This was a really fun experiment. I was reading “On Food and Cooking” by Harod McGee (thanks for the gift, Ariel!) and found these tantalizing words: “Thanks to the tendency of the nut protiens to coagulate, cooks can thicken nut milks with acid into the equivalent of yogurt, and cook them into a cross between a pudding and custard.” There was also an old medieval recipe-
“Take almond milk, and boil it, and when it is boiled take it from the fire, and sprinkle on a little vinegar. Then spread it on a cloth, and cast sugar on it, and when it is cold gather it together and leche [slice] it in dishes, and serve it forth.”
I started by blanching and skinning the almonds. I used 1 1/2 cups of almonds. It’s kind of a pain to get all the skin off. I’m sure there’s a trick, but I just squeezed each almond out.
I blended them in my food processor with about half the water (I used a total of about 4 cups) until it was totally blended and added the rest of the water. I strained it through a kitchen towel and squeezed out all the liquid.
Obviously this is just a nice thick almond milk recipe. I don’t think this recipe will work with store bought almond milk because there just aren’t that many almonds in it.
Then I boiled it for about 45 min or an hour, I think. I also added a little lemon juice. I cooled it, added a touch of vanilla, and whisked in some sugar. Sure enough, it thickened up! To thicken it more I baked it in a ceramic dish. After that cooled I put it under the broiler with some extra sugar on top.
It was fantastic! The texture was somewhere in between ricotta cheese and custard. It had a mild but rich taste, and a mouth-filling texture. It would work great as a filling for pastry or with fresh berries.
I had some left-over almond meal and so I whipped it up with some Earth Balance, sugar, flour, salt, and baking powder, and baked it up into some cookies that turned out nice and moist and tender.
It was a hit with non-vegans at a new year’s eve party. Even though it was tasty, I think I had more fun playing around in the kitchen making it than I did eating it.
