Nut Milk

Okay, it took everything in my power to not title this : Nuts about milk.  And that is why I am not a comedy writer (among the other thousand reasons).

I know that since I have a food blog, I should be totally into making my own nut milk, and extolling the virtues of its purity and wholesomeness. And I want to.  I really do. Just not right now.

And so,  I will present you with the variety of milks that I use in most of my recipes.  They are boxed, unsweetened and I don’t have to spend days preparing for a recipe.  (I mean, you don’t see Alton Brown out there milking the cow to make his buttermilk pancakes, do you?)

I have found that it really matters a lot in some recipes which milk you use.  Other recipes, maybe not so much, but believe me you do not want to try crepes with the wrong milk.

So here is the breakdown of my favorite milks, and what recipes I have found them to be best for.  Ladies and gentlemen, I give you …. Milk Stonehenge!

Milkadamia:  This is macadamia milk.  It is thinner in consistency than most of the other milks which makes it perfect for crepes.  I never need to add water to my crepe recipes when I use this milk.  They turn out perfect every time!  It also doesn’t have a terribly strong flavor, so you don’t have to add a ton of spices/chocolate/strong food to try and hide its flavor

Orgain Organic Protein:  I am currently loving this milk to really boost the protein in certain recipes.  It has a longer list of ingredients than I really like to see in my milk, but the tradeoff is the amount of protein that you are getting.  It is essentially an almond milk, and like almond milk, there is a certain thickness to it (like a whole milk compared to skim milk).  It doesn’t have an exceptionally strong flavor which means I can use it in most recipes, but it is really more of a beige color, so you don’t want to use it in anything that is going to look off-putting if it is meant to be white and it is not.

Almond Breeze:  This one is an almond coconut blend which does tend to make it a bit lighter in color than some other milks and it is one of my go to milks for baking.  The consistency works really well, not too thick, not too thin and not a strong taste of either almonds or coconut that you need to worry about when you bite into the blueberry muffin, or scarf down a piece of cornbread (which I will post the recipes for soon).

Hemp Milk:  This has a really strong taste that is pretty hard to overcome unless you drown it in chocolate.  I find it really changes the taste of a lot of my recipes.  So why use it?  Basically because it has a bit more protein than the other milks.  I actually mostly use it in my morning oatmeal.  Which I drown in chocolate (raw cacao powder). Plus a scoop of my vanilla protein powder. Don’t judge.  It makes me happy.

Finally, I need to mention coconut milk.

Not. A. Huge. Fan. Of. Coconut.  There.  I said it.  I know that as plant based, I am supposed to love coconut, or at least embrace it.  But the truth is that most of the time, I barely want to shake hands with it, let alone give it a big ole hug.

That being said, it does make one heck of a whipped cream and I have used it in a few recipes like my carrot patties with carrot coconut cream whipped topping (another recipe I promise will be posted).

Coconut.  Most people I know either love it or hate it.  I’m slowly working my way up to liking it.  Maybe we’ll have drinks sometime and then I can get to know it better.  (Last attempt at humor.  I swear.)

I know there are a lot of other milks out there, like cashew, oat and even quinoa.  I just try to have a few go to ones that I know are readily available in my  local stores so that when I am making a recipe for friends or family, I don’t have to worry about it flopping because I randomly swapped out one of the ingredients.

Back again with another recipe soon!

Enjoy!