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Spelled Milk, The Best Plant-Based Milk For Frothing

If you want to eat vegan or avoid animal milk for other reasons, you can use milk alternatives such as spelled milk. It is considered compatible, vegan, healthy, lactose-free and extremely ecological. But is that really the case? The spelled drink under the magnifying glass.

First of all: Suppliers of products are not allowed to call plant-based milk substitutes such as those made from spelt as “milk” or “milk substitute”, this is prohibited under EU legislation. The commercially available products are therefore usually labeled “spelled drink”. But nobody says that colloquially, which is why we call it “spelled milk”.

What exactly is spelled milk?

Basically, spelled milk consists of water and very finely ground spelled grains that have been soaked beforehand.

For industrial production, the two components are mixed well and pressed through a very fine sieve.

Depending on the manufacturer, the “raw” spelled milk is then enriched with vitamins, calcium or sweeteners before it is filled into the package as a spelled drink.

Cereal flavor and nice foam

Sweeteners, such as those made from dates or agave syrup, are mainly added because spelled milk in its pure form tastes very floury and like grain. The slightly nutty note of the spelled flour is no longer discernible in the filtered drink. The distinct floury taste of the spelled drink is perhaps also the reason why it lags behind oat milk or rice drinks in terms of popularity.

But the milk substitute has another advantage: due to the high proportion of gluten, the spelled milk can be frothed particularly well. This makes them perfect for all café latte and cappuccino fans looking for plant-based alternatives to their favorite coffee.

What are the nutritional values ​​of the spelled drink?

As already mentioned, spelled milk consists mainly of spelled (flour) and water.
The spelled drink therefore contains, unlike normal cow’s milk, only about 1g of fat per 100ml and no lactose.
However, the grain content has an impact of around 8 g carbohydrates and an average of around 45 kcal/100ml.
The protein content is relatively low at around 0.3g per 100ml. For comparison: cow’s milk with 1.5% fat contains about 4.9g carbohydrates and 3.4g proteins with a calorific value of about 47 kcal.
The spelled drink contains no lactose, casein or other substances that may cause allergies. For those who cannot tolerate cow’s milk, using spelled milk substitutes is an interesting solution.
However, like wheat, spelled has a very high proportion of the gluten protein, which makes spelled milk absolutely unsuitable if you suffer from gluten intolerance or even celiac disease.
The problem with sold spelled milk is that it is seasoned with a lot of sugar and salt. But that’s only a problem if you consume too much of it.
There is no general answer as to whether spelled milk is healthy.

The question remains whether the spelled milk might provide you with important building blocks for a healthy diet.
For the proteins contained in the milk substitute, it is true that spelled contains all the essential amino acids. However, the overall protein content is so low that grain milk is not suitable as a source of protein; as such, milk or soy drink is better.
Spelled milk is also only suitable as a source of calcium if it has been artificially added.
There is a lot of silicic acid in the spelled grain, which is good for skin and hair, as well as a lot of other minerals, including potassium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese and magnesium. However, all in small parts.
During the production of the spelled drink, most of the solid components are also filtered out – and with them many of the valuable nutrients in the spelled.
Let’s put it this way: simply eating spelled as bread is healthier. However, the plant-based milk substitute itself is important for the health of the world. The extent of the greenhouse gas emissions for spelled milk is not yet known, but they are likely to be in the order of magnitude of oat milk, i.e. significantly below those of cow’s milk.

Recipe: Make your own spelled milk

Of course, you can also easily make spelled milk yourself. For this you need:
80 grams of organic spelled
1l water
blender or blender
Bowl for soaking or germinating
Possibly pitted dates or agave syrup as a sweetener
For the simpler, quicker version, let the spelled grains soak in a bowl with a little water overnight. The spelled, water and sweetener then go into a high-performance blender or are chopped up as finely as possible with a blender.

The mixture is then filtered through a cotton cloth, leaving only a cloudy liquid. If you like, you can also omit the last step. The spelled drink then tastes more like grain, but the valuable ingredients of the spelled are retained.

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Food

Frothing Almond Milk: This is How It Works

Unlike soy milk, for example, almond milk does not froth well. But with a few tricks or special barista versions, it still works. We will explain to you what is important when it comes to almond milk foam.

Almond milk is particularly popular among allergy sufferers because it is free of lactose, soy protein, milk protein and gluten. However, due to the cultivation of almonds, almond milk is not the most environmentally friendly milk alternative. Because of the taste, many still use almond milk. The problem: it usually doesn’t foam well because it lacks enough fat and protein.

There are now special barista versions of almond milk on the market that are suitable for frothing. We present selected products to you. We will also explain how you can make your own almond milk and how you can use a few ingredients to make it a barista edition.

Froth almond milk – you can do it with special products

In general, normal almond milk is not well suited for “latte-style” coffee: either it cannot be frothed at all or it forms unpleasant flakes in the coffee.

In the meantime, however, the trade has followed suit and offers some barista versions of almond milk that are especially suitable for frothing. However, most of these products contain additives and are not available in organic quality:

For example, there is Joya’s barista almond milk, which contains maltodextrin, the stabilizer gellan and lecithins as well as dipotassium phosphate as an acid regulator.
Alpro also has a barista almond milk in its range, but it also contains other additives: In addition to sugar, fructose, acidity regulators and the stabilizers gellan and guar gum, it also contains flavors.
EcoMil’s barista almond milk is available in organic quality and with higher-quality ingredients: it contains cane sugar, tapioca starch, sunflower oil, pea protein, natural vanilla flavoring and the stabilizer gellan gum.
The fact that Barista almond milk products require so many additives shows that “normal” almond milk is otherwise difficult to froth. With a good milk frother, you can also achieve good results with the spelled-almond drink from Natumi or the almond drink from Alnatura. Both products contain no unnecessary additives and are available in organic quality.

The most important tip: Only cold almond milk can be frothed at all. Almond milk is best straight from the fridge.

Make barista almond milk yourself: recipe ideas

If you want to froth regular almond milk, a few other ingredients can help. As a basic ingredient, you can either use store-bought organic almond milk or make your own almond milk.

To add more proteins and fats to the almond milk and give it more stability, you can try the following ingredients:

About 50 grams of soaked cashew nuts or a heaping tablespoon of cashew butter in one liter of almond milk give the vegan milk alternative more protein and fat. Then, blend the milk in a high-speed blender and strain it through a nut milk bag. Then the almond milk can be foamed a little better.
Alternatively, you can also add vegetable cooking oil. But it takes quite a lot for that – about 90 milliliters of oil to 1 liter of almond milk. Rapeseed oil or sunflower oil are suitable.
To increase the protein content, you can add a tablespoon of protein powder to the almond milk – preferably in addition to the vegetable oil. Pea protein or hemp protein, for example, are recommended.
Additionally, you can add 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of guar gum, locust bean gum, or gellan gum to almond milk as a stabilizer. This makes the almond milk creamier and easier to froth.
Tapioca starch, locust bean gum or psyllium husk powder are suitable natural thickeners.
You can also add lecithin to prevent the frothed almond milk from flaking in the coffee. This emulsifier prevents the individual ingredients from separating from each other. In addition to soy lecithin, you can also use sunflower lecithin.
It is also important that the almond milk is as cool as possible before frothing and that you use a good milk frother (e.g. from Memolife**). With the appropriate ingredients such as cashew butter, oil, protein powder and stabilizer, the almond milk should also be frothed with an ordinary mini milk frother.

Alternatively, you can also switch to another plant-based milk as a milk substitute: soy milk and spelled milk are particularly easy to froth. Oat milk is also available in selected barista editions that use few additives.

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