Ingredients:
- 1l of water
- 2 table spoons of sunflower oil
- 100g of hazelnuts (soaked in cold water over night)
- 1 table spoon of unrefined cane sugar
- a pinch of salt
Instructions:
- Throw everything in your blender. Blend for a minute or so.
- Get a mesh strainer and a bowl or pitcher. Pour blended water/hazelnut mix through the mesh strainer into the pitcher. Use a spoon to move around the hazelnut bits in the strainer, so they don't clog the strainer.
- Almost done! This is the first filtration. If you're already happy with the milk now, you're done. I took a sip and decided there were still too many hazelnut bits in there. So I moved to a finer filtration.
- Get another pitcher (or rinse the one that goes on the blender thing).
- Add a clean dish cloth (or a cheese cloth) and fasten it, so it does not fall into the pitcher once you add the milk. I just took a tupper ware mixing bowl with a splash guard.
- Pour your hazelnut milk into the cloth, and, again, make sure the hazelnut bits don't clog up the cloth, so just stirr with a spoon every now and then.
- Once it looks as if nothing gets through the cloth anymore, bundle the cloth and press out any excess liquid.
- DONE! :)
I think this picture nicely illustrates how the milk got a bit lighter in color and that there are fewer (=almost none) bits of hazelnuts in it. It has got a nice texture and a good hazelnutty taste without being too overbearing.
What to do with the leftovers...
After filtering your milk, you'll have leftover hazelnut mush. I'll just bake a bread and add it to the dough, using a little less flour. Nothing wasted! :)
Enjoy!
This might also be possible with other nuts/seeds. I'll try making cashew or almond milk some time soon and will update the recipe if it works just as well. I assume it will.
Just make sure you don't try to make chia or flaxseed milk. When those seeds come in contact with water, they extract some sort of jelly. Don't ask me for biological or smart explanation for this, because my theoretical kitchen chemistry skills are somewhat limited. :)
Oh and the best thing ever:
