Almond Crumble

Dedicated readers and faithful family members may remember that a long time ago, I made almond milk.

Recently, I have started making it again, as Julian has decided to cut dairy out of his diet (he is fairly sure he is mildly lactose intolerant). 

I have simplified the recipe for almond milk even further:

1. SOAK: 1 cup of natural almonds overnight in plenty of water
2. BLEND: Drain, rinse, and blend in fresh water (a few cups)
3. STRAIN: Though a muslin cloth (a clean hankie works perfectly), add water to make volume anywhere between 1 to 2 litres

Easy peasy!

The only problem is that making almond milk at least once a week leaves me with lots of almond meal. As in, mountain of meal.

I know there are lots of recipes for using almond meal all over the internet, but my almond meal is quite coarse (a stick blender only gets so far). While I think it would still work for the various recipes, I have another issue: lots of these recipes call for ingredients that my budget frowns upon. Glares, even.

So, here is a quick, easy and versatile recipe:

ALMOND CRUMBLE!

Now, first things first: after making the almond milk, I usually toast the almond meal a little to dry it out. I try to get it fairly close to its original dry weight (1 cup of almonds is 150grams - after soaking though, it can be close to 300grams). I recommend NOT skipping this step. Also, it smells nice.

Now that you have your lightly toasted almond meal, we are ready to begin making our almond crumble!

Gather together these ingredients, bearing in mind that this is more a guideline rather than a strict recipe where things MUST be certain amounts:

• almond meal (approx 150g/1 cup)
• desiccated coconut (approx 70g/0.5 cup)
• brown sugar (approx 40-70g depending on sweetness desired - 0.3 t0 0.5 cup)
• butter (approx 70grams - I like a decent amount, as I "taste test")
• Other indredients such as finely chopped walnuts, or spices such a cinnamon

Stick all the ingredients in a bowl and use your fingers to rub in the butter. Have numerous samples! Yum! When the butter is all rubbed in, the consistency should resemble course breadcrumbs.

Now that you have made the basic crumble, there are various uses for it. So far I have used it as a topping for apple crumble and for apricot crumble...

... just bear in mind that in tends to burn rather easily, so keep an eye on it, and perhaps cover it with foil for part of the baking time.

I have also used it as the filling for butterscotch spirals - seriously good! Make a batch of scone dough*, roll it into a rectangle, spread with creamed brown sugar and butter, top with crumble mixture, roll up, slice, place in ring tin and back in hot oven.

*I use a basic scone dough recipe from the Central Cookery Book (a Tasmanian classic). This recipe looks similar, though add in a teaspoon of sugar for sweet scones (or just put in a pinch of salt). A lot of scone recipes use far too much sugar. 

Any other ideas how this crumble could be used or adapted? Leave a comment below so I can try it!

And follow me on pinterest - I repin lots of creative things :D

I made Almond Milk

Well, I can honestly say I never thought I'd make almond milk. Everything changed when I read this post about a sleeping potion late last night.

I followed links from that post to this post which has a basic recipe for almond milk.

I was inspired. I happened to have almonds (which is actually quite amazing). So I immersed a cup of almonds in water and left them to soak overnight.

I slept in, so they soaked for a very, very long time.

Early this afternoon, I drained and rinsed the almonds, added them to 4 cups of cold water (adding a dash of salt and a teaspoon of vanilla extract) and blended them up until it was as smooth as I could get it.

I lined my sifter with muslin (doubled over), and put it over a bowl. I poured the mixture into the strainer, and delighted as completely smooth almond milk filled the bowl, leaving all the pulp in the strainer. 

Then I took pictures and wrote this post.

Does anyone else make their almond milk? I didn't realise how easy it was!

ETA: I forgot to say what I thought of it! Oops!

My husband says it reminds him a lot of soy milk. It's strange because it's the mouth-feel is of water, but it looks like milk and it tastes like almonds. I'm wondering about other methods of making it and if they will make a creamier product.

I think I could learn to really love it.