Anybody know of a good source for powdered Almond milk in the US? I can't seem to find any domestically.

Thanks,
Chris

Unless you make it yourself it can be very hard to find a non-dairy almond milk powder. I find versions of it in Asian grocery stores but they have dairy derivatives in them - and are pretty sweet.

Thanks for the info Sarah. My wife can't do dairy so that probably won't work. Could you point me in the right direction for making our own?

BTW, we're going to try your instant guacamole on a trip next weekend. Mmmm guacamole!

Search Amazon for soy milk powder and you'll find that. Almond milk, I don't know.

If memory holds Laurie posted something here a few months back on that?? Not sure though. But....I have seen it discussed in vegan cookbooks though! Kind of labor intensive though.

IMO, the soy and rice milk powders are good enough (although I drink only almond at home - YUM!) and they are dairy free. Amazon is an easy way to get them, although I find the big tubs sold at many grocery stores with the shelf stable milk alternatives - look up high. A tub is over $10 but is BIG.

Recipe for making your own almond milk.

We dry our own but it isn't any more labor intensive than drying any other food for the trail. However, that's because I usually use a commercially prepared almond milk such as Blue Diamond. Sometimes I dry the chocolate one as a treat for my son - he loves it. The process makes a very fine powder. It's in my new book which hit shelves in the US this past week but if you give me 5 or 10 minutes I can pull the recipe from the manuscript files and post it.

Edited by Laurie_Ann on 05/15/2011 07:45:06 MDT.

That was much quicker than I expected (I must be organized this morning - lol). Be sure to follow the tips as they will make your life much easier - almond milk is a little tricky to get off the trays because it becomes very brittle and somewhat sharp when dried. I use a Magic Bullet or a coffee grinder dedicated to spices and dried foods for making the powder. In other words... don't use a coffee grinder that you use to grind coffee or you'll have flavor transfer.

Almond Milk Powder
From Another Fork in the Trail © 2011 Laurie Ann March

Dehydration Time: 15–18 hours
Makes 2 servings

The writing of this book came with a quest to find instant almond milk powder. Of course, you can make almond milk with ground almonds, but it takes about 24 hours and then you have to deal with the pulp. My husband, Bryan, was off to Ohio and I asked him to look in some of the American grocery stores to see if such a product existed south of our border. I already knew that it was going to be a fruitless search because the internet hadn’t turned up anything either. When he came up empty handed he said to me, “You have food dehydrators; why don’t you just make your own?” So I did—right after I gave my forehead a smack for not seeing the obvious.

2 cups almond milk, sweetened or unsweetened

At Home
Pour 2 cups of almond milk on a solid dehydrator tray. Dehydrate at 135°F for 15 to 18 hours or until the milk is completely dry and brittle. Remove it from the trays and grind into a fine powder using a coffee grinder or spice grinder. Put the powder in a ziplock freezer bag.

At Camp
Squish the bag of powder with your fingertips to break up any lumps. To make one cup of almond milk add 1/8 cup or 2 tablespoons to your cup and add enough water to bring the mixture up to 1 cup or about 7/8 cup water. Stir and let hydrate for a few minutes. Stir again before drinking.

Tips
It is very important to use a solid tray with a lip designed for fruit leather. If you don’t have one you can use plastic wrap or good-quality parchment paper. If you are using parchment paper you need to make a lip on it so that the almond milk won’t flow off the sheet.

Please note that almond milk is dried until brittle and can be a little fussy to get off the tray. I usually put my trays in the freezer for 20 minutes or so and then it comes off easier. It will come off in tiny little pieces. I use a plastic scraper to get some of the pieces up. Sometimes, if I remember, I use plastic wrap over the solid tray to make removal easier.

I prefer to use sweetened almond milk if we are going to be drinking it straight and unsweetened for use in place of milk in hot chocolate and baking. The sweetened milk will be slightly sticky.

While this recipe is for 1 tray or 2 servings of almond milk, I recommend drying several trays at a time. Besides drying the unsweetened vanilla almond milk, I often dry sweetened chocolate almond milk and sweetened vanilla almond milk, so we have variety.

IMO Silk Almond is miles better tasting than Blue Diamond. It is thicker and richer tasting and still better calorie wise.

If one is looking for shelf stable brands and not fresh-in-the-dairy-aisle Pacific Foods is a good brand, especially for unsweetened.

Sounds like there might be hope! We have a dehydrator so I'll try it. Thanks for the detailed post Laurie! I will post back on this thread with how it goes.

I'm trying to dry some almond milk, and I don't think it's going well. I set up the dehydrator yesterday about 11am, put saran wrap on my fruit leather trays, and poured on the almond milk. Mind you, I have the cheapest dehydrator on the planet---it was free from a friend who wanted it out of their garage badly enough to deliver it to me in person! no fan, no temp control. There is a thin skim of slightly congealed almond milk around the edges of some trays, and the bottom tray has an area of pinkish growth---I'm thinking mildew.

So, I'm guessing that it needs a fan to keep air moving, I poured too much on the trays at once, or my dehydrator temp isn't high enough. So far, I haven't been able to find rice milk powder locally, so I guess I'll have to order some if I want hot chocolate on the trail.

We were able to dry the almond milk no problem. We do have a nice dehydrator with a fan and temp control. Basically we made "bowls" with parchment paper and put the Silk Almond milk in, then followed Laurie's directions.

Laurie,
The freezer trick worked great. Thanks for posting the recipe!

I find the little parchment bowls work very well. I do use the freezer trick for a lot of things. I am notorious for getting food glued to the trays (sometimes it is the type of food but I have been known to forget about the dehydrator and over-dry the odd tray or two). It was the Nesco sales guy, Rick, who first suggested the freezer thing to me. It certainly makes life easier.

My local health store, Artesian Natural Foods (in Stockton CA), carry many good selections of dry milk, soy, almond, goat. This also have a couple of other choices I forget.

Plus some great non-sweetened coco powder, coconut (slices, chips, and chopped).

Powdered goat milk would be an interesting find. Having access to dried almond milk would save me a lot of time too.

Michael, I have a favor please. Next time you are in the store could you sneak a peak at the brand name of the goat milk powder for me and the almond as well. I'm going to speak to the manager at the health food store I frequent and see if he can get it in for me.

Thanks in advance.

I just called the Artesian Natural Foods (in Stockton CA) and they said they don't carry powdered almond milk.

Laurie, my local organic market carries Meyenberg goat milk powder in a can. I have some at home - be happy to mail you some if you'd like to try it.

Edited by idester on 05/24/2011 16:23:29 MDT.

You can get the Meyenberg goat milk powder at Whole Foods - and the have the elusive single serving packets as well.

Powdered almond milk has been the most elusive of products for me... lol.

I may take you up on that Douglas but now that I know the name I am going to try and source it here first (and I'll also check our local-ish Whole Foods). If I come up empty handed I might take you up on your offer to try it. Will let you know. Thanks so much for that too.

It's a bummer the second (vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free) book is already out - I could have had a lot of fun with the goat milk... lol. Too many foods to play with... too little time.

Thank you for this thread...was wondering how to find/make powdered almond milk for an upcoming trip.

We have powdered skim goat milk powder at the local health food store from Hewitt's.

http://www.hewittsdairy.com/our-products/powder/

Haven't tried but I buy their goat milk yogourt all the time.

Will try dehydrating some Blue Diamond today...

Could you toast almonds then grind them in a coffee/spice grinder to avoid the paste issues?