Making your own milk is great fun, but it isn’t always easy to achieve the desired consistency. If you can’t get your oat milk to froth up, you might be wondering what you’re doing wrong.
A few different things can stop your oat milk from frothing up properly. Having too much water in your oat milk is one cause of this problem since froth is created by fat and protein. Another issue that you might encounter is the lack of thickening agents. If you include thickening agents or buy a milk with them in, you should find it will froth more easily.
We’re going to use this article to look at the top reasons that oat milk won’t froth, and what you can do to achieve nice, foamy oat milk, whether you’re using homemade milk or store-bought.
Why Won’t Your Oat Milk Froth?
If your oat milk won’t froth, there are generally 2 main reasons:
- It contains too much water
- It doesn’t contain thickening agents
If you have made your own milk, it’s likely that you have added too much water to the batch. Without sufficient amounts of fat and protein, milk cannot become frothy, because there’s nothing to hold the air in the milk. Although oat milk is one of the best plant milks for frothing, it’s still got to be thick enough.
The other issue with homemade oat milk is that it doesn’t usually have thickeners in it. Store-bought oat milk will, but the amounts will vary between brands, so you may find that some brands froth much better than others. Thickening agents again help the milk trap the air and improve its ability to froth.
With watery milk or milk that doesn’t contain thickening agents, the bubbles will be unstable. They will collapse and the froth will dissipate as soon as it forms – leaving you with flat milk. Even if you manage to work up a foam, it will probably dissipate within a few minutes, especially if you leave the milk for a bit.
We’ll explore these two problems and what you can do to solve them in more detail below.
Reason 1) It’s Too Watery
If you have ever tried to froth water, you’ll know that it’s pretty difficult. You may be able to get some bubbles to form in the water, but the froth will dissipate almost immediately because there is no fat or structure to maintain the froth. The bubbles will pop fast, and rejoin the rest of the liquid.
The same is true of oat milk; too much water will prevent it from holding its frothiness. This is very frustrating, and it can happen with both homemade oat milk and store-bought oat milk. If you buy your oat milk, try swapping it to a different brand, as this may solve the problem. Some brands are frothier than others.
If you make your oat milk, you may want to adjust your recipe. At the most, you should be using a 4:1 ratio of water to oats, and in general, you’ll get better results with a larger number of oats. You don’t want it to be too thick, or it won’t work as milk, but if you leave it thin, it will simply not froth.
Experiment with different ratios, and make sure you are squeezing sufficient amounts of oat milk through your straining cloth.
In some cases, people use a straining cloth that is too fine, and they end up with mostly water, while the thicker and creamier liquid gets left in the cloth. If you’re already working with a low water ratio, check whether your straining cloth is too fine, and use a coarser cloth to let more fats and proteins pass through.
Reason 2) There Are No Thickening Agents
Again, this is more likely to be a problem with homemade oat milk, but store-bought brands can vary too. You might want to check the ingredients list specifically to see what thickening agents the different brands use so you can experiment with the various options and find out which works best for you.
If you are making your own oat milk at home, it won’t contain any thickening agents of course, but you can add them if you choose to. Some people mix a little xanthan gum or guar gum into their oat milk to make it thicker. This will help it to hold a froth, although it does make the recipe more complicated and requires you to purchase more ingredients.
Conclusion
If you want frothy oat milk, it’s worth trying a few different brands to find one that offers the best ability to hold its froth. If you’re making it yourself at home, check you’re getting enough oats in your recipe, and use a coarser cloth for straining so that more fats end up in your oat milk.
