Vanilla Almond Milk Latte
A homemade vanilla almond milk creamer makes a luxuriously creamy almond latte that's both vegan and paleo friendly. Serve these healthier lattes on ice or hot. Plan on soaking the almonds overnight prior to making these drinks, and if you'd like, use Cold Brew Coffee, which also needs to be made the day ahead.
Servings: 4 coffees
Calories: 225kcal
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup almonds soaked overnight
- 1 1/2 cups water + 1/2 cup more
- 1-3 medjool dates
- 1 vanilla bean or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- cold brew coffee or espresso*
Instructions
- Add soaked and drained almonds to a blender with pitted dates and vanilla. Choose 1-3 dates depending on desired sweetness.
- Start by adding 1 1/2 cups of water, and blending into a fine puree, about 2-3 minutes in a high speed blender.
- Add 1/2 cup more water, and pulse to combine well.
- Strain almond pulp out of the cream by pouring into a jar with a nut milk bag or with cheesecloth. After the creamer has stopped dripping through, be sure to squeeze as much creamer out of the pulp first before discarding. Quite a bit of liquid will still in in the pulp.
- If making hot lattes, heat cold brew coffee or make espresso or strong French press coffee. I like these with slightly more than half being almond creamer.
- If making iced lattes, fill glassed with ice, and pour them about 1/2 way full with either cold brew coffee or espresso. Fill the rest of the glasses with vanilla almond milk creamer.
Video
Notes
*Smaller dates can be substituted for medjools. Use 3-4 small dates in place of 1 medjool.
**French press coffee or strong instant coffee also works well in these lattes.
Make it Frothy: This vanilla almond milk creamer gets frothy in a blender, with a whisk in a saucepan, or using my favorite technique- with a milk frother. Since you most likely already have your blender dirty, just let it run a few extra minutes, and you'll have enough foam to make cappuccino-like treats. Even if I am making them iced, I froth the almond creamer well so I have a frothy top to my drink.
Sweetener Options: This is delicious with no sweetener at all. However, you can also use 1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup or monk fruit sweetener if you prefer something faster than using dates.
Tips for the Best Almond Latte
- If you don’t have dates on hand, use 1-3 teaspoons of date syrup or pure maple syrup instead.
- I use a nutmilk bag to make homemade almond milk. I’ve used coffee filters and cheesecloth also, but it’s so much faster and easier using the purpose made bag, it’s worth the small investment.
- I use my Vitamix to make nutmilks, but soaking nuts ahead of time makes them easy to blend in any blender.
- You can make the frothed almond milk using a blender, a whisk in a saucepan (the hard way!), or my favorite method, using a handy milk frother ( <– really fun buy if you love homemade coffee drinks, or want a fun stocking stuffer idea.)
- If you make almond milk lattes at home often, invest in a Nescafe Aeroccino, which makes the perfect frothy milk for all your coffee needs. It also allows you to chill or heat the milk, so you can use this for a hot latte or an iced latte easily.
- Experiment with other latte recipes by adding a little cocoa powder for an almond milk mocha, or pumpkin spice to give it a fall twist. Almond extract amps up the nutty flavor.
Nutrition
Calories: 225kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 5mg | Potassium: 293mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g | Calcium: 101mg | Iron: 1.4mg