Raw almond milk turned to paste

[gberardi]

So I finally went out and bought myself some raw almonds. I soaked them in water overnight, drained them, then put them in my blender.

I never activated raw almonds before. I didn't know that they expand. So it turned out that I couldn't put as much as water as I needed. "Needed" meaning that I found one of a hundred recipes that said "1 part almonds to 4 parts water", and I could only put in about 2.5 parts water in. I also put in half a banana.

So I set the blender to liquify, and I had no idea how long to do it for. Somewhere I read 30 seconds, and other places just assume you'll know when it is ready.

Well, it came out frothy and I started to pour it through the strainer into the pitcher, but it seems that it wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. It just drips in, and I thought that maybe the problem was that it was all froth.

No, it turned out that the almond bits were blocking.

After about 45 minutes of pouring and pressing the mixture with a spoon, I finally had a pitcher of "milk", as well as a big bowl of almond paste.

I had my first bowl of cereal since giving up dairy, and it wasn't too bad. But something tells me that all I have in that pitcher is almond/banana-flavored water.

With all of the paste I have left over, can you tell if I did something wrong? Maybe my blender isn't liquifying as well as it should? Should I even have paste left over? Until today, I didn't even know paste would be a by-product, and I only found one website talk about using it as a topping or dehydrating it into cookies (which means I need to get a dehydrater).

Can I do much with the paste? I have it in the fridge for now, but I don't know how long it might last or if I will even end up using it.

Thanks in advance for your help. This is attempt number one at making raw almond milk, and as far as I know, it was a success. It just seemed like a lot more work than I expected from directions like "stick in blender, liquify, then pour through strainer".

[rossio]

Hello

Heh - it sounds like you had a pretty similar experience to me the first time I tried (the ever expanding almonds!), but when I had more of a water to almond ratio the straining was a lot easier.

I also found it was quicker with muslin material as you could kinda bunch it all together and sqeeze out the liquid.

As for the paste, I would not leave it too long before consuming as it will start to go funny quite quickly - probably after a day in the fridge.

I had not heard the dehydrate into cookies idea before...sounds good!

Anyway, good luck and keep perservering! Let us know how you get on with the next batch!

Ross

[gberardi]

Originally Posted by rossio

Heh - it sounds like you had a pretty similar experience to me the first time I tried (the ever expanding almonds!), but when I had more of a water to almond ratio the straining was a lot easier.

I also found it was quicker with muslin material as you could kinda bunch it all together and sqeeze out the liquid.

Yeah, I found pressing down with a spoon through the strainer was slow going, and I may look into getting something like muslin.

Otherwise, I guess what I have is actually raw almond milk, which is good news. B-)

As for the paste, I would not leave it too long before consuming as it will start to go funny quite quickly - probably after a day in the fridge.

Whew! Thanks for that advice! I probably would have kept it for a week otherwise. Well, unless the "funny" is easily evident by sight or smell, that is.

Someone suggested I try multigrain milk, which I have never heard of, so that is something I will likely get to in the next couple of months once I do some research on it. I'll be sure to post about that experience as well. B-)

[rossio]

Originally Posted by gberardi

Well, unless the "funny" is easily evident by sight or smell, that is.

Heh - yep, it kind of is a bit like that...