How To Make (Non-Slimy)Oat Milk

In today’s episode of “Make-it-yourself”, I introduce to you the queen of alternative milk – oat milk. It’s rich, it’s creamy, it’s easy to make and the best part, it does not have that slimy mouthfeel. Follow through all the tips and tricks of this oat milk recipe to get fresh, creamy, and luxurious Oat milk at home.

Oat milk is extremely flavor-neutral and goes really well in Chai, lattes, and smoothies. Creamy oat milk is key to a delicious vegan Chai. Are you looking for uses of oat milk and similar inspiration? You might like the decadent Dairy-free Chocolate pudding that I made using oat milk.

Why Oat milk though?

The bright side to the pandemic is that we learned to depend on our own abilities as much as possible. Because of limited grocery trips, we had to learn to make do with what we had at home including making things from scratch. I’m glad that many of us could get inspired to consciously follow a more plant-based and animal cruelty-free diet.

One of the first steps to going non-dairy is to find the right alt milk for consumption because milk is a fridge staple. Cow’s milk isn’t for everyone – whether you’re a vegan, lactose intolerant or cow’s milk just doesn’t sit right with you. The alternatives are Soy milk and Coconut milk. There’s no harm in using them but coconut milk often impart a distinct taste to the recipe and some people are allergic to soy. Oat milk is the saviour for all these situations.

How to make Oat milk at home?

Oat milk is a blend of water and oats. These two simple ingredients are put through a blender to get a milk-like consistency, strained, and stored. It is a fairly simple technique and is cheaper than store-bought milk. Because of its growing popularity, oat milk is found in almost every grocery store or online store. The catch is that if you don’t make it the right way, you’ll end up with slimy milk. Many give up before they even give it a try and end up buying oat milk from the store.

Store-bought vs. Homemade

First things first, I am not against store-buying here. Many store-bought oat milk have additives like oils and sugars to give them a smooth and palatable texture. Although a plus point of getting store-bought oat milk is that they are fortified to have other nutrients and vitamins.
Before the tips, I just want to flag that you can’t get the EXACT texture of store-bought oat milk at home. Store-bought versions use stabilisers so the water does not separate from the milk. They use enzymes to break down the oat’s starches. If you want a similar texture, you can use digestive enzymes (amylase) if you want to.

The slime-factor

Oat milk becomes slimy in texture because oats are known to absorb the water just like in overnight oats or porridge. After doing multiple test runs and coming up with my personalized super simple hacks, here’s how I recommend you make your oats milk:

Let’s get nerdy:

Let’s get familiar with a few basic technical know hows:

• Temperature: When oats are soaked and processed in hot water, it forms a gel-like substance. This is called gelatinisation. This happens when we blend oats and water at a high temperature. The heat can also come from blitzing it on high-speed for a long time. That’s how we end up with slimy goopy oat milk.
• Digestive enzymes: The only way we can avoid this, is to add digestive enzymes that break down the starch components in the oats. Amylase is one such digestive enzymes that does an amazing job at keeping the slime at bay. These are pretty easy to procur from any grocery store, it’s not a hurculean task.
• Amylase can also be found in a wide variety of foods like bananas, papaya, mangoes as well as potatoes.
• For this oat milk recipe, we are lowering the temperature factor by adding ice cubes while blitzing.

Recipe Instructions: Tips and tricks

• Oats: We’re using unsoaked rolled oats for this recipe and not quick oats or steel oats. You can use gluten-free oats to make gluten-free oat milk in case you have allergies or intolerances. DO NOT pre-soak them. Pre-soaking them will turn the milk into a slimy mess.

• Ice Water: Pour the oats into the blender with ice-cold water and ice cubes if you can. The trick is to reduce the temperature as much as possible. Note: The water consistency can be modified as per your preference. (For thicker, creamier milk and higher – LESS WATER: For thinner milk – MORE WATER)
• Blending: Blend the two ingredients in a high speed blender for not more than 30 seconds and in a regular blender not more than 60 seconds. More blending time will heat up the content and leave you with a slimy texture.
• Straining: Pour into a container through a GOOD quality nut milk bag to prevent sediments in the oat milk. Try using 2 nut-milk bags if yours isn’t very efficient. But DO NOT over-squeeze the bag. Let it seep through on its own with gentle squeezes in between. Double strain to make sure all the sediment is removed.
• Oat Pulp: Use up the leftover Oat pulp for making Cookies or adding it to Crunchy Chunky Homemade Granola bowls.

Storage:

Freshly prepared oat milk needs to be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated. You can refrigerate it for up to a week. Keep in mind that the water and oats will separate when kept for so long. So, shake well before each use.

Voila! Your oat milk is ready to be consumed. Use it as a dairy-free coffee creamer or to make a nice cup of chai. Give this Oat milk recipe a try and let me know how you liked it in the comments. If you get stuck while making your first batch, drop a DM on Instagram @beextravegant and I’ll be sure to help you. <3

Also, if you want more dessert inspiration then feel free to check out my other recipes:

• Dairy-free Chocolate Pudding (made with Oat Milk): Rich and Creamy
• Vegan Cardamom Snickerdoodle Cookies
• Best Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies (Vegan)
• Best Vegan Masala Chai