Question
Toby Backstrom
Do additives in commercial plant milks (like added sugars, gums, and emulsifiers) have noticeable effect on baking, and would it be worth it making your own plant milks instead?
Answer
I have not noticed a difference at all. The percentage of emulsifier, the percentage of sugar, and I want to put a note in that sugar and explain where the sugar comes from, doesn't make a difference to me at all. You can certainly make your own plant milks. But I will tell you that for a couple of years from it's been my pleasure to teach at Rancho Lepardi spa in Tecate, Mexico. Everything is homemade, and in my cooking classes, which for a dessert class, actually. Now I do savory classes with desserts. We were using homemade oat milk, and that made a difference. It wasn't rich enough. But Toby, I think that you can do some experimenting. The sugars, I want to actually see if I can find in the queue. I don't see it, what I wrote about the emulsifiers, but I can tell you what I did. So oat milk, for example, the oat milk that I'm talking about, the full fat, it does have some emulsifier. You know what? Let me just grab my container here. I have-- This is original, but it contains, this is an English company, I think. Well, they're in the UK, so they are saying rapeseed oil. We know it as canola oil, organic. And I don't think there are emulsifiers in this. There are emulsifiers in the barista versions, but I don't use the barista-- Oh, there it is. There we go. My comment popped up. Oatly full fat has 3.7% fat content, making it thick and creamy and rich. The barista, which I thought had a higher fat content, does not. It's a 3% fat, has 3% fat, and it includes added phosphates and buffers to prevent separating or curdling in acidic coffee. So that's what you see, these barista versions, and it's not only Oatly, in a lot of coffee shops. I will say that I use either soy milk. I have a frother, an espresso frother. When I froth oat milk, which doesn't have any emulsifiers or any added fat, it's almost like I've made whipped cream in that frother. When I froth this original Oatly, not the full fat, it does not break in my coffee. I have coffee every morning. I have coffee with a shot of espresso, and that's it for the day. So that's what I would say to you, Toby. You have a really good knowledge base, and I think that you could do some experimenting there. Let us know how it goes.
