Almond Milk, The Grocery-Shopper's Favorite

By this point, I have been making my own milks long enough to know what I like and what I don't. Almond milk has sparked perhaps an unnecessary amount of rage in me. This is in part due to the fact that the almond milk you buy at the store is heavily processed, full of fillers and pretty devoid of natural nutrition. Too many people think it's so natural and healthy that they give it to their babies and toddlers instead of human milk. For the longest time, I wouldn't consider making almond milk because I was sure it would be as nasty as the almond milk I've bought at the store. I don't like it. Again, it's the carageenan getting my goat (or almond, as the case may be).

As it turns out, homemade almond milk is a perfectly acceptable drink. I prefer cashew milk, because the cashews are softer and blend smoother. But, if you love almonds and you can't get cashews for whatever reason, you are fine to make almond milk. Let's get started.

There seems to be a couple of different schools of thought about making your own almond milk. Some prefer the slivered almonds because they're cut in pieces and have the skins removed. Others prefer the whole almonds because it's more natural. I chose slivered because I thought I would have to strain less out at the end.

Take your cup of raw, slivered almonds and soak them overnight. If this was a video, there would be a time-lapse and then I would magically open the fridge and the almonds would be nice and soft. You, on the other hand, will have to wait awhile. Once they're soaked, drain and rinse them. Toss them into the blender and turn it to high.

Once you are developing a nice almond paste, add some water. Start with one cup and blend on high for a minute. Then, add the remaining three cups and blend on high for another two minutes. Run it through your strainer and store the milk in an airtight container in your fridge.

After blending, I noticed something interesting. The almond milk wasn't crunchy or fiber-y, like coconut milk is if you don't strain it. And actually, the first time I strained it, it pulled very little out. But, when I drank it, the texture was gritty and not at all to my liking. I strained it a second time, more slowly, with the same strainer, and pulled out about a half-cup of byproduct. The texture was far better the second time. But, if you were really determined to use all that you produce, and you didn't mind it being a little gritty or chewy, I suppose it would be fine.

Almond Milk
1 cup raw, slivered almonds (plus 1.5 cups water for soaking)
4 cups water
Soak almonds in a bowl of water for several hours. Drain and rinse almonds. Blend in blender until softened. Add one cup of water and blend for one minute. Add remaining water and blend on high for about two more minutes. Strain to desired consistency. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to one week.

Egg-Free, Casein-Free Brownie Batter Ice Cream

No t-shirts were harmed in the making of this dessert.

As I sit, writing this blog post, I am eating this amazing ice cream cone. Last week, while I was messing around and figuring out egg-free, Paleo brownies, I had an epiphany about brownie batter and ice cream. You see, I love ice cream made out of cake batter. But my husband, who has had food poisoning twice from undercooked eggs, does not want anything raw and eggy to cross his lips.

It dawned on me that if I could use my egg-free brownie batter to make a mixture for ice cream, it would solve the problem of raw eggs. Plus, it would give an extra recipe for those people out there who can't have eggs. As it turned out, this recipe is much easier to put together than the cashew dark chocolate ice cream I have made before. I don't think the other one is particularly difficult, of course. But when I've tried to explain it to people, they've shut down the minute I say "make a custard." You will see how simple this one is.

First thing is to get the milk ready. Put the two cups of cashew cream and the 2T coconut oil in the blender. Blend the two on high for a couple of minutes. This makes sure that the fat is fully incorporated and doesn't freeze into little pieces. It's not terrible when that happens, but the texture is slightly off-putting.

Once that's done, pour the cashew milk mixture and the ghee into a saucepan. Substitution: Of course you can use EVCO instead of ghee. That would make this recipe truly vegan. Warm over medium heat. Get the rest of the ingredients together in a mixing bowl. If you want it to taste more like milk chocolate than a deep, rich chocolate, use less cocoa powder. Then, you will slowly incorporate them into the warm cashew milk and fat mixture.

Whew, the hard part is over. Wasn't that exhausting? All you have to do now is put it into a heat-safe container, cover and stick in the fridge until the temperature of the mixture reaches 40 degrees or less. Easy tip: if you are impatient, like me, you can cool the mixture pretty quickly by whisking it in the bowl while said bowl is floating in a larger bowl of ice water. Just make sure that you don't get water into the mixture, or it will be wasted.

Once it's cool enough, go ahead and put it in the ice cream maker and follow the directions. This makes a little over a quart of ice cream. If you used regular sugar (or even possibly coconut sugar) instead of maple syrup, you may have just made the first dairy-free ice cream that did not cost more to make at home. By my count, I paid about $3.25 to make this at home. That's quite a deal.

Egg-Free, Casein-Free Chocolate Ice Cream

3/4 cup cocoa powder

1/8 cup tapioca starch

5/6 cup maple syrup (or 1 cup sugar)

1/3 cup ghee

2 cups cashew cream (1 cup cashews)

2T coconut oil

Melt the coconut oil in the microwave, just enough to warm it. Mix with the cashew cream and blend on high until completely incorporated. Mix first three ingredients together, set aside. Use less cocoa powder to make it more of a milk chocolate flavor than a dark chocolate flavor. In a saucepan, melt ghee (or more coconut oil) with the cashew cream/coconut oil mix. Once they get warm (not very hot), start whisking in the dry ingredients. Once they are completely incorporated and smooth, remove from heat. Transfer to a fridge-safe container. Cover and cool until mixture reaches 40 degrees. Prepare according to ice cream maker directions. Makes about 1.25 quarts.

Egg-Free, Paleo Brownies

OK, so the brownies I was making in the winter were a big hit. But, then I had this friend who was like, "Holly, my family cannot have eggs. What can you do for us?" And, I'll admit, going egg-free has given me pause. Dairy is easy to replace, I have found. Gluten isn't even that hard. But eggs? Eggs have been the final frontier. I am finding more and more that you can't just replace eggs with some kind of egg replacer willy-nilly, and expect the recipe to be great. A lot of times, making a recipe egg-free necessitates reconsidering the whole process.

Back to the brownies. My friend has a family full of chocolate fiends, and she just found out they can't have eggs anymore. She needed brownies, stat. And, this recipe came out as a result. I am using ghee, which makes these brownies casein-free but not fully dairy-free. Unlike my other recipe, I didn't use wet coconut fiber. And this time, I added some tapioca starch. This is because I used maple syrup instead of refined sugar. That makes this recipe technically Paleo.*

The recipe is actually pretty easy to put together. The trick is that you want to incorporate some of the dry ingredients into the fat over heat, which will help emulsify the mixture and make the rise easier in the oven (since you are not using eggs). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Start with your ghee (Substitution: EVCO works just fine here) and melt it on the stove in a saucepan with the milk. I used cashew milk for this, but honestly it's up to you. While you do this, mix half of the dry ingredients into the maple syrup and set aside.

Then, you mix the other half of the dry ingredients in with the warmed milk/ghee mixture. Once it has been fully incorporated, remove from heat and whisk the two mixtures together. Add chocolate chips, as desired. Prepare the cupcake tin by oiling the cups with ghee or coconut oil. Scoop the batter into the cups. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

That's it! It is nice to have some tasty desserts that accommodate the needs of a variety of people on elimination diets. I hope to add more in time.

*I have read much in the way of discussion about the Paleo diet and chocolate chips. While I buy that cocoa powder is technically Paleo, most commercially-available chocolate chips are going to have something in it that is not Paleo-friendly. It is not my job to make you stick to your diet. So if you think you can use your Paleo chocolate chips in these brownies, fine by me. If not, these brownies are absolutely delicious, with or without them.

Egg-Free, Paleo Brownies
1 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup tapioca starch
1/4 cup coconut flour

1/3 cup ghee
3/8 cup alternative milk

3/4 cup maple syrup
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp salt
Chocolate chips to taste

Heat up the ghee and milk in a saucepan. Mix in half of the first set of dry ingredients. Once incorporated, remove from heat. Pour all remaining ingredients into mixing bowl. Mix together, then mix with warm concoction. Once totally incorporated, scoop into cupcake tin. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes. Makes 9 brownies.

Rice Milk (Nut-Free, Flavor-Full)

As much as I like the nut milks I make on a regular basis, not everyone can drink nut milks. Whether you have an allergy, you just don’t like the flavor or you need to save some major bucks on your elimination diet, grain milks are often a reasonable choice. Although you could make milk from just about any grains you choose, the two most common are oats and rice. I covered oats in another recent blog post.

The approach to making oat milk and rice milk is very similar, but the result is quite different. Toasting the uncooked rice instead of boiling it eliminates the slimy texture you get from overcooking. But, with the oat milk, the sliminess came back after a day or two in the fridge. Not so with the rice milk.

Rice milk is a flavor that has been popular for quite some time. If you don’t agree, just drink some Horchata sometime. If you want to make the best Horchata, it’s best to start with rice milk. But, there is something you should know about rice milk. If you are making rice milk after enjoying a variety of homemade nut milks for awhile, you may be a bit surprised by the consistency. Rice milk, in my experience, is much thinner than the nut milks I usually make. So, if my cashew milk has the consistency of half-and-half, my rice milk is more like skim.

Let’s get started. For the rice milk, you need a cup of rice, a pan, water, a big measuring cup, a blender, fine mesh strainer and spoon. I did the research on the types of rice to choose, and couldn’t find a concrete recommendation for the length of the grain or the color of the grains (brown or white). So, I opted for the cheapest rice I could find. Start by dry-toasting the rice in the pan. It takes only a few minutes. Then, put the rice in a heat-safe cup or glass and submerge the rice with two cups of water. Cover the container and refrigerate overnight, or 12 hours.

In the morning, drain the rice and pour into the blender. If you have a powerful blender, you can start the blender right then. If not, add a cup of fresh water and start blending on high for a minute or two. Once you feel like you’ve crushed the rice pretty consistently, add the remaining three cups of water. Blend on high for 2-3 minutes. This is a very firm grain, especially uncooked. So, give the blender the time to crush the rice and saturate the water.

When you are done, just strain out the chewy bits with your fine mesh strainer and spoon. Pour into an airtight container and store in the fridge. If you want, add some cinnamon and maple syrup to give it a distinct Horchata flavor. Enjoy!

Rice Milk

1 cup rice
2 cups water (for soaking)
4 cups water (for making the milk)
 

Toast rice in a wide pan on medium heat until barely browned. Remove from heat and soak in two cups of water, covered in the fridge, overnight. Drain rice, then add to blender and blend on high for 30 seconds. Add one cup of water and blend on high for one minute. Add remaining water and blend on high for 1-2 minutes. Strain rice milk and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Oat Milk, The Milk For The Dairy-Free Cheapskate

Most of the time, when people decide to go dairy-free, it's not about the money. But, it doesn't take long before you start looking at your food budget and wondering what happened. If you were accustomed to buying conventional cow's milk at the grocery store, you may have suffered an extreme bout of sticker-shock when you realized that drinking dairy-free milk costs at least $6 a gallon, but often $8 or more.

Making your own milks from home usually cuts down on the price. But, it depends on the ingredient you use. I haven't been able to find almonds at a very reasonable price except when they are rarely on sale. I can usually get dried coconut and raw cashews at a rate that puts making it at home a more practical investment. But, grain milks are just plain cheap. And, oats are the cheapest. In fact, if you do not care if the oats are organic or certified gluten-free, you may get them for around $0.75/lb, which is a significant cost savings. One pound of oats will make a gallon or more of oat milk, which makes this recipe as inexpensive as $0.19 a quart.

Special Note:  If you need to be gluten-free, oats may not be the best choice for you. Oats do not naturally contain gluten. However, they are usually processed with other gluten-containing seeds and flours such as wheat, barley and rye. The proteins in oats and gluten are similar, and so many people who react to gluten also react to oats. If you know that you do not react to oats, but you are trying to avoid gluten, be sure to buy oats that are certified gluten-free.

There's something you need to know about grain-based milks, however. Many recipes suggest that you cook them on the stove, just as you would before you eat oatmeal. And yet, this is not necessarily the best idea. Both get pretty sticky or gooey once they are cooked, and oatmeal is especially problematic on this front.

While doing research for this, I concluded that the best way to prepare grain milks is by toasting them uncooked and then soaking them, instead of cooking them. It gets rid of a lot of the stickiness or sliminess you get in the end product.

Let's get started! For this recipe, you need a wide pan for toasting your oats, a glass container to soak the oats, your blender, measuring cup, fine mesh strainer, spoon and an airtight container to store the milk. First, toast the oats in the wide pan on medium heat for a few minutes. You will know it is ready when they start to turn brown and take on a nutty aroma. Remove from heat and put in a glass container. Put two cups of water in with the oats, cover them and refrigerate them for 12 hours or so.

Once the oats are done soaking, drain the water. Dump the oats into the blender and start blending. Once nothing is moving anymore, add a cup of water (cold if you have a high-powered blender, hot if you don't) and resume blending for a minute or so on high. Then, add the remainder of the water and blend on high for another minute or two.

Pour the oat milk into a four-cup measure through your fine mesh strainer. Use the spoon to press out the excess water from the leftover oat fiber. Then, pour your oat milk into your airtight container and store it in the fridge.

You may notice that the oat milk will take on a slightly gooey texture as the days go on. I am not a fan of this. But, if you are looking for a drink to thicken your tea, or you want something to pour over your cereal, oat milk is a perfectly acceptable replacement to plain cow's milk. It's not my favorite alternative milk, but it is so inexpensive that it deserves special mention. Happy Cooking!

Oat Milk
1 cup oats
2 cups water (for soaking)
4 cups water (for making the milk)

Toast oats in a wide pan on medium heat until barely browned. Remove from heat and soak in two cups of water, covered in the fridge, overnight. Drain oats, then add to blender and blend on high for 30 seconds. Add one cup of water and blend on high for one minute. Add remaining water and blend on high for 1-2 minutes. Strain oat milk and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Cashew Milk (So Easy, It's Nuts!)

I have been so busy with, you know, life, that I only just found the time to get together my recipe for cashew milk. As it turns out, cashew milk is stupidly easy. I like using cashew milk because it is rich and thick, without a lot of sugar. And, I definitely prefer homemade over the store-bought version, which is basically just giving you water cashews have been soaked in. Plus a bunch of other stuff they add to make it taste more complete. Tasty! Or, not so tasty.

Let's get started! You will need a cup of raw cashews, a bowl, something to cover the bowl, a blender, a jar to store the milk in, and a strainer if you prefer. That's really it.

Start by pouring the cashews into the bowl, and covering the cashews with water. Cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge for several hours, preferably overnight.

The next morning, drain the water from the bowl and rinse the cashews with fresh water. Then, put the cashews into the blender. Blend on high for 30 seconds or so, or until nothing is moving. It will look like this:

Not the most appealing thing ever, but stick with me. Now you are going to add a cup of water, and blend on high for about a minute. You should be getting some great blend action at this point. Once it looks fairly incorporated, add the remaining three cups of water. Blend on high for about two minutes. At the end, it will look like this:

You can see that it is amazingly rich and creamy. I always strain my cashew milk, because I'm worried there will be some hard piece that never blended. That hasn't been the case so far, but I do it anyway.

Unlike my coconut milk, there is no byproduct from cashew milk. On the downside, that means there's nothing left over that you could use for something else. On the upside, you get more cashew milk. One cup of raw, soaked cashews, plus four cups of water usually makes about five cups of cashew milk. These jars don't hold five cups, so I usually reserve a cup left over to add to my tea or something.

And that's it! Cashew milk with only one ingredient, that took you about 5-10 minutes of active preparation to make. If you can find raw cashews at a bargain somewhere, you can save quite a bit of money making it yourself. And, you can avoid all the garbage they put into the store-bought stuff.

Cashew Milk
1 cup raw cashews (plus 1.5 cups water for soaking)
4 cups water
Soak cashews in a bowl of water for several hours. Drain and rinse cashews. Blend in blender until softened. Add one cup of water and blend for one minute. Add remaining water and blend on high for about two more minutes. Strain if desired. Store in the fridge for up to a week.

Cashew Dark Chocolate Ice Cream (Dairy-Free, Refined Sugar-Free)

Ah, ice cream. It is delicious, easy to serve and can be a great treat, whatever the season. When you decide for whatever reason that you need to avoid consuming dairy, you wonder if you'll be able to eat ice cream again. The good news is that you usually have a lot of options at the grocery store for dairy-free frozen treats. The bad news is that a lot of them suck. Oh, you can stuff yourself full of ice cream made from soy... Except you can't. If you need to avoid dairy, you probably need to avoid soy as well. That soy is also almost certainly GMO. And that doesn't even address the elephant in the room, which is that it tastes horrible. So, you think, I'll just buy some ice "cream" based on coconut milk or almond milk. Until you spot the carageenan as an ingredient. And don't even look at the price tag.

If you want to bypass all that aggravation, you can eat ice cream made with cashew milk. Cashew milk and coconut milk are similar in price to make. But where products made with coconut milk will always taste at least vaguely of coconut, cashews provide a more blank canvas to add other flavors. Years ago, I tried some insanely-expensive chocolate ice cream ($8/cup) made with cashew milk. It was delicious, and inspired me recently to convert this original recipe of mine to dairy-free. You will be pleased to discover it won't break the bank for you, either.

Now here's the thing about making your own ice cream: you need to get the fat content right. Any fool with an ice cream maker can tell you how easy it is to just throw any kind of milk and sweetener into the ice cream bowl and freeze it. In practice, it is not that simple. Ice cream requires fat. That's why it's called ice "cream" and not ice "milk." Sure, you can buy low-fat and even fat-free ice cream at the grocery store. But they use carageenan as a stabilizer, and they have equipment that almost certainly works better than yours. You need fat to make it work. In my experience, the best ice cream comes out when you make the custard using half and half and add heavy whipping cream to it. We aren't using dairy today, but we will work to get the fat content to about the same for both. Let's start with the cashew milk.

Start with a bowl of cashews. You'll need one cup of cashews for about every three cups of milk you need. For regular cashew milk, you'd add four cups of water. Today you will only add two, since you need to make this extra thick to get the fat content right. Soak the cashews overnight, covered, in the fridge. The next day, strain them, rinse them and pour them in the blender.

Blend the heck out of those cashews. Then add about a half-cup of water and blend again. Then add the other 1.5 cups and blend again on high for a couple of minutes. You can strain it with a fine strainer, but I maybe had a half-teaspoon of excess after straining. If you don't mind the occasional tiny piece of cashew in it, I don't think you need to. I ended up with three cups. I reserved one for the custard, one for adding to the mixture later and one to use for something else at another time.

Let's talk about fat content now. Regular half and half has 24 grams of fat in one cup. This double-thick cashew milk has somewhere between 18-26 grams. It's not exact but it worked perfectly well. Heavy whipping cream has 40-48 grams of fat in it. The original recipe called for one cup of heavy cream to be added shortly before freezing. For the second cup of cashew milk mentioned above, I recommend adding 1-2T of extra-virgin coconut oil and blending it together, to boost the fat content. Once you've done that, put that milk covered in the fridge to cool. Let's make the custard now.

Let's start with the chocolate mixture. This is 6T cocoa powder and 6T pure maple syrup (don't you dare use Mrs. Butterworth's), in a four-cup bowl or larger. If you ever decide to increase the recipe, just remember that these two ingredients increase at a 1:1 ratio. Once you've got it mixed together somewhat like frosting, mix in your three egg yolks. Set that aside.

Pour the first cup of cashew milk into a small saucepan. Turn on the heat to medium-high. You want to get the temperature to about 180 degrees. It will not take long at all.

Once it has hit 170-180degF, turn the heat down to medium-low. Take one ladle-full of the cashew milk and pour it slowly into the chocolate mixture bowl, whisking continuously. This allows the temperature of the egg yolks to rise slowly enough that they do not harden (like scrambled eggs, which would be a horrible texture for this). Once you have mixed it thoroughly in the bowl, slowly scrape the contents of the bowl into the saucepan, whisking continuously. Return the heat to medium-high and whisk continuously until the custard begins bubbling. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Once the custard has cooled, I like to pour it back into the bowl I was using to make the chocolate mixture. But since it had raw eggs in it, I usually wash it first. Cover the custard and put it in the fridge to cool. Once both the custard and the cashew milk/coconut oil mixture have reached a temperature below 40degF, whisk them together and return them to the fridge until you are ready to make the ice cream (which you should do within an hour of this last task).

It's pretty easy from here. Scrape the ice cream mixture into the freezing bowl, and turn on the ice cream maker.

When I made this, it took almost no time to freeze. It was surprisingly quick, around 10-15 minutes. If you double the recipe, it may take a little longer. It's hard to wait around while the custard cools in the fridge, but you're better off if you give it that time to get down to 35 or even 30 degrees. It freezes that much easier.

It's done! And it is so tasty. We couldn't tell that it didn't have dairy in it, because the fat gave it such a smooth texture. This recipe makes about 3-3.5 cups of ice cream, so you may want to double it if you want more leftovers.

Cashew Milk Chocolate Ice Cream
Cashew Milk
1 cup raw cashew pieces
2 cups water
Soak cashews covered overnight in the fridge. Rinse and strain. Blend in blender with water until completely smooth. Divide into three one-cup portions.

Cashew "Whipping Cream"
Return one cup of the cashew milk to blender with 1-2T of extra-virgin coconut oil. Blend until completely incorporated. Cool covered in the fridge.

Chocolate Custard
6T maple syrup
6T cocoa powder
3 egg yolks
Whisk ingredients together in four-cup or larger bowl. Put one cup of cashew milk into small saucepan, on medium-high heat. When temperature reaches 180degF, turn heat to medium-low. Pour one ladle-full into chocolate mixture, whisking continuously. Scrape contents of bowl into saucepan, whisking continuously. Return heat to medium-high until custard begins bubbling. Cool, cover and refrigerate until <40degF. Whisk together with cashew milk/coconut oil mixture and return to refrigerator. Pour ice cream mixture into ice cream maker and freeze according to instructions.

Makes 3-3.5 cups ice cream.