DIY Almond Milk ... Pear & Almond Tart

Make your Own Almond Milk

1 cup whole almonds
1 1/2 cup filtered water
few drops vanilla essence
pinch salt

Other stuff you need

nut bag (these draw string bags are designed just for making nut milks. You can buy them online or in a health or wholefood food store
OR you can use a square piece of muslin or open weave fabric and draw it together with your hands when you pour in the almond milk.
blender

Instructions

Place the almonds into a glass or stainless steel bowl and cover them with the filtered water. Pop the bowl in the fridge and leave to soak overnight. almond-11 Carefully tip the almonds and water into the blender and blend on the "smoothie" setting till the mixture is very fine.Make sure your hand are clean. Put the bowl under the open nut milk bag or piece of muslin and carefully pour the blended mix into the bag. Now twist it tight and ring the bag. If you point the corner of the bag toward the bowl the nut milk will drain more easily. pear-alm-15 Keep squeezing with your hands until there's not much liquid left dripping from the bag. This is called the first pass because its extra creamy. Pour this into a jog there should be about a cup of creamy almond milk. Add a pinch of salt and few drop of vanilla into the almond milk and carefully pour into a glass jug or bottle.You can now tip the almond meal back into the blender and add another 1 1/2 cups filtered water into the blender and repeat the process to get a lighter almond milk.Then save the almond meal in a container ready for the next recipe.

No Pastry ... Pear and Almond Meal Tart

This is recipe (adapted from one by Donna Hay) is a perfect way to use the left over almond meal from making your almond milk. You can also use the left over almond meal to thicken soups and casseroles.

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Ingredients

90 gms butter
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 eggs
1 cup almond meal (or you can use the leftover ground almonds from making almond milk)
¼ cup spelt wholemeal flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
2 pears, peeled and cored and cut into quarters
plus … a little extra coconut sugar for dusting the pears

Instructions

pear alm-14 Basically everything just gets thrown in the kitchen wiz (but it has to be in the right order)First put in the butter and the sugar – wiz until just combined. Then add everything else in order (except the pears) – wiz until just combined. Then spoon the mixture into a flan tin lined with baking paper.Now dust the pears all over with the little extra brown sugar and then push the pears cut side down into the mixture one by one beside each other. The round side of the pear should be slightly sticking out.Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes and dust with a little coconut sugar and serve warm with cream. pear alm-17 Screen Shot 2015-12-31 at 8.01.42 am