That was much quicker than I expected (I must be organized this morning – lol). Be sure to follow the tips as they will make your life much easier – almond milk is a little tricky to get off the trays because it becomes very brittle and somewhat sharp when dried. I use a Magic Bullet or a coffee grinder dedicated to spices and dried foods for making the powder. In other words… don't use a coffee grinder that you use to grind coffee or you'll have flavor transfer.
Almond Milk Powder
From Another Fork in the Trail © 2011 Laurie Ann March
Dehydration Time: 15–18 hours
Makes 2 servings
The writing of this book came with a quest to find instant almond milk powder. Of course, you can make almond milk with ground almonds, but it takes about 24 hours and then you have to deal with the pulp. My husband, Bryan, was off to Ohio and I asked him to look in some of the American grocery stores to see if such a product existed south of our border. I already knew that it was going to be a fruitless search because the internet hadn’t turned up anything either. When he came up empty handed he said to me, “You have food dehydrators; why don’t you just make your own?” So I did—right after I gave my forehead a smack for not seeing the obvious.
2 cups almond milk, sweetened or unsweetened
At Home
Pour 2 cups of almond milk on a solid dehydrator tray. Dehydrate at 135°F for 15 to 18 hours or until the milk is completely dry and brittle. Remove it from the trays and grind into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or spice grinder. Put the powder in a ziplock freezer bag.
At Camp
Squish the bag of powder with your fingertips to break up any lumps. To make one cup of almond milk add 1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons to your cup and add enough water to bring the mixture up to 1 cup or about 7/8 cup water. Stir and let hydrate for a few minutes. Stir again before drinking.
Tips
It is very important to use a solid tray with a lip designed for fruit leather. If you don’t have one you can use plastic wrap or good-quality parchment paper. If you are using parchment paper you need to make a lip on it so that the almond milk won’t flow off the sheet.
Please note that almond milk is dried until brittle and can be a little fussy to get off the tray. I usually put my trays in the freezer for 20 minutes or so and then it comes off easier. It will come off in tiny little pieces. I use a plastic scraper to get some of the pieces up. Sometimes, if I remember, I use plastic wrap over the solid tray to make removal easier.
I prefer to use sweetened almond milk if we are going to be drinking it straight and unsweetened for use in place of milk in hot chocolate and baking. The sweetened milk will be slightly sticky.
While this recipe is for 1 tray or 2 servings of almond milk, I recommend drying several trays at a time. Besides drying the unsweetened vanilla almond milk, I often dry sweetened chocolate almond milk and sweetened vanilla almond milk, so we have variety.
© Beartooth Media Group Inc.
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