Healthy, creamy, yummy rice milk recipe June 8, 2007
Posted by Karen Joy in Celiac Disease, Cooking/Baking/Food/Recipes, Dairy-free, Digestive Woes, GF Recipes, GFCF Recipes, Medical Stuff, The Kids.trackback
Edited 08/04/07, 06/09/08 & 9/29/08 with a few refinements.
Rice milk. It’s expensive. It’s nearly devoid of nutrients. It’s also nearly the only non-juice, non-water liquid that my 5yo can drink. Dairy triggers asthma attacks, and he’s intolerant of soy. Most rice milks (or other non-dairy beverages) also contain ingredients to which he’s allergic and/or intolerant; our options are very limited. The *one* brand of rice milk he can drink is $1.79 per quart and is a 25 minute drive away. Now, with my 1yo with an obvious dairy intolerance, too… well, I thought it was time to start making my own rice milk. And, since I’m making it, I thought I’d come up with a recipe that is (refined-) sugar-free and high in protein.
Following is the recipe I created. If all ingredients are used as indicated, the cost is equivalent to about $1.15 per quart. If you omit the brown rice protein powder, and use a less expensive sweetener, your cost will only be about $0.20 per quart.
This recipe makes enough concentrated mix to make 11 quarts of rice milk, or 44 servings at one 8 oz cup each. Each serving (1/4 cup concentrate or 8 oz diluted) contains approximately 13 g carbohydrates, 2.6 g fat, and 4.5 g protein.
It makes a rather creamy, carmelly-colored rice milk with a consistency about the same as dairy/cow milk (IOW, it’s not watery). The thickeners act as an emulsifier, so the oil does not separate.
This recipe makes 2.5+ gallons of rice milk. If that is more than your family will drink in two weeks, you could surely halve the recipe. Or, freeze it. Freeze in 2 cup batches in freezer bags, or freeze in larger containers, but make sure you stir it well after it thaws, as it does separate a little upon thawing.
(A second rice milk recipe of mine is here.)
Rice Milk
7 1/2 c. water (distilled is best)
2 Tbsp vanilla (OR 1-2 tsp cinnamon)
1 c. brown rice flour or white rice flour
1 rounded c. brown rice protein (found at Whole Foods, or various online retailers)
1 tsp. guar gum
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 cup canola, safflower or sunflower oil
2 c. honey (OR 1 1/2 cup honey and 1/2 cup xylitol)
(Sometimes, I also grind up four dairy-free tabs of acidophilus with a mortar & pestle, and add that, too)
- Over high heat, bring six cups of water to boil in a large saucepan.
- In a small bowl or mixing cup, combine vanilla or cinnamon, rice flour and 1 1/2 cups water, mixing thoroughly.
- While you are waiting for the water to boil, in a large, heat-safe mixing bowl, whisk to combine brown rice protein powder, guar gum and xanthan gum. Add the oil, and stir thoroughly. Add honey, and mix with an electric mixer until well-combined.
- Once the water in the saucepan boils, stir in the rice flour mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Turn down heat to medium-low and boil at least five minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and no longer gritty.
- Then, pour the brown rice mixture to the mixing bowl, using a silicone spatula to scrape the sides of the saucepan. (Be careful, as the brown rice mixture is very hot. Alternately, cover the rice mixture and cool it until it is easier/safer to handle.) With an electric mixer, beat on high until ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Makes 11 cups concentrated mix. To serve, mix 1/4 c. concentrate with 3/4 c. water to make one cup, and stir or shake well. Or, measure 1 cup mix into the bottom of a quart jar, adding water to fill jar. Shake well to mix. (… or 2 cups for a 1/2 gallon jar, or 4 cups for a gallon jar.)
Store the mix (and diluted rice milk) in the fridge in an airtight container.
Diluted rice milk stays pretty well emulsified; there’s not a whole lot of settling. However, give your rice milk a shake or stir before serving.
KJ!! YOu are giving away your recipes that you should be selling ala book!!
Think of it as me building up a faithful free clientele who might be willing, someday hopefully soon, to become paying customers!!!
[...] Rice Milk Recipe #2 (gluten-free, casein-free) June 14, 2007 Filed under: GFCF Recipes, GF Recipes, Cooking/Baking/Food/Recipes, Medical Stuff, Celiac Disease — onlysometimesclever @ 3:29 pm (My first recipe is here.) [...]
Karen,
You rock. Did I say that before? In you I see the love of Christ poured out, and that’s a very cool thing. Your kiddos are very lucky to have a mom that loves them enough to go to all this work – and isn’t that what Christ did?
Steve
I just found your rice milk recipe and I cannot wait to try it. My daughter also has the same issues and we also use Westsoy brand. I cannot drink it as it is so sweet it gives me a stomach ache. Would you by chance know how much calcium your recipe has? I have to keep a close eye on her intake. Regardless of the amount of calcium, this sounds so much better!
God bless,
Kelley
Kelley ~
It doesn’t really have any calcium. That’s actually my next thing… I have to find a way to add calcium to it. I’ve looked at liquid calcium, but it’s really expensive. Next time I’m at the healthfood store, I’m looking for something I can add to this that won’t be gritty, but will add calcium…
~Karen
[...] did some experimenting, and came up with a rice milk recipe that is working rather well. It approximates the dairy milk nutritional values of fat, carbs and [...]
sounds like if your little one has allergies he needs almond milk which can be found in supermarket it has guar gum already in it. he won’t be allergic to it and if you private e-mail me i will gladly tell you why.
[...] 1 c. rice milk (see [...]
Thank you ! I have been using Whole foods rice milk for years then discovered they were using Canola Oil when they stopped importing it – made in USA an went organic.
I found that good oils are critical to energy in the body – Used Rice Dream for a while until they just changed their ingredients…
So thank you I will try this and let you know…
Just a note: Rice Dream is not gluten-free. It contains flavoring from barley — barley malt. It’s only 0.002% gluten, but that’s still too much. For every 1 cup serving, that’s about 1/2 of a gram of barley gluten. Only 1/8 of a gram (much less) is enough gluten to exacerbate a celiac’s symptoms.
[...] cup rice milk (or milk of your [...]
I am glad to have found your rice milk recipe- I’ll be trying it soon, as my favorite rice milk has switched from canola oil to “and/or” sunflower oil (and I’m allergic to sunflower). Thanks for this post!
My now 6 year old is also allergic to everything, from dairy to soy to perservatives to sugar and salt. Calcium intake has been one of the biggest challenges. So far Trader Joe’s Original Organic Rice Milk has been working real well for us. It contains no artificial ingredients but does have calcium, B6 and B12, real hard to come by for us.
Saskia ~ Thanks for the tip about TJ’s rice milk! They had rice milk for a while, then stopped carrying it, so their organic rice milk must be a fairly new product. Your comment (plus news about g.f. granola) compelled me to go to TJ’s the other day. I got a few half-gallons of the rice milk, as back-up/emergency. Only $2.69, that’s not very expensive for a half-gallon. HOWEVER, it has NO protein. None. So, to me, other than the calcium, it’s like, “What’s the point in drinking it?” Also, though the front of the package says Gluten-Free, the side panel notes that it is made on equipment shared with “wheat, milk, tree nuts, soy, and fish.” Those first three are all problems for my own 6yo…. So, though I’m glad to have a ready-made product to occasionally fall back upon, it looks like this isn’t really the perfect replacement for making my own.
[...] on my rice milk recipe (which I still make every 10 days or so), a reader recently posted a comment about Trader [...]
[...] a truly gluten-free brand such as as Pacific Foods Rice Milk or making your own, like Karen’s Homemade Rice Milk at Only Sometimes Clever. Her recipe contains more a lot more protein, and she’s working on [...]
You never cease to amaze me!
I had never heard about the gluten in Rice Dream! I read our labels very carefully and I went and pulled out our box and it says gluten-free on it and no reference to barley at all… so I called the manufacturer and this is the disturbing conversation I had…
They told me that within the last year, the manufacturer’s of Rice Dream have removed the reference to barley protein from their labeling, and added gluten-free to the label. In questioning them, nothing has changed with their manufacturing though. They stated that they have tested and that there is no gluten in their product. I asked why a year ago there was trace amounts, and if nothing has changed with manufacturing, why they are suddenly finding that now there is absolutely no gluten in it. I was then told that they met the FDA standard of less than 20 parts per million and by definition the product was gluten-free. So nothing has changed except the label stating it is gluten-free – very scary!
Fortunately, trace amounts of gluten are not a problem for my child and the Rice Dream brand is the only one we can get her to drink, and at times one of only a handful of ways we can reliably get calories into her at all (which is why we use it). It’s also a major source of her calcium intake … I add rice protein to our baked goods and get her protein in through other sources, but I recently posted a GFCF recipe using Rice Dream and have amended it to say that a different brand of rice milk should be used to make it completely gluten-free. Thanks so much for the warning on this Karen!
Just wondering can you substitute the rice flour with quinoa flour?
I really enjoy you website, VERY informative.
Hi there,
I live in az as well and have a 13month old that is having major issues with milk intolerance and he is allergic to soy the pediatrician recently told me to put him on rice milk. I am just wondering if you could tell me what is important to look to see if the brand has. I love that you make your own but that just will not work for us can you offer any suggestions on a good brand.
Heather mommy to james
hey- i was wondering… if you leave the brown rice protein out… what would i substitute for it… or anything? should i add extra flour?
ooh– or would leaving out the guar and/or xanthan gum do much? oh, i feel helpless! sorry!
THANK YOU For this!!! I CANNOT Wait to try it!! I’ve tried to make it before with regular rice, but it was terrible! This will be so much easier and CHEAPER than buying it! Thank you thank you thank you!!
Hi Karen, I just found your website through Ginger Lemon Girl and can’t wait to peruse it more! My fiance drinks rice milk, and I’m looking forward to trying this! I’m curious, have you seen/tried the Soybella soy milk maker? They say you can make soy, rice, and almond milk with it. We thought about getting it, but it’s a little pricey for something we’re not sure about.
Also, I saw above that you mentioned that Rice Dream is not GF- is that only some varieties? The kind we buy (vanilla) says “Gluten Free” right on the packaging. I do remember that they used to contain barley, but it’s not listed in the ingredients anymore. I realize that claiming to be GF is currently unregulated, so anyone can slap the label up there, but I hope that if they’re making the claim, it truly is…not the least because I had some for breakfast this morning!
Thanks for the comment, Kristina! I haven’t tried the Soybella milk maker. I haven’t even seen it. I think since this recipe works so well for me, and it starts with the WHOLE rice grain (via flour), I’d prefer it to something that just soaks the grain.
As backup, I recently bought a couple of cartons of Rice Dream with great trepidation. They don’t list barley gluten any more, and the variety I got didn’t even have the sometimes-scary “natural flavors” under which it could hide… so I went for it. It doesn’t seem to have caused any problems, but I still won’t buy it regularly.
About the recipe — after making it for about a year and a half now, I now usually use only about 1/2 cup rice protein powder. Also, I have found that Jarrow brand powder works a tiny bit better than MLO. MLO seems a tiny bit gritty, plus, its protein content isn’t as high as Jarrow. Also, last time I made it, I used 1 1/2 cups honey and 1/2 cup xylitol, and that worked great!