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If you think that normal ice cream is made from milk, is it possible to make it with oat milk?

I am not too sure if the lack of lactose in oat milk would restrict the stickiness or formation of the ice cream. Is it possible to make oat milk ice cream, or would it just turn into mush?

Rodrigo de Azevedo
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Grace
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    Your problem is not the lactose, it is the fat. You need between 10 and 20% of homogenized/emulsified fat for a good icecream texture. You can try getting it from some other ingredient if you use "oat milk" which is mostly starch dissolved in water. – rumtscho Jun 08 '13 at 17:56
  • Do you have any suggestions for other ingredient(s) to use as a substitute for that missing fat? – Grace Jun 09 '13 at 01:21
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    I remember reading an article years ago, where someone was recommending blending different plant milks rather than using them as-is. Unfortunately, I can't remember the combination that they liked best, but I think it was hemp + coconut, either of which might give you the fat you need. (I know they covered rice, soy and almond ... I don't know if they had looked at oat) – Joe May 13 '19 at 19:16

2 Answers2

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Evidently, there are some recipes for frozen confections based on oat milk.

For example, Dia Designs provides "5 vegan ice creams", most of which are based on oat milk. They read more like sorbet recipes, due to the lack of fat in the mix.

If you were to try to create your own oat milk based frozen dessert recipes, I would suggest modifying a base sorbet recipe, as they are not as dependent on fat as ice cream recipes. The additional starches in oat milk compared to water should add slightly more body and mouth feel, and make the product more opaque than a traditional sorbet.

If you are not opposed to egg whites, you might also consider using sherbert recipes as your base.

Note: the lactose in dairy products does not have a huge effect on the chemistry of ice cream (it is a small part of the total sugar in the mix), although it could potentially help inhibit sugar crystal formation somewhat (this is not usually an issue in frozen desserts). If you want to replace its effect, a small amount of honey, maple syrup, or even corn syrup would be very similar.

SAJ14SAJ
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Alternatively, you can add in some fats, like a canola oil or other flavor-less oil, and use some lecithin or xantham gum as an emulsifier. Just put the oat milk and oil in a blender and add the emulsifier, and that should homogenize your new milk and give it a higher fat content which will work toward the creaminess of the ice cream. (I haven't tried this with an ice cream maker but have done something similar whenusing oat milk in an aquafaba based ice cream, and it worked well).

Veg Anon
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