More to Learn

My enthusiasm to try new things and my willingness to share my experiences can often give the impression that I am an expert when in reality, I am not. Trying to utilize the limited knowledge I have access to is how I learn and grow. I love it when I am thinking, "I got this." and then something happens to show me that with a correction or two, it can be better.

I experienced this yesterday with my almond milk-making.

In the discussion of my almond milk-making with a friend over the weekend she asked how I remove the skins from the almonds before making the milk. I was completely blank. Skins? Remove?

I explained that my recipe doesn't call for skin-removal and that I had observed that during the soaking process, the skin on the nut tends to "dissolve". Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? It was true that the dark brown skin of the almond looked significantly lighter after soaking and I assumed the soaking process was taking care of the skin issue. If the skins had to be manually removed, wouldn't my recipe book say so?

My friend talked about some of the short-cut ways she had learned how to remove the skins and I forgot all about our conversation until yesterday when I was rinsing my newly-soaked nuts. I picked one up and with a little pressure of two fingers a perfectly bald nut literally slipped out of the cellephane-like skin. Wow!

What would my nut milk taste like if I started with skin-less nuts? I proceeded to remove the skins from the entire batch of nuts. It was easy but tedious. Could I do this every 3-4 days? Would this extra step be an obstacle to making nut milk a part of my lifestyle? I had to find out if this was a worthwhile use of time or if blending the nuts with the skins on was a valuable short-cut.

My efforts were rewarded. Not only did the nuts yeild more milk, but it was whiter and creamier in texture. It tasted sweeter and fuller too. Even in squeezing the nut meat I noticed more softness and pliability. On the downside, in the final squeezing efforts I noticed a fine film of nut meat accumulating on my hands which meant the bag wasn't able to filter it as perfectly as before. This was a minor issue, however because it was not noticeable in the milk.

My family witnessed my curiosity and experiment and was equally willing to voice their opinions. Shawn was hoping that it would remove the bitter taste (I never noticed one), Trysten says it still has an almond aftertaste (there is more taste, but I think that's a good thing), and Paris was hoping that it would taste less watery(bingo!).

I don't know if this will change the outcome of our family's two-week almond milk trial but this new knowledge and application could not have come at a better time. Thanks to all my friends who share their wisdom with me in my journey!