Nut Milk

[Mama Mangia]

Nut Milk

Yield: 2 cups

This can be used to replace milk in recipes that taste odd when made with commercial soy or rice milks. Use this for custards and puddings, since soy milk can take on a nutty taste when used in these. It is fine to drink, also. The fat content depends upon the type and quantity of nuts used. More nuts in proportion to water gives a richer milk. This is somewhere between whole milk and half-and-half in richness.

1 cup + approx. two tabls. almonds (blanched*) or raw cashews
------- use less for a less rich milk (1/2 cup = skim milk?)
2 1/2 cups water

Put nuts and water in a blender. Blend approximately 2 minutes (more or less, depends on your blender. The nuts should be pulverized.) Strain the resulting stuff to remove the nut chunks. (I use a mesh coffee filter [ex. Melitta gold filter] and a rubber spatula to force the liquid through. Paper coffee filters are too fine, and kitchen seives are too coarse.) This makes 2 cups, approximately.

*blanching the almonds (dipping in hot water for 30 seconds then removing the brown skins) results in a much prettier milk. The little brown flecks don't filter out so well.