Rice milk is so versatile. I am a chef and a soapmaker, and I use it in the food I cook, drink it with a bit of vanilla and honey, and I also use it in my soaps. It is so easy to make as well!
In July, I had the pleasure of teaching the participants at the Florida Soapcrafters Conference about using and preparing food for use in soap. My presentation was well received because we all want to use food products in our soaps, and many of us do already, but some just don't know how to make things ourselves. Doing it yourself is a great way to cut costs and also make sure you know exactly what ingredients you are using.
So, to make a beautiful rice milk in the comfort of your own kitchen, you need just a few items.
1 cup of rice (I use organic brown rice)
3-4 cups of cold water - you can use whatever water you would be comfortable drinking
A container with a tight fitting lid that can hold at least 4 cups of liquid
A blender
Fine mesh strainer or nut milk bag
A small skillet or frying pan to toast the rice
1. Pour 1 cup of rice into dry pan on medium heat. Stir rice around in pan(do not leave it alone because it can burn quickly).
When you start to smell a nice nutty toasty rice smell, take the pan off the heat(about 3-4 minutes max)
2. Put rice into your container and cover with 3-4 cups of water. Cover, give it a little shake, let sit for 12 hours or overnight.
3. Pour entire contents of container into your blender and blend until you don't see any pieces of rice going around.
When it is done blending, it should look frothy, like this.
4. Pour the contents of the blender through a fine mesh strainer or a nut milk bag. I got this strainer at my restaurant supply store for around $30. You can find nut milk bags online and sometimes at higher end kitchen stores.
5. Put contents back into jar and refrigerate overnight. Anything left in the strainer after the liquids are gone I put onto a piece of parchment paper and I dry in the oven at 170 degrees Fahrenheit for about 2 hours.
You can see in the image below that even though it has been strained, there is clearly a separation of solids and liquids. You can either just shake it up every time you use it(this is what I do) or you can strain it a second time.
Above is what it looked like after I shook it up. Looks great and consistent again.
6. If you chose to dry out your solid rice flour, remove it from the oven, allow it to cool, then put into your blender until it looks like flour. Here is mine.
7. Time to use your rice milk. If you want to drink it, I like to shake it up, add a teaspoon or less of vanilla extract and a tablespoon of honey.
If it is going into your soaps, just shake it up and measure it and add it to your soap.
For smoothies or any other food products, simply treat it like milk and enjoy it!!
