Sunday, February 23, 2014

Milking Oats

Much less grope-y than milking goats.

After more than three years of busy service to us, our soy milk maker has pretty much carked it (see my posts on it here and here). We looked at getting new ones, but the idea of choosing was a bit overwhelming and we have put it at the back of our minds. (But if you're in Australia and can recommend a good brand or model, we would be happy to take suggestions.)

Instead, we've been making oat milk. It's no substitute for bought-milk in tea, but it does the trick on a bowl of cereal. Here's what we do:
Oat milk
We get two of these jugs of milk, plus about 2 cups of pulp from each batch.
Combine 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats, 1 tsp of desiccated coconut, and 1 tsp of raw sugar in a jug. Add 1 litre of water, and let it soak for about 30 minutes. Then blend it all up - I use a stick blender - for a few minutes. Pour this through a fine strainer and scoop out the thick oat pulp. Pour it into containers, and then I add enough water to fill the jugs - our typical batch is about 2.5 litres of oat milk. You can add less if you prefer it thicker. The milk lasts in the fridge for about a week.

But what to do with the 2 cups or so of sticky, wet oat pulp that comes along with the milk? You could throw it away, or compost it, or feed it to the dog. But we've been playing around with adding it to things. We've mixed it into lentil loafs and burgers, but it makes them go a bit gluey in texture.

More successful were these nutella brownie bites - 200 grams of hazlenuts whizzed up in the food processor, then a cup of dates, half a cup of oat pulp, and 1/4 cup of cocoa powder. They were a bit wetter than they should have been, but the oat pulp was a good way of cutting through the sweetness of the dates that sometimes overwhelms raw balls.
Nutella brownie bites
I pushed some into silicon cupcake liners, and made some into balls.
Oat pulp is also a pretty fab addition to baking. I made some banana-oat muffins and bread, using oat pulp in place of half the mashed bananas. I don't know the nutrition content, but I'm sure it adds a boatload of fibre and cuts down a little on the (natural, and not bad-for-you) sugar in the bananas.
Sunday baking
The banana-oat things are in the background of our Sunday lunch of veggie sausages wrapped in bread dough. 

What is your favourite kind of milk to make? What do you do with the leftover pulp?




9 comments:

Kate said...

Those Nutella balls look yum! Must try making some oat milk. I love homemade almond milk, but almonds are a bit more expensive ... I use the pulp in balls sometimes but find the texture a bit wet too. I like using it for muffins or bars :)

The New Epicurean said...

Oh! I like the idea of adding coconut. I make a lot of nut and seed milk (and occasionally quinoa milk), and a dash of coconut sounds like a wonderful variation.

Azusa said...

Hi! Wow, what a coincidence!I am selling mine on gumtree if you are interested. I have become intolerant to soy and have decided to sell. If you are interested let me know!

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/south-townsville/small-appliances/soylove-premier-makes-soy-milk-tofu-rice-milk-almond-milk/1039712670

Kari said...

I've never made oat milk but yours looks great! When I make nut (or seed) milks, I find the pulp is a great addition to fruit/nut truffle balls, which is similar to what you did with your 'Nutella' balls (which look great!).

Joey said...

I'm always fascinated by making my own vegan milks but I get put off because I thought it looked too complex. I stand corrected - that all looks distinctly doable, and I really like that you can use the pulp in raw balls!

Lovlie said...

I make oat milk quite regularly. I try to add a little maple syrup in it if I am using it in tea. I will try with adding coconut, that sounds wonderful!
I find that oat milk works better in cakes as they have more "glueing" factor that holds the cake better.
I was thinking of getting a soy milk maker too but haven't decided on which one yet. They are quite expensive, aren't they? ...

Anonymous said...

I stopped using soy milk a while ago but up until then I used it in my tea and for making non-dairy kefir (using grains that I converted from dairy milk to soy milk). I was struggling to replicate the versatility of soy and went through various kinds of milk including oat milk but it has a tendency to glue up when used in hot drinks (like my not negotiable tea ;) ) so I ended up making almond milk but it was pretty expensive and as penniless student hippies we didn't need that extra cost so I arrived at something that costs a whole lot less, is amazingly good for your and that my kefir goes nuts for. I make my own sesame milk :). I get a cup of sesame seeds and soak them in a litre of water for about an hour and then I blend them up and strain the results through a fine strainer. The milk is creamy, pure white, rich with a slightly bitter tang and I add a little homemade date paste to it to replicate the sweetness of cows milk. I use it in my tea and it's delicious and I can use the sesame seed pulp in cooking and I like to use some of my finished kefir to culture the paste to make a sort of lower fat "tahini" alternative that I then use to culture hummus...YUM!

Anonymous said...

Another gumtree soymilk maker (the kind that I have) for $80

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/cedar-vale/small-appliances/brossan-soy-milk-maker/1039043043

wee said...

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