Soft flavors, subtle sweetness, and a texture close to cow’s milk, a spelt and almond milk that is dairy-free without feeling like you are missing out.
Milk of any kind is not among the foods I consume often, and since Arne is on a vegan diet – decisions are not yet made if it will be for a while or for good – our need for cow’s milk is, well, small. Meaning: there’s mostly none of it on the fridge these days.
However, it’s not that easy to find a (purchased) plant-based milk that we both can agree on in any given culinary situation. Lately however, I found our perfect flexitarian coffee-table match at the organic shop, a drink made with spelt and almond. Soft flavors, subtle sweetness, and a texture close to cow’s milk. Of course, I had been curious if I could make it at home myself – there’s so much fun in DIY and it tastes great, isn’t it. Well, mostly. First attempt with spelt grains soaked overnight had been a mess – no joy and no taste at all. Spelt sprouts were meant to be a success at my second try, however the spelt failed to shoot even on the third day. I lacked the patience to give it another try, and when also cooked spelt didn’t perform well – tasted like water soup – I was close to despair. One last chance: soft spelt flakes* and a touch of date because nearly everything tastes better with dates somehow. Bingo. Cheers!
* Non-native speaker’s mess, probably… You might know this as speltmeal, porridge spelt or rolled spelt – that’s at least what I conclude from the existence of oatmeal, rolled oats etc.
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- Yield: 0 appr. 750 ml or 25 fluid oz 1x
Ingredients
- 80 g 2.8 ounces spelt flakes
- 80 g 2.8 ounces almonds, raw
- 2 dates (pitted and cut into halves)
- 1 tsp. sunflower oil
- 1 tbsp. maple syrup
- one pinch of each ground vanilla and cinnamon*
- one pinch of sea-salt
Instructions
- Soak almonds overnight and drain. Put into a blender with spelt flakes and dates and add water until the total amount of filling will be 1.250 ml. Mix at high speed for about a minute.
- Put a colander into a wide dish and cover with a clean kitchen towel or cheese cloth. Pour the liquid in and sift it through. Take the ends of the towel or the cloth and twist together, allowing the rest of liquid to pass through. The more you twist, the more liquid will get through and the “thicker” it will be (due to the spelt flakes that dissolve a bit in the liquid).
- Clean the blender and pour in the liquid. Add all remaining ingredients and mix well again for about a minute. Fill into a lovely bottle and shake well before using. Will keep fresh for about 3 days (according to my experience). You can have it just like this, but you can also use it for cooking and baking or for hot chocolate. If you like, take in other sorts of flakes (soft ones work best) or use nuts instead of almonds. You can also use the pulp that remains after sifting as an addition to cake dough or pancake batter.
Notes
* For a well-rounded flavor that isn’t dominated by either spice; if you like, take in more of it to get a vanilla & cinnamon milk, won’t be that flexible in use but will taste great as well for sure.
- Category: Milk, Virgin
