Using just oats and water you can make and enjoy this cheap and delicious Homemade Oat Milk! Pour it over cereal, use it for baking or drink it straight!
We love non-dairy milk in our house. Whether it's homemade almond milk, homemade soy milk, walnut milk or today's recipe for homemade oat milk, we are down for a chilly glass anytime of day! Oat milk and chocolate oat milk are probably our favorite milks to make at home as they are super tasty, nutritious and incredibly inexpensive! Pour this oat milk over some homemade bran flakes and you'll have a delicious, all homemade breakfast!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe!
- Non-dairy milk is getting pretty expensive when purchased at the grocery store, but this homemade oat milk is incredibly inexpensive! It's probably the cheapest non-dairy milk you can make at home!
- This milk works perfectly in baking. It's my go-to milk to use whenever I'm making vegan pancakes or muffins as it saves me lots of money to use a couple cups of homemade oat milk instead of a store-bought non-dairy milk.
- Making oat milk at home takes about 5 minutes from start to finish! There have been times when I didn't realize I was out of non-dairy milk and I was able to whip up this oat milk in minutes.
Ingredients
- Rolled Oats - I personally like to use rolled oats when making oat milk at home, but quick oats could also work. Don't use steal cut oats!
- Cold water - If you've ever made oatmeal, then you how oats thicken as they heat up. For this reason I like to use super cold water whenever I'm making this recipe. If you use water water and let your blender blend too long, your oat milk will start to thicken and become slimy!
- Pinch of salt - While it's not necessary, I always like to add a pinch of salt to my homemade non-dairy milks. Especially if you're adding some kind of sweetener, the salt helps to bring out the sweetness.
Variations
- Sweetened Oat Milk - You can blend in some dates, maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc. to make sweetened homemade oat milk.
- Flavors - I love to add in a touch of vanilla extract whenever I have it on hand to make vanilla oat milk. Yum!
- Chocolate Oat Milk - Add in 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to make Chocolate Oat Milk...yum! You could even add in some peppermint extract to make a festive peppermint chocolate milk.
Homemade Oat Milk vs. Homemade Almond Milk
Both oat milk and almond milk are delicious, but there are some pros and cons to both, especially if you make them at home.
Homemade Oat Milk
- Pros - Making oat milk at home is super affordable and can be made in just about 5 minutes because you don't have to soak the oats ahead of time.
- Cons - You can't warm up homemade oat milk or use it in things like coffee or hot chocolate.
Homemade Almond Milk
- Pros - Homemade almond milk can be warmed up and therefore can be used to make almond milk hot chocolate or can be poured into hot coffee without it thickening.
- Cons - If you have access to a store that sells nuts in bulk and if you turn your almond pulp into almond flour, then you might find that Homemade Almond Milk is economical and worth your time, but otherwise almond milk is a lot more expensive to make than oat milk. Homemade almond milk also takes a lot more time to make as you need to soak your almonds for at least a few hours or overnight before making almond milk.
How to Make Oat Milk
Step 1: Pour the oats, cold water, and any optional ingredients into your blender.
Step 2: Blend all of the ingredients on high until smooth, only about 10-30 seconds. Be careful not to blend too long as you don't want the oat milk to get warm.
Step 3: Strain the oat milk by pouring it through a nut milk bag (or cheese cloth) into a pitcher or bowl.
Step 4: Use your hands to squeeze the milk out of your nut milk bag. Once no more milk is coming out, you can discard the oat pulp or save it for another use.
Expert Tips
- Use cold water to make homemade oat milk. The colder your oat milk stays, the less slimy it will be.
- Don't blend the oats and water too long. To be honest, using a Vitamix, I only blend the milk for about 10-20 seconds. If you don't have a high speed blender, you may need to blend a little bit longer, but not much. If you blend the oats too long, the mixture will start to warm up and thicken.
- Always shake your oat milk before using it as the oats will separate from the water and settle on the bottom of the container.
- Don't heat up homemade oat milk! Because there are still lots of oat particles in this homemade milk, if you heat it up it will thicken and get slimy and goopy. I only recommend enjoying this oat milk cold or using it for baking.
Storage
Because homemade oat milk doesn't have any strange thickeners or preservatives, it won't last as long as store-bought oat milk. However, this oat milk is so tasty that I'm sure it won't last long in your fridge anyways! To store homemade oat milk, place it an a sealed jar or container and store it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Shake the oat milk thoroughly before using it as the oats and water will separate as they sit.
Recipe FAQs
One downside to homemade oat milk is that it will thicken up when you heat it. Even though you can strain the oat milk to remove the excess oat pulp, there are still super-fine oat particles in the oat milk. Heating the milk causes those fine particles to thicken, as if you were cooking oatmeal on the stove.
I haven't tried this with oat milk, but I have made barista almond and cashew milk by adding ¼ teaspoon of xanthum gum and 1 tablespoon of coconut oil to the blender with the raw nuts and water. The xanthum gum and oil help to emulsify all of the ingredients and produce a thicker non-dairy milk that doesn't separate when poured into hot drinks such as coffee or tea.
While homemade oat milk will thicken when warmed up over the stove top, I have found that the heat from baking doesn't affect it. I don't know how many times I've started baking something only to realized that I don't have enough non-dairy milk to complete the recipe. That's when I quickly whiz up some oat milk!
While I don't think homemade oat milk is great heated in large quantities (remember the oatmeal reference??), I have had readers comment that it works great in small quantities in their coffee or tea. Instead of heating it, just add a splash to your hot coffee or tea and enjoy!
If you're looking for an oat milk that tastes good in coffee and can get frothy for lattes, I highly recommend Oatly. However, if you just need a cheap, non-dairy milk for baking or smoothies, try making homemade oat milk!
Homemade oat milk is already really inexpensive, but you can make even more bang for your buck by saving the oat pulp and using it in other recipes.
I haven't experimented a ton with oat pulp, but you can always cook it similarly to oatmeal or add it to smoothies for some added whole grains and fiber. You can even make Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pulp Cookies!
More Homemade Milk Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Homemade Oat Milk
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3 cups cold filtered water
OPTIONAL
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 Medjool dates
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Pour the oats, water and any optional ingredients into your blender and blend on high until smooth.*
- Strain the oat milk by pouring it through a nut milk bag (or cheese cloth) into a pitcher or bowl. Use your hands to squeeze the milk out of your nut milk bag. Once no more milk is coming out, you can discard the oat pulp. Refrigerate your oat milk until chilled.
- Store your oat milk in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Shake thoroughly before using.
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