How to make almond milk: easy, healthy, good!

[scorrete in basso per la versione in italiano]

Do you know that you can actually make your own veggie drinks at home? Soy, oat or almond milks are quite expensive to buy and in my opinion nothing beats the homemade, as you can also choose exactly what to put into them.

I don’t trust industrial soy products too much, so I prefer to make my own almond milk. It’s very easy, all you need is:

-300 gr. almonds, skin on

-2-3 bitter almonds (you can do it without if you can’t find them, you will just get a milder flavour)

-1 l. hot water

-2-3 dates to sweeten – you can also use agave syrup, coconut sugar or even regular sugar, if that’s what you want. Of course, you can also omit this and don’t sweeten it at all 😉

Ok so, to peel the almond is the only time consuming thing of all the process, but peeled almonds don’t have a lot of flavour, so I really recommend you peel them yourself: if you boil them in water for a few minutes the skin will be very simple to remove.

Once your almonds are peeled, place them in a blender with enough water and mix finely. Now add the liter of hot water and let it set for a little bit…a couple of hours would be good. Then pass through a very fine strainer, a clean cloth or a coffee filter.

If you are in a rush, you can speed up the process by passing the pulp through the strainer, then mix it one more time and strain again.

Keep in the fridge for a few days. You can also freeze it.

Enjoy!

 

❤

Sapete che è facilissimo preparare il latte vegetale in casa?

Potete realizzarlo con avena, soia, nocciole, oppure come ho fatto io, con le mandorle!

Vi occorrono soltanto:

-300 gr. mandorle non pelate

-2 o 3 mandorle amare (se non le avete potete comunque realizzare il latte, ma otterrete un sapore più delicato!)

-1 litro di acqua bollente

-2 o 3 datteri per zuccherare (in alternativa potete usare sciroppo d’agave, zucchero di cocco o anche zucchero normale, se preferite. Oppure potete anche scegliere di non zuccherarlo!)

L’unico passaggio che richiede un po’ di tempo in tutto il processo è sbucciare le mandorle. Vi consiglio però di non comprarle già pelate perchè hanno pochissimo sapore..vi basterà sbollentare le mandorle in acqua per pochi minuti perchè sia veramente facile togliere la pelle.

Una volta spellate, frullatele con sufficiente acqua, aggiungete l’acqua bollente e lasciate macerare per un paio d’ore. Successivamente filtrare con un passino molto fine, un panno da cucina oppure un filtro da caffè americano.

Se avete fretta o volete evitare di aspettare 2 ore,  dopo aver filtrato il latte la prima volta, frullate nuovamente la polpa e filtrate di nuovo.

Conservate in frigo per qualche giorno, e all’occorrenza congelate senza problemi.

Buon divertimento! 🙂

Home made yogurt for dummies!

Thank’s to this lovely italian blog called Fotogrammi di zucchero I was finally able to make DELICIOUS  yogurt at home, without any equipment other than a pot and a container. Don’t you think that’s awesome? I do! 🙂

Ok so here is what you need to do:

Take 3 TABLESPOONS of GREEK YOGURT at room temperature and put them in an air tight container of over a liter of capacity. The fresher the yogurt, the more milk enzymes it will contain.

Boil 1 LITER of FULL FAT MILK and then let it cool to room temperature – if you have a thermometer, make sure it’s below 38 degrees Celsius, if you don’t have  thermometer, just let it cool down completely.

Once the milk is cold, turn your oven on at the lowest temperature, generally around 50 degrees Celsius, just for a few minutes, then turn it off and leave only the light on.

Take a few tablespoons of the milk, and mix them with the yogurt, just to make it more liquid and smooth. Then, add the rest of the milk and this time don’t mix; just close the airtight container and place it in the oven (with the light on). Now, forget about it over night, or for 10/12 hours (ok, let’s say I slept a lot that night!). Congratulations, you have just made a great yogurt!

Let it just set in the fridge and then enjoy it! It is not very acidic and it’s probably the first time that I actually enjoyed  yogurt on its own. It’s SO not acidic, that I ate it with kiwis and loved it!

 

In the original post,  An describes it as a “greek style” yogurt, while mine came out more like a regular yogurt, but that has to do with the fat content of the milk, which apparently here in Sweden is less fatty than in Italy. Either way, I really loved it….

Just remember to save 3 tablespoons of it for the next one you will make!

Enjoy!

❤

Fare lo yogurt  in casa senza solo con una pentola e un contenitore a chiusura ermetica…si può!

Grazie a Fotogrammi di zucchero ce l’ho fatta anche io!

Il post di An è veramente chiarissimo, e le sue foto come sempre bellissime, quindi vi lascio in ottime mani consigliandovi di leggerlo direttamente sul suo blog!

L’ unica considerazione che vorrei fare è che la consistenza finale dello yogurt dipenderà dalla percentuale di grassi contenuti nel latte che avete deciso di usare! Io ho ottenuto uno yogurt cremoso e non molto denso (ma altrettanto buono! ) perchè qui in Svezia il latte intero ha il 3% di materia grassa mentre in Italia ne ha un minimo del 3,5%.

Provatelo è delizioso!