth-watering recipe for fabulous homemade Vanilla Almond Milk . . .
The Benefits of Almond Milk
I recently became aware of the benefits of drinking almond milk completely on accident… our teen son was prone to severe acne breakouts and it seemed just when he would start to get it under control, he’d have another major flare-up. To say we tried everything, including a dermatologist, is an understatement, at best.
One day a few weeks ago, we ran out of milk and I didn’t see any need to make a special trip to the store to buy any. Three days later, my son’s face was rapidly clearing and I asked him what he’d been doing/using that was so different, he said, “Nothing, I just haven’t had any milk in 3 days”.
With 7-10 days, his face was 80% cleared of acne. He had been tested by the dermatologist for allergies and they declared him “allergy-free” but apparently he’s sensitive to the high amounts of hormones that are in our milk supply. So we switched to Almond Milk, a great alternative that is free of hormones and chemicals and what an amazing difference it has made!
Soak the Almonds
You’ll notice in the recipe that we soak the almonds before using them. This is because almonds naturally contain an enzyme inhibitor called phytic acid.
In the wild, this would help the seed from sprouting until the right conditions have been met, but in our daily diet, what this does is prevent some of the vitamins and minerals from being properly absorbed.
In order to remove the phytic acid, almonds must be soaked, then drained and thoroughly rinsed. This allows Phytase to be released, which counteracts the phytic acid.
Unfortunately, it’s not the cheapest alternative on the market, so we decided to make our own for about 1/2 of the price.
Â
How to Make Your Own Almond Milk
You’ll Need:
3 cups raw almonds, soaked in water
8 cups water
2 Large Fresh Medjool Dates
1 whole vanilla bean* cut in half (or 1/2-1 tsp vanilla extract, depending on your taste preference)
Other:
*Additional Water for Soaking (about 6 cups or so)
Measure the almonds into a bowl and add about 6 cups of water, let it set overnight. Using a colander, drain the almonds, then rinse them thoroughly.
In your blender and half of the soaked almonds, half a vanilla bean, 1 large date and half of the water. Press the liquify button and process about 2 minutes, or until the almonds are finely pureed.
Pour the mixture through a nut milk bag or if you don’t have a nutmilk bag, line a colander with several layers of cheesecloth (about 5!) over a large bowl. Like this:
Strain it thoroughly, gather the ends of the cheesecloth together & gently squeeze out any remaining milk.
Then transfer the strained nut-milk into a clean jar. Note the tiny speckles of fresh vanilla!
Repeat with the remaining ingredients. When all is said and done you’ll have about 6 1/2 cups of fresh Delicious Healthy Almond Juice which will last up to 6 days in the fridge. We prefer to store our milk in glass jars with reCap easy pour spouts.
The remaining Almond Meal that is leftover can be used a number of ways:
- Dehydrated & Made into Almond Flour
- Honey Almond Scrub Spa Recipe
- Granola Bars
- Additional Fiber & Flavor in Oatmeal & Smoothies
- Mix it with suet for the birds
- Homemade Energy Bars
- Easy Almond Vanilla Soap
This also freezes well.
**Optional**- to make Homemade Vanilla Cinnamon Almond Milk add 1/2 tsp cinnamon to the above mixture (during the blending process you’d add 1/4 tsp each time)
Budget101 Budget Breakdown:
3 cups raw almonds – comes in a package of 9 cups for $6.88 = .76 per cup x 3 = $2.29
8 cups water = free
2 Large Fresh Medjool Dates – 1 8oz package = $1.96 = .24¢
1 whole vanilla bean* cut in half (or 1/2-1 tsp vanilla extract, depending on your taste preference)
This one can get rather expensive if you don’t have a decent source for vanilla beans, so the price is based on extract at .05 per tsp
We purchase our vanilla beans online at amazon, you can get 1/4 pound for around $14 with Prime Shipping(free) We specifically like the World Assortment which is 30 beans for $13  or 43¢ each.
The almonds can be found at Sam’s Club, BJ’s Wholesale, Trader Joes, Whole Foods (more expensive), or online at Amazon. Keep in mind that they swell considerably during the preparation so 3 cups of dried almonds go a long way.
On Purchasing Almonds
You can purchase 4 pounds of Raw, Natural Almonds on Amazon for $25. which is about $6.48 per Pound. If you use the “Subscribe & Save” feature, the savings is even more & it can be cancelled at ANY time (hint,hint).
One Pound of almonds is equal to approximately 3 1/4 cups
Total Cost to make your own Amazing Almond Milk:$2.58 = .04¢ per ounce compared with .08¢-.12¢ per ounce at the store – plus you have a wonderful amount of almond meal leftover to use in various recipes
question – so when i liquefy 1/2 of the almonds I would add 4 cups of water? Meaning that the six cups of water to soak the almonds in, not part of the 8 cups of water in the recipe.
Correct. The water for soaking is an estimation, I didn’t actually measure it, I just added enough water to cover the almonds by a couple of inches to give them room to swell during soaking.
oh yummy! thanks so much. i know i’m going to use this recipe a lot!
hugs,
wrinkley:beaverhug:
i would love to make my own almond milk, but i live in the middle of nowhere. any sub for the dates? i live by myself and could make a smaller amount than what i have to buy and waste.
You can just leave them out and use 1- 2 tsp of honey for a little sweetness. Most store bought almond milk has a sweetener added. Lately, I’ve also been blanching my almonds first too, I think it tastes smoother, but it really depends on what brand of almonds you start with too.
i make ours all the time and we never use dates.
they’re just added for natural sweetness, you can use honey or have it completely unsweetened too.
this sounds interesting. i cannot drink milk so buy almond milk at the store but never drink it fast enough. it would be great to be able to just make a few cups at a time.
thanks for the recipe
this looks wonderful. i will be using this often. thanks epona9992002
spending the summer in custer, sd. raw almonds are quite expensive here. do you know of an inexpensive online source?
You can get them for as little as $4.35 a pound on Amazon. That’s not super cheap, but it’s probably better than local prices this time of year.
i have often wondered if making your own is cheaper than the store brand, since almonds are rather expensive. was glad to find this article, and i’ll give it a try to see if i like it as well. unfortunately, i don’t like the unsweetened version of the store brand as well as the sweetened, but i have a whole bunch of honey that needs to be consumed.
i am just wondering how often do you buy almonds for this recipe?
We only buy nuts at certain times of the year when they are in season and then store them in glass mason jars with an oxygen packet. You’ll see them listed in the $50 weekly menu plans.
it is best to make your own almond milk! i went on a farm tour with the dept. of agriculture and one of our stops was a dairy processing plant.
they mostly handled cow milk but they also made rice, almond and soy milk. i watched as they did so and was shocked to see a very high amount of high fructose syrup being added. they added it to all the milk alternatives and it was explained to me that they no longer have to label that this has been added.
i went home and straight to the store and the almond milk they had there had been processed at that plant and no high fructose syrup was listed. i no longer trust any of our food. i make everything i can at home and grow and raise as much as i can.
i’m considering making my own almond milk for my husband. i think it would be a great treat for him to have fresh almond milk.
this sounds so simple. i have tried a few store bought brands, but i don’t like the price. i too have a son that consumes a ton of dairy and struggles with acne.
i wonder if i can convert him.
what is the calorie count for this? do you know how many calories are left behind in the pulp. the two reasons i prefer the store bought are that i think the calories are waaay lower (30/cup) and that I have found the home made stuff tends to separate when used in things like oatmeal.
I have also tried making pecan and cashew milks which I find taste way better than almond, but again, I don’t use these as the calories are so high.
i love this! my three year old son was recently in the hospital because of a severe belly ache, come to find out it was a severe gas bubble that got stuck. we decided to eliminate cow milk to see if that’s the cause.
thank you so much for posting this!
thanks for sharing !!
my daughter is breastfeeding her 4 months old baby and both were suffering bloating and colics until she found out it was caused by cow milk and dairy she was consuming.
She started drinking almond milk and giving to my 3 year old granddaughter too. No more digestive problems for them.
I will make a batch of almond milk and switch for good with my husband.
not sure this is cheaper considering the price of almonds (and i live smack in the middle of one of the largest almond producing areas in the us). may give it a try though just to compare.
i wonder, can this be frozen successfully?
i can’t wait to try this. we get 1/2 has much almond milk for the price of cow milk. My family loves that we switched over.
i’d like to give this a try. can it be substituted for cows milk in recipes?
will definitely try this out! i’ve always wanted to make my own almond milk :d
any ideas for other alterations? i love chocolate almond milk, sometimes my go-to snack when i am craving chocolate lol
Our family has been using the store bought (big box store 🙂 almond milk for over a year now. It happened that my daughter didn’t want dairy in her diet and started using almond milk. We ran out of cow milk one time and I didn’t want to go to the store.
So….lol….we started using my daughters almond milk and we have used almond milk since.
Recently, my son did ask me to get him some cow milk. So I did. He broke out too.
Now I know why.
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe! We love Medjool Dates.
Never, ever, EVER buy vanilla beans at your local grocery. Rip off! I use vanilla beans all the time and when I first went to buy one I noticed they wanted to charge me $10.00 for ONE..What?!?
No thank you! Go on Amazon and ebaya and do some searching. I currently buy vanilla beans for a near $0.50 EACH!
I buy them in packages of 50 for $25.99 with free shipping!
I have also used a dash of pure maple syrup instead of dates which I don’t like. It turns out great !!
What is the caloric value for 1 cup of almond milk?
Here’s how to get the Nutrition Data for ANY Recipe: https://www.budget101.com/recipes/4771-how-to-view-nutrition-data-on-any-recipe/