If you love the rich flavor of black walnuts like I do you're going to love black walnut milk. I've made a number of dairy-free nut milks before but the flavor of black walnuts really shines here. It's easy to make and only takes 1 cup of nuts. Here's how to make it, and what to do with it.
When I say this is good I'm not lying. I was so impressed after my first taste I made plans right away to serve it at events this year. 1 cup of nuts can make 4 cups of milk, so It can easily be scaled to make hundreds of portions.
It's crazy delicious and a great way to introduce people to black walnuts. It's also budget friendly and a good way to use fresh walnuts purchased from Hammons if you don't shell your own.
Commercial black walnuts work fine, but if you have them, fresh cracked black walnuts will have the most potent flavor. For cracking, I love my Grandpa's Goody Getter which is the best black walnut cracker I've found. They also have a new model with attachments for butternuts and hickories.
How to Make Black Walnut Milk
Just like other nut milks, you'll soak the nuts overnight in water, then puree them in a blender and strain them. It's important the nuts are soaked for the full 24 hours or the mixture won't emulsify properly. The images below describe the process.
I like to use warm water to puree the milk. This reduces friction in the blender and helps it become as smooth and creamy as possible.
After the milk is pureed you'll strain it through cheese cloth, massaging it to get as much milk as possible. Next the milk is seasoned to taste with maple syrup or honey, and my wild vanilla extract if you have some.
The leftover nut meat makes a great a present for the birds or squirrels to watch with your morning coffee.
After the milk is seasoned you can use it however you like. It's good with a bowl of granola or cereal, but it really shines warmed in a mug like Kanuchi or hickory nut milk.
Serving The Milk Warm
While it can be served cold, black walnut milk will get rave reviews served warm in a mug garnished with a dusting of cinnamon. A small mug with a two ounce portion is fine. In a pinch I've served it in Dixie cups.
Sipped from a small mug, it's a special treat on a cold winter evening.
More Things to Make with Black Walnuts
Homemade Black Walnut Milk (Dairy Free)
Equipment
- 1 High speed blender Such as a Vitamix
- 1 Fine mesh strainer
Ingredients
- 1 cup (4 oz) Black walnuts or other nuts
- 8 cups Filtered water separated
- ½ cup Maple syrup honey or your favorite sweetener
- ¼ teaspoon Cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Wild vanilla extract optional
- 1 pinch Kosher salt
Instructions
Make the Nut Milk
- Soak the black walnuts in 4 cups of the water overnight.
- The next day, strain the nuts. Warm the other 4 cups of water to body temperature or a little higher.
- Puree the soaked nuts and warm water until very fine and creamy white in color.
- Strain the mixture through cheesecloth, squeezing out as much milk as possible.
- Season the nut milk with maple syrup, cinnamon, and a splash of wild vanilla extract if using.
Serving Warm
- To serve the nut milk warm, put it into a pot and heat it gently to around 160-170 F. Do not simmer or boil the milk as it will separate and no longer look creamy.
- Taste the nut milk and gauge the seasoning. If you'd like it sweeter, add some extra maple syrup to taste.
- Serve the nut milk warm garnished with a pinch of cinnamon.
Video
Notes
- I use black walnuts here but any nuts can be used.
- You can make an extra rich version using half and half, whole or raw milk instead of the second batch of water.
Nutrition
Muffy Barrett
I'm curious what the reasoning is behind using two soakings. I don't like the idea of throwing away water that may have flavor and nutrients in it. I sort of averaged this with Sam Thayer's hickory milk recipe - soaked, boiled, whipped with an immersion blender, and then strained. It came out really tasty; could be this is more flexible than you thought.
Alan Bergo
Hey Muffy. There is only one soaking. You discard the water as it really helps soften some of the bitterness that can be very pronounced in black walnuts I’ve had from MO. My local ones are much milder. If you want to keep everything in the liquid you can puree them with the first round of soaking liquid. Recipes like this (if it’s not baking) are pretty flexible, but if I leave things too open ended people can get confused so I need to at least start with explicit directions.
Muffy Barrett
Thanks for your explanation, Alan. I guess my walnuts are sweet enough that they don't need a second soak. Maybe one of the differences between commodity foods and carefully self foraged foods.
Alan Bergo
You bet.
Doug
Ok - so the nuts are soaking. That was a lot of shelling.
I'm thinking about doing half with milk, and making maple walnut ice cream. But your caution about staying below 170F has me concerned. Do you think ice cream will work? Note that I'll sometimes make a no-egg ice-cream (which requires a few minutes of hard boiling to remove water), but even with eggs, it'll need to go above 170F. Making a blancmange/biancomangiare is another dessert choice (and that'd be just using water+nuts, not milk).
Alan Bergo
Hey Doug. 170 F is an estimate and you can likely go a little higher. Just don't simmer it. Ice cream should work, but I would use half nut milk, half heavy cream. Even if you were to scramble the eggs in the ice cream base, it can be pureed with a hand blender and re-emulsified so I don't see any issue there.
Doug
This nut milk is so lovely.
After tasting it, we decided against ice cream, and made rice pudding instead. That was fantastic. We changed up this Italian recipe (arborio rice, chestnuts, golden raisins), flavored it as you do here (maple, vanilla, cinnamon), and added some cubed candied citrus peel. We added butter, but a vegan version of this recipe that gets its fat from coconut milk also works. The whipped cream on top was sweetened with the syrup from your green black walnut preserve recipe, which made it extra special.
Alan Bergo
Hey Doug I'm so glad you liked it. Yes, ice cream could be a little dicey as it's water based. Rice pudding was a smart move. I'm in AZ right now and had to bring the last of my nuts to make some for my family down here. Thanks for sharing what you made.
Doug
I'm excited to try this. Can it be frozen?
Not sure how I'll sweeten it. Have you tried black birch syrup?
Thanks!
Alan Bergo
No. Maple or anything comparable is fine.
Cee
I love your thread!! Thank you so much!!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Cee.
Sandy Lou
Delicious! Thank you!
Alan Bergo
Thanks Sandy Lou
Blanche Derby
Thanks for the recipe to make a Walnut drink.
Now that Maple sap is running, I'll cook it up so it's somewhat sweet --it'll have a maple flavor. (I don't boil it down to syrup as I don't have the facilities to do that.) Then I'll blend the Walnuts with the cooled down sweetwater. I'm looking forward to the results...
Alan Bergo
Hey that sounds like a novel idea. LMK how it works.
Ellen
I'm going to think on how to use this is a cocktail. It could be a great warm, winter, cozy-by-the-fire adult beverage.
Alan Bergo
Someone on FB mentioned adding a splash of nocino to it. Black Russian or something has a ring to it!
Cee Stre
Try my dairy free version of a Russian qualude 1 part vodka
1 part coffee liquor
1/2 part butterscotch schnapps
1 part nut milk
Delicious
Russian qualude is usually vodka, coffee liquor and Irish cream equal parts (can become a qualude shake if you add 3 parts chocolate milk)
Alan Bergo
This sounds great.
LaRae
Fabulous! Excellent dessert drink!
Alan Bergo
I’m so glad you liked it.
Lana
Black walnut horchata! Yammm! 😋
Alan Bergo
That sounds great.
Carla Beaudet
One think I like about this recipe is that, no matter how careful I am shelling these, I always seem to miss some black walnut shell. By using the nuts in a recipe where the final product is strained out, it's not much of a problem. It also sounds really delicious.
Alan Bergo
That's a good point! Another bonus is making a little ball of the strained nuts (sometimes I add melted tallow) and setting it out for the birds near a window where you have breakfast in the morning. They love it.
Carla Beaudet
Yeah, I'd be loathe to just toss out the nutmeats I'd worked so hard to shell. That's a sweet way to use them!
Alan Bergo
I'm not cracking these by hand but you sure could. I've been buying 5 lb bags from Hammonds for testing recipes.
Sam S
Sounds good! How does this recipe taste using other nuts such as English walnuts?
Alan Bergo
English walnuts will have a much milder regular walnut flavor.