Oat Milk Creamer Using Steel Cut Oats
Here’s how to make Oat Milk Creamer using steel cut oats that is dairy-free, vegan, and perfect for coffee or other hot beverages. This budget-friendly creamer is great to have in your refrigerator at all times. This is a no slime recipe!
Oat milk is one of the hottest trends of the last few years. It’s dairy-free, vegan, and low in fat but has a creamy texture that works perfectly in coffee or cereal.
Rather than spending a lot of money buying packaged oat milk, here’s how to make it at home using simple ingredients without food additives.
Why You Need This Recipe
- Oat milk is naturally nut-free and possibly less allergenic for some people than almond milk or other plant-based milk alternatives made from nuts. It’s one of my favorite dairy-free milk options. See my tips for starting a dairy-free diet.
- Oats have unique nutritional properties and are high in fiber, B vitamins, and minerals.
- Oat milk has a neutral and natural flavor; it’s non-offensive and blends in with whatever recipe you’re using it in, including coffee drinks or this delicious Oat Milk Hot Chocolate or Matcha Coffee.
- The rich oat cream makes a wonderful dairy-free coffee creamer that is free from gellan gum, cane sugar, sunflower oil, pea protein, canola oil, or other additives that are often added to the pre-made milk non-dairy milks and non-dairy creamers.
- Best of all, this recipe uses steel cut oats which helps reduce any slimy texture that can come from making homemade oat milk. This is a winner that you’ve got to try.
In short, this easy recipe for oat milk is perfect for a no-dairy diet and as your new favorite coffee creamer or milk alternative. The best part is that it’s easy to make. It’s sure to become your new favorite nondairy creamer.
You can also use it in an Oat Milk Smoothie, Oat Milk Eggnog, or for Oat Milk Pancakes!
Key Ingredients
Steel cut oats can be found in the cereal or grain section of most grocery stores (I like using the gluten-free Bob’s Red Mill steel cut oats).
You can also use rolled oats, but I recommend using steel cut oats to help reduce the slime that can come when blending oats and water.
You do need to soak the oats before blending them (see the recipe steps and recipe card below for all the details).
Filtered water gets blended with the oats for this homemade oat milk creamer recipe. I recommend filtered cold water as the best option to help avoid any chlorine flavor to your oat milk.
Maple syrup adds just a touch of sweetness to this creamy dairy-free beverage. You can also use a pitted date for a little sweetness, if you prefer.
Sea salt helps bring together all of the flavors.
Please see the recipe card at the end of this post for the exact ingredients and measurements.
Recipe Steps
Making oat milk is similar to the process of making homemade almond milk where you essentially just blend the ingredients and then squeeze the liquid from the solids.
Let me show you exactly how to do it!
Step One
Soak your steel-cut oats in water for several hours.
Rinse the soaked oats in a strainer or fine-mesh sieve.
Please see the recipe card at the end of this post for the exact ingredients and measurements.
Step Two
Combine the soaked and rinsed oats and three cups of water in a high-speed blender (like a Vitamix) and process for 20-30 seconds.
Step Three
Pour the milk through a fine mesh strainer and use a spatula to gently push it through. You can also use a nut milk bag.
Step Four
Pour the milk back into the blender and add the sea salt and maple syrup.
Blend a second time for just about 5-10 seconds to make sure the mixture is completely combined.
Transfer the oat milk to a container with a lid.
Use immediately in your hot coffee or oat milk latte, or save any leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 5 days
Recipe Tips & Substitutions
- If you don’t have maple syrup, you can use one pitted date instead for a sweetener. If you want to use your oat milk for savoy recipes or you’re on a sugar-free diet, then just leave out any sweetener.
- You can use your oat milk non-dairy creamer in savory dishes, too! Just stir a few tablespoons into a hot soup for a creamy, dairy-free heavy cream option.
- Use certified gluten-free oats to make this recipe gluten-free.
- Filtered water helps prevent any chlorine taste.
- Don’t overblend the oats and water to help prevent it from getting slimy.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, but they tend to create more of a slimy texture than steel cut oats. If you use rolled oats, you don’t need to soak them first.
It is best to use a high-speed blender to ensure that the steel cut oats get fully combined with the water. A regular blender may not get the milk as creamy as it should be.
No, they are different. Use steel cut oats for this recipe.
Oats are very high in soluble fiber which absorbs water. That means that when you blend oats, they have a high surface area to absorb water and create a slimy texture. It’s not actually slime, it’s just water and fiber mixed together. This recipe using steel cut oats can help prevent the slimy texture from occurring as much as the steel cut oats are not as finely cut as rolled oats.
More Homemade Plant Milk Recipes You Might Like
- Cashew Milk
- Vitamix Almond Milk
- Macadamia Nut Milk
- Pumpkin Seed Milk
- Vanilla Coconut Milk Beverage
- Vanilla Hemp Milk
You may also like my round-up of the best dairy-free breakfast smoothies or my the best cancer-fighting smoothies.
Don’t Miss These Yummy Recipes Using Oat Milk
Oat Milk Creamer Using Steel Cut Oats
Here’s how to make Homemade Oat Milk Creamer using steel cut oats that is dairy-free, vegan, and perfect for coffee or other hot beverages. This budget-friendly creamer is great to have in your refrigerator at all times. No slime recipe!
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Ingredients
- 1 cup steel cut oats, soaked and rinsed (see notes)
- 3 cups filtered water
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup (you can also use 1 pitted date)
Instructions
- In the base of a high-speed blender like a Vitamix, combine the steel cut oats and water.
- Blend on high for 20-30 seconds, or until well combined. Do not overblend.
- Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer or a nut milk bag, and gently squeeze out the milk.
- Then, pour the filtered oat milk back into the blender. Add the sea salt and maple syrup and blend for 5-10 seconds.
- Use immediately, or transfer the oat milk creamer into a storage container and store in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
Equipment
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Notes
- To soak your steel cut oats, place them in a medium bowl. Cover with water and let it sit for at least 4 hours, or up to 12 hours. Rinse through a fine mesh strainer before using for oat milk.
- You can use rolled oats for this recipe, but the rolled oats tend to give the oat milk a slimier texture than steel cut oats.
- Use certified gluten-free oats to make this recipe gluten-free.
- Filtered water helps prevent any chlorine taste.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Beverages
- Method: Blender
- Cuisine: Dairy-Free
- Diet: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 12
- Sugar: 0.5 g
- Sodium: 3.7 mg
- Fat: 0.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 2.2 g
- Fiber: 0.3 g
- Protein: 0.4 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Keywords: oat milk with steel cut oats, homemade oat milk creamer, non-slimy oat milk
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About the Author: Carrie Forrest has a master’s degree in public health with a specialty in nutrition. She is a top wellness and food blogger with over 10 million annual visitors to her site. Carrie has an incredible story of recovery from chronic illness and is passionate about helping other women transform their health. Send Carrie a message through her contact form.
You seem to use the words milk and cream interchangeably, so I’m wondering if this recipe (perfect and easy!) is milk and a little neutral oil is added to make it a creamer?
★★★★★
How can I use the ground oats left in the nut milk bag?
Great question! I don’t have a great answer as I’ve never used them after making the oat milk.
I’ve used the leftover oats to make this: callascleaneats.com cookie-baked-oatmeal
It’s not quite as good as the original recipe but it still works and is tasty and satisfying. I’ve used a flax egg and it works just fine. I’ve also microwaved it until it looked done if I didn’t have time to bake.
Instead of a nut bag, could this be filtered through the strainer that is used for making greek yogurt?
Great question! I don’t think you could use that type of strainer as you wouldn’t have the ability to push the milk against the bag to squeeze out the milk, if that makes sense.
The flavor is nice when it is cold, made the mistake of warming it up to put in coffee as we do with the store bought oatmilk. It turned into a thick oatmeal putty. So… do not warm it up. The cold version… when we put it in coffee the vanilla extract had a very bitter taste. Maybe try imitation vanilla or the one that does not have alcohol. So now we used it as a base for chia pudding. Won’t make it this way again.
★★★★
Approximately how much vanilla extract would you put in for vanilla oat milk
A teaspoon would be perfect!
Does the dates affect the flavor if I wanted to use it for cooking?
Yes I would leave them out if you want to use the oat milk for a savory recipe.
Wow! It worked! I sweetened with maple syrup and pushed the mixture through with a spoon. Thank you!
★★★★★
Woo-hoo! I like your idea to sweeten it with maple syrup.
does this curdle in hot coffee, like other dairy-free milks?
It doesn’t for me!