How to Prepare Oat Milk

Oat milk is very simple to make and takes just a few ingredients to make. 

The ‘milk’ uses rolled oats blended with water, then strained to leave a pulp. You can add natural sweeteners like dates. The result is a creamy homemade oat milk!

Use as a fine a straining bag as possible and you may need to repeat this twice to really remove all the sediment. Some commercial milks are set up for frothing in coffee but this recipe version doesn’t allow for that without some serious tweaking including the use of gums.

Try to use rolled oats as steel cut oats are too rough and unprocessed. The rolled oats have the hulls removed which makes life so much easier and the milk more tasty.

Most other plant milks especially nut milks are very poor performers when used in frothing up coffee and barista-style beverages. Dairy milk steams very well because of its high fat content. To achieve a similar foam potential in oat milk means adding a neutral vegetable oil such as rapeseed/canola oil. 

You can find gluten-free oats but be sure to look for them and check the certification.

Oat milk lasts up to 5 days in the fridge if you have used sterilised jars and equipment and have thoroughly washed hands etc. Don’t use if it smells sour!

Equipment for making Oat Milks:

• kilner jars
• muslin bags
• nut milk bags
• blender

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup/90g rolled oats or sub steel-cut oats
• 3 cups/1 litre of clean, filtered water – use less if you want the oat milk thicker.
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)
• 1 whole pitted date for sweetness (optional)

Preparation:

1. In a high speed blender, add the oats, water and any additional ingredients.
2. Blitz for 30-40 seconds until all the oats are ground up. Don’t blend for too long as you would almond milk because it can become a bit slimy.
3. Pour the mixture through the finest muslin bag or nut bag you can find as oat milk is very fine.
4. Store in a sealed container such as Kilner jar. 
5. It shouldn’t be heated as some do for barista-style beverages.

To make a more frothy barista style oat milk which will foam add a 1/2 tsp of rapeseed oil/canola oil. The level should be about 2 per cent of the formulation.