Yogurt is one of the best low fat and low calorie food to have for breakfast or just as a snack. Although conventionally yogurt is made from cow’s milk, other types of yogurt like soy yogurt, coconut milk yogurt and almond milk yogurt are also gaining popularity. If you are interested in knowing how to make yogurt with almond milk, then read this article…
Yogurt has emerged as one of the most popular food among health conscious people. Yogurt is made by fermenting milk and it has a thick custard like consistency. It is generally made with cow’s, milk but other milk types like sheep’s milk, goat’s milk and camel’s milk can be used for making yogurt. Non dairy based yogurt are also quite popular and they are made with soy milk, coconut milk and milk extracted from certain nuts.
Almond milk yogurt is made with milk that is extracted from almonds. This is one of the best tasting yogurt and is ideal for vegans and people who do not care for the taste of yogurt made with animal milk. It is possible to make almond milk yogurt at home and though it is a time-consuming process, the actual effort that you need to put in preparing it is very less. Homemade almond milk yogurt tastes better than store-bought ones and is less expensive too.
There are two ways of making almond milk yogurt. One is making almond milk yogurt with ready-made almond milk bought from a health store or supermarket, and the other is making it from scratch by first extracting the milk from the almonds. If you are doing the latter, then it is recommended that you soak your almond nuts overnight so that they are soft and you do not have much trouble and extracting the liquid (milk) from it. If you want to know how to make almond milk yogurt from scratch, then follow the step by step instructions given below.
Homemade Almond Milk Yogurt Recipe
Things required
- 1½ cup whole almonds
- 2 tablespoons agave nectar
- 3 cups water
- ½ teaspoon non dairy yogurt starter
- Cheesecloth
Method
- To make almond milk yogurt, first you need to extract the almond milk from the nuts. To do this, you need to soak the almonds in a bowl of water, overnight. Make sure that you use sufficient amount of water to soak the almonds and all the nuts are completely submerged in water.
- In the morning, drain the water from the bowl and place the almonds in a blender. Add the water and agave nectar and process in the blender for 2 – 3 minutes, until you have a thin pulpy consistency. If your blender is not big enough to process all the almonds at the same time, then do it in two or three batches.
- Once you have processed the almond nuts in the blender, place a big bowl over your kitchen counter and place a cheesecloth over the bowl.
- Pour the almond nut mixture over the cheesecloth and gently pull the four corners of the cheesecloth. Allow the almond milk to collect into the bowl below.
- Once you have strained all the almond milk in this way, heat the almond milk in a thick bottomed saucepan.
- Allow the almond milk to cool and place a candy thermometer in it to check its temperature. When the temperature reaches 105 degree F, add the non dairy based yogurt starter to the almond milk and mix thoroughly. For every liter of almond milk you need to use ½ teaspoon of the yogurt starter.
- Place the almond milk into a yogurt maker and let it ferment for 6 – 8 hours. Once the almond milk yogurt is set, you can strain it again to get thicker yogurt.
This is how you make almond milk yogurt at home. If you do not have a yogurt maker, then there is no need to despair. You can make thick almond milk yogurt by using an oven, and all you need to do is place the almond milk which has been mixed with yogurt starter in a preheated warm oven for 7 – 9 hours with the power off. Instead of using agave nectar, you can use some other sweetening agent like maple syrup or honey. Now that you know how to make yogurt from almond milk at home, you can stir up a batch of delicious yogurt and enjoy it creamy texture and delicious flavor.
