Won the battle of making great tasting almond milk with just the right consistency and flavor that I can use for tea. Trying to phase out soy milk now as I am in the process of figuring out its effect on some health related issues I've been having lately. I swear, tea and hot chocolate taste more than a hundred times better with almond milk than with dairy milk.
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Great! I'm currently making almond milk by grinding 1 cup of almonds with 4 cups of water. Have you landed on a different ratio/combination that tastes better with tea? Would love to know! :)
Hey Neeraja, Unfortunately I just did an estimation of the ratio. Didn't note down exactly. My main concern has been with the technique so far, rather than the ratio, which generally only varies the creaminess of the product. But I'll report back the next time I find out.
I have tried making raw nut milk as described in several website, and have tried with and without skin, with and without soaking the almonds.
But it turned out that the best product came from blanching the almonds, taking the skins off, then using my soymilk maker (it also makes nut milks) instead of a regular blender- and this makes a difference because it heats it as it makes the milk. I also added a few spoons of brown sugar and vanilla beans. The only problem was that the soymilk maker didn't handle the vanilla beans very well. They were getting caught in the filter, so I had to give the whole thing another whirl in a regular blender. So I think from next time I will use vanilla extract instead and then it should be ok.
I'll report back on the ratio.
What do you do with the almond meal that's left over? I have several tricks up my sleeve by now. :-) The one good thing about it is it's a lot easier to use up than the soy extract (okara) left from making soymilk. So another plus for almond milk.
BTW, if you havent' tried it, Whole Foods 365 brand organic vanilla almond milk is awesome. And I checked the ingredient list, everything was benign, it seems, I had a friend's mom who's a doctor look at it for me to confirm. But my homemade vanilla almond milk is comparable, or in fact, a tad better. The one thing you don't get in homemade milk is the calcium and vit d fortification you get in some of the store-bought brands. The brand I mentioned has both.
And the Whole Foods almond milk tastes great for tea and hot chocolate as well.
The way I make the tea with almond milk is, I mix equals quantities or water and almond milk, heat the mixture, then put a teabag in. Comes out perfect.
Sumi, thank you so much for your detailed and helpful response! Ah, I've been dodging the purchase of a soymilk/nut maker, which is why I was hoping you had figured out a better ratio or something :). I blanch the almonds and remove the skin as well, but with the debates on the potential nutrients in the skin, I'm also using the browinsh-pink water in which the almonds are blanched, just to appease myself of the possibility that any water-soluble nutrients are in the water. I also add a couple tablespoons of maple syrup and some vanilla extract. It turns out yummy, but the milk separates after a couple of days and looks curdled - which is odd. It smells fine and tastes fine, and works great in oatmeal, smoothies etc. but the texture is off in beverages. I tried skipping the vanilla extract (because I suspected that the alcohol in the extract was causing the reaction), and it didn't make a big difference - perhaps it's the maple syrup. Anyway, I no longer add it to tea. I will try preparing tea the way you mention, I never though of it before! Btw, I'm not a vegan, but I have been trying hard to incorporate substitutes for milk, when possible!
Reg the almond meal, I must confess that I find it labor-intensive to work on drying it and then using it! I saved the almond meal once and then gave up after that. I tried using almond meal in baking, cereal and smoothies, and they were all good, but my laziness has gotten the the better of me, so these days I am not straining the meal. I rationalize that I'm consuming all the "good" stuff" in one medium :). I add the ground almond milk + meal to cook oatmeal and grind smoothies, and they taste great!
Thanks for recommending Whole Foods 365 brand almond milk! Unfortunately, Buffalo doesn't have Whole Foods :(, so for now, my choices are sort of limited.
Hey Neeraja, I think retaining the skins and not straining it would make it much less homogeneous, so that might be causing it to separate (in tea) as well.
I don't dry the almond meal, I can imagine that that would be more work added to the drill of straining, etc. I use the almond meal in baking, but also mix it into the dough when I make Rotis and they turn out perfectly fine. Doesn't affect the taste, and I am happy my family is consuming the nutritious stuff.
I also thought about losing nutrition from the skins by throwing them away. And I was about to use the water I'd soaked the almonds in too! Looks like you think like me. :) But I didn't do it cause to me the form of the product is very important, I mean I think of it as a substitute for regular milk, so want it to be really smooth, white etc. It also makes a difference what you're using it for, I suppose. It should be fine for oatmeal and smoothies, as you say, but for tea I think something smooth and milk-like is better. For the skins, I convinced myself that once I start composting regularly (which I've been planning to do) at least they'll be of some use. :)
I'll report back on the ratio next time.
In the meanwhile try steeping the tea directly in the almond milk as I described earlier. With the homemade milk, if I let the tea stand for a bit then it separates just a little bit, but if I keep taking sips it's fine.
Hope it works out, if not you can try removing the almond skins + straining + boiling the milk. :)
Adding the meal to roti dough is a great idea!! Thanks a lot for sharing. Can't wait to try it out. Does the meal stay good for a few days if refrigerated? I'm guessing it should...
Drying the meal slowly in the oven was the cumbersome part. With your tip, I will surely strain the meal the next time!
We've been adding the almond-skins (and even strained tea leaves) to our composting bin. Guess we do think alike!
Yeah, in my experience the almond meal (even when wet) stays good for surprisingly long in the fridge. I've kept it for 10 days or so. It might stay even longer. If there's too much to get through in a few days, I also freeze it...
Sumi, I have been having green tea lately, instead of regular chai. That would completely do away with the need for milk and still give all the benefits of small amount natural caffeine, etc. Saves me time too. Have you tried it as part of your routine?
Hey Aps,
I have considered green tea but somehow very hard for me. I don't like the flavor/taste of it. BTW I have many updates- in my researching and experimenting with veganism, I have learned many things over hte past many months and to summarize, I am not vegan now. I'll blog in detail about it. I have yogurt and cheese and ocasionally things containing milk too. And now, I am also back to having coffee- with almond milk! Got to figure out what I'll do in India trips since almond milk won't be available. In a nutshell, I decided to include dairy for B-12- heard scary stories first hand from a girl who was vegan and had severe B-12 deficiency to the point of confusion, nervous disorders etc and she had to take a course of B-12 shots! That + probiotics was the reason I decided to include yogurt and cheese.
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