How do you make your almond milk? Do you need special equipment? I'd love the recipe.
Thanks,
I have one recipe in my blog, but here's the basics:
Soak raw almonds 8-12 hours (10-12 hours is good if you want to peel them: just pinch them between your fingers while they're still wet, and the skins come off).
Rinse and drain well.
In a blender (I use a Vitamix, so it gets things very smooth, but a regular blender might work, especially if you soak the almonds long enough, and if you add 1/2 the water at a time, then blend, then add more) put 1 cup soaked almonds to 3 cups water (you can also add Brazil nuts--no soaking required). Add 1-2 large medjool date(s), a pinch of salt, and some vanilla extract (this is all mostly to taste). Blend until smooth. Adjust flavors. (you can also use other sweeteners instead of the dates. And almond milk--especially with peeled almonds--is pretty sweet on its own. so you might want to taste it first without the sweetener to see how you like it. Vanilla extract also adds sweetness as well as flavor).
Strain through cheesecloth or (prefered) a nut-milk bag (save the pulp to make cookies).
I've made almond, almond-sesame-Brazil, almond-Brazil, macadamia (VERY rich!) and almond-hazel nut milks so far. You can also use cashews or other seeds besides sesame (I regularly make hemp milk). For seeds, soak 1-2 hours (cashews nuts, macadamia nuts, pine nuts and hemp seeds need no soaking, unless you want to soften them. The soaking is to remove enzyme inhibitors and to get the nuts/seeds to begin to germinate). Don't soak sunnies or sesame seeds too long, or they get bitter.
This is a live, raw food, so will not last the way processed, "dead" foods will. 3 days in the fridge is about it. It will also separate, so you'll need to shake it if it's been sitting for any length of time).
A quick and not-quite-as-nutritious (from the standpoint of enyzme inhibitors) way to make nut milks, which works even with not-very-powerful blenders: instead of nuts, use some nut butter.
HTH!
(I'm going home right now to have some of the almond-Brazil nut milk I made this morning, along with some of the cookies I made from the pulp!)