Oat Milk

Oat Milk

makes about a litre

Ingredients:

About 65g (3/4 cup) whole oats
1-2 dates
About a litre of COLD water

Method: 

Place the oats with the date or dates (stone removed) in a high speed liquidiser (blender). Add enough cold water to make it up to about 500ml. 

Blend on high speed for up to about a minute. 

Pour into a fairly large-meshed sieve over a wide jug, then use about 200ml more water to rinse out the liquidiser container and pour over the sieve. Use a teaspoon to collect the pulp on one side so that it all drains through. Do not try to squeeze out any extra, but pour a little more cold water over if liked. 

Now use a fine-meshed sieve such as a tea strainer over the jug or other container where you plan to keep the oat milk in the fridge. Pour the milk from the large jug slowly over it, using the teaspoon to stir gently or remove any more pulp so it all flows through. Use any remaining cold water to pour over the sieve or rinse the large jug to get as much of the milk as possible. There should be around a litre of milk, which needs to be refrigerated. 

Oat milk can be used like any other dairy-free milk as a substitute for cow's milk. 

My first foray into dairy-free milk was to make almond milk, which was very good, but quite time-consuming and a tad fiddly. Next I tried coconut milk (with desiccated coconut) and we liked that very much, except when the coconut wasn't such good quality. And there was no way of knowing in advance. 

A huge leap forward came with the discovery of cashew milk, which is extremely quick and easy to make. It's not even too expensive, despite cashews being high priced in most of the world; only 50g are needed to make a litre and a half of milk. The only disadvantage was having to put cashews to soak in the fridge two days in advance, but it became a habit and I mostly remembered in plenty of time.

The problem with either almond or cashew milk is that they can't be used by people with nut allergies. And if the allergies are extreme, they shouldn't even be in the house when someone is visiting.

In the summer we were introduced to commercial oat milk, and I thought it delicious in coffee - rich and creamy, barely changing the taste at all. So I searched online, as you do, and found so many recipes, all differing slightly, that I lost track of which one I followed. I made my own variations anyway. 

The most important part of the process, according to several sites, is to use cold water. Not just room-temperature water from the tap, but chilled or refrigerated water. As one of the sites pointed out, the aim is not to make porridge ('oatmeal' in the US) and we don't want it to become gloopy. Using whole (rolled/porridge) oats is recommended, but quick-cooking ones can also be used; I did so the first time I made this, and it came out just fine.

If you don't want gunge to settle at the bottom of the container in the fridge, you can do a further straining through a muslin or equivalent, but you have to avoid the temptation of squeezing it to get out the last drops (as one does with almond or coconut milk). Apparently that can lead to rather gloopy oat milk. So I decided to avoid using a muslin, and simply to rely on a fine-mesh tea strainer for the second sieving, and it's fine. There's some sediment at the bottom of the jug, after a few hours, but I don't have a problem with that. It's more like cream than pulp; it can be stirred in before using. 

The huge advantage of oat milk is that it can be made at a moment's notice, so long as you have refrigerated or ice-cold water easily available. If I need extra milk for some recipe, I can whip up some oat milk in just a few minutes with no need to pre-soak anything.  For savoury purposes, you can even miss out the dates.  And if you forget the dates before blending (as I have done a couple of times) a tablespoon of maple syrup or honey (or even golden syrup) can be stirred in. It's not necessary to add any sweetening, but for use on granola or muesli, or in drinks, I find it improves the taste significantly to do so.

The other huge advantage is that it's inexpensive! I can buy a kilogram of oats for not much more than €2.40.  That will make around 15 litres of oat milk.  Even with the addition of the date or dates, and a little electricity for blending, the cost is not much more than 20c per litre. Even if you buy higher priced organic oats this is still a very inexpensive milk. Even if you're not keen on the slight oaty taste that is evident when drinking this on its own, it's so mild that we don't notice it in coffee, milk-based sauces, or baking. 

As for the pulp removed in the straining process, that can be added to muesli or other cereal, or just eaten with a little honey. No need to waste it.