Pecan milk

Time: 8 hours 10 min
(8 hours soaking/ 10 min prep) Or, if you're like me, 40 hours, since I forgot I was doing this for over a day. Oops.

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup raw pecans, chopped
4 cups water
1/2 tsp. sea salt
agave syrup to taste (optional)



Directions
1. Mix ingredients together in a container, cover, and place in fridge overnight.
2. In the morning, put it all into a blender and blend that puppy until smooth! Pour through a wire-mesh sieve and then pour through it again.
3. Add any seasonings or sweeteners to taste. I'm assuming you could use this as a drink, milk over cereal, mixed with grains for a mash or possibly a flat bread or a pancake-like thing. Maybe something to mix with a creamy beef-based soup? Not sure on the flavor for that one.

Feeds: Well, it's gonna make a little over 4 cups of this stuff. How much do you drink?

Inspired by: My attempts at rice milk months ago and Homemade Pecan Milk over at Always Order Dessert. I used her idea for proportions for the pecans and water.


How it turned out: So-so. The flavor was not great. A little salty-sour taste to it, and very little pecan flavor, which was weird. Maybe a facet of the extra long soaking time? However, with agave syrup added it was much better and the sweet seemed to bring out the pecan flavor plus made it taste a little as though the pecans had been roasted ahead of time.  My daughter thought it tasted a little like melted butter pecan ice cream.

Which is why we immediately took that stuff, added a little more agave syrup, popped it into the ice cream maker and made it into a sort of pecan sorbet. Kids loved it. The texture was definitely an ice or sorbet, not an ice cream, but with just the agave syrup added, it was great. Just have to remember to add enough agave syrup so that the pre-frozen flavor is TOO sweet. I understand the tongue tastes sweet less when it's something cold, so it'll taste less sweet in the final product.

LOW HISTAMINE DIET - the safety of this differs depending on which source you follow, and what works for you. In some, pecans and walnuts are not allowed, but other nuts are. In some, all nuts are allowed. In some, all nuts are banned. So that's the first challenge. The soaking may affect histamine levels, as well, although I'm still exploring this.

- Agave syrup is under question, too. I couldn't find any lists that listed agave syrup one way or another, but some lists allowed corn syrup and maple, so this might be possible. Sugar seems to be okay for many low histamine dieters, so that could be an option.