Making Almond Milk with a Hurom Juicer

I was at lunch with some friends and someone mentioned they made fresh almond milk with their Vitamix. The process sounded a little like when I tried to "juice" with a blender; blend, strain, squeeze excess water out. It sounded time consuming and a little messy. I thought about my Hurom juicer and the recipe that came with it for almond corn milk and had two fleeting thoughts; I wished it explained just almond milk and why would anyone go to the trouble when you can get almond milk from Whole Foods for $1.99? My curiosity got the best of me and I found myself at the store buying bulk almonds.

I watched several videos on how to make almond milk and read several things on the internet on how to do it. It appeared to be simple enough; soak, juice, drink. But is it REALLY that simple? Yes, it IS that simple!

Here is one of the better videos that describes how to do it with a Hurom.

I followed everything he did except peeling the almonds. The skin on my almonds seemed so thin it wouldn't come off. I tried and I had to scrap each almond. Too annoying for me. I figured with the juicer you probably didn't need to worry about it so I chanced it and left the skins on.

Almonds that have been soaking over night.

After I soaked the almonds I rinsed them and put them in 4 cups of cold water. I scooped out the almonds and water and put them in the Hurom juicer. It is a bit of a juggling act. You have to turn the juicer on before you pour the water and almonds in, otherwise the water just runs through. But the instructions on the juicer say to NOT run the juicer without food in it and being a rule/instruction follower, this was playing a bit of havoc in my brain. I worked it out though. :)

The process is so quick it is ridiculous. The most time consuming part of the whole experience was waiting for the almonds to soak. Less than a minute later...almond milk.

Almond Milk!

I ended up with a liter of almond milk, which means the almonds eked out .226 of a cup. (1 liter = 4.2267.... cups)

I wouldn't say this is a way to save money. The Whole Foods almond milk is 32 oz for $1.99. My almond milk made just slightly more than that but cost $2.74 for the almonds. The taste however far out weights any cost factor, it is GOOD! Plus I saw some posts where people had used more than 4 cups with 1 cup of almonds, making it definitely cheaper than buying store bought.

Here is what is left, almond pulp. I have heard you can do stuff with this, use it to bake breads and such. There again...sounds like too much work. I just put it in the compost. I'd be happy to use it if I had a specific recipe but when I stray from instructions, I tend to end up with terrible tasting food.

What was left

I added some vanilla to it and poured myself a glass, OMG...it was so good! I immediately made some coffee.

A few things I learned. 

1. People (info on the internet) say you should strain it. The Hurom does leave a small amount of particles in the milk. I do mean SMALL! I strained mine and there was almost nothing at the bottom of the strainer. If you don't like tiny bits of things in your milk though, straining it would be good.

2. It separates so shake it before using. I don't know what my almond milk from Whole Foods looks like, it comes in a carton and I just shake, open and pour. I suspect because it is so processed it doesn't separate quite as much as fresh juiced almond milk. Fresh almond milk though looks a bit like day old green juice where the food separates from the water so it looks actually kind of gross. Just shake it up and it will look like almond milk again.(see pics below)

3. In coffee you will see little white things floating around, don't worry, it is almond. I've tried several kinds of store bought almond milk and some don't mix well with coffee, they seem to curdle or leave bits of white at the top of the coffee, kind of like when cream goes bad or you use really old powder cream, it just won't dissolve. For fresh almond milk, this is just part of the almond, tiny bits. You could blend it (in a blender or magic bullet) with the coffee to break it up more but I just stirred it well and drank it. As long as I don't vomit profusely later...I'm good with almond bits in my coffee. But presentation wise, it could use some work.

Almond milk that separated pretty quick after I put it in the refrigerator.

Mixed almond milk.