As anyone who has a dairy allergy, or who lives with someone with a dairy allergy, can tell you: milk is everywhere. Butter is everywhere. Dairy is Everywhere. Packaged food has to list allergens but, for the rest, the safest option is often to do the baking yourself. This series of posts follows my attempt to determine which dairy free milk(s) work best in some of my family's favorite foods: muffins, fudge, mashed potatoes, and pancakes.
For this experiment, I followed a recipe from the Betty Crocker Cookbook:
This edition is from 1983 or 1984 and has been my family's go-to cookbook ever since. Here is the recipe for blueberry muffins:
As you can see, this recipe avoids butter, but contains a significant amount of milk (only flour has a greater amount). This looks like a job for plant milk! But which one? We tried oat, cashew, almond, and soy milks. Here are the results:
Batch A: Oat Milk
My sister helped me make these, and all four of us: Mom, Dad, Sis, and I tasted them. For anonymity, they will be referred to by these names throughout these posts.
Batch A muffins were buttery (with no butter) and biscuit-like. The tops had a nice crunch. One reviewer thought they were dry, and another thought they might have been better warm, but responses were generally positive. Sis and I both called this one our favorite.
When asked to guess, Mom and Dad both thought these were the almond milk ones (as the bakers, sis and I already knew which muffins had which milks).
Batch B: Cashew Milk
The differences started early with this batch. The batter was dryer and stickier than with the oat milk. Batter texture variances would be a common theme, but we are not sure which factors had the greatest influence: fat content? protein content? The jury is still out. If anyone knows, leave a comment.
The end result was more spongey while also being more crumbly than Batch A. The top had the appearance of an oat crumble. These muffins had a buttery flavor, but a powdery texture with the ability to dry out our mouths. There was an indescribable aftertaste and Sis couldn't finish hers.
Mom guessed this one was soy milk, while Dad correctly guessed cashew milk.
Batch C: Almond Milk
The almond milk batter continued the trend of being dryer and stickier than the previous ones.
The resulting muffins were, for lack of a better word, awful. They were dense, heavy, and stuck to the paper. Once free, they had a texture similar to those alphabet puzzle play mats found in preschools and daycare centers. The blueberries had strange taste to them not found in other batches. To be clear, all of the blueberries came from the same bag of Dole Frozen Blueberries and all four batches were baked during the same afternoon. Reviews ranged from "not good" to "inedible."
There were no correct guesses this time. Mom guessed oat and Dad guessed soy.
Batch D: Soy Milk
The soy milk batter was looser, more like the oat milk batter. Compared to the oat milk, this batter was just a little more gooey.
These muffins were so much better than the previous two. They were almost everyone's second favorite (they were Mom's top pick). They had a pleasant saltiness and soft, but not crumbly, texture.
The final ratings went like this (from best to worst):
Mom: soy, oat, cashew, almond
Dad: cashew, soy, almond, oat
Sis and Me (our ratings were identical): oat, soy, cashew, almond
Thank you for coming along on this journey with us! If you tried any of these, or experimented with different milks, leave us a comment.
