Rice Milk

[AD]

I saw a post on using soy milk in cooking. I was just wondering if rice milk could be used for milk in baking (breads, biscuits, waffles, etc.). Also, can it be used in place of milk in ice cream, frozen yogurt, ice milk or other frozen desserts.

Also, what does rice milk taste like? I hate the taste of milk and was wondering how similar the two tasted. I do like rice though. I ruled out soy milk after smelling an infant formula made with it. I nearly choked from the smell!

[ewatkins]

Try the flavored soy milk, like vanilla. Is does have added sugar, but I can drink it plain, whereas the non flavored ones are pretty strange --but not nearly as bad as soy baby formula!

[Marcie]

My son and I haven't drunk milk for a year now (he's allergic; my nursing baby is sensitive to dairy, too). For drinking and on cereal, we like Rice Dream brand, plain or vanilla. On cereal, I'll usually add a splash of soy milk for the protein, which rice milk lacks.

I really don't think any of the milk substitutes (rice, soy, oat, or almond) taste anything at all like the real thing, and they're all pretty different from each other, too. I'd describe the taste of all of them as variations on a "sweet" theme. Some are naturally sweet, and some have sweeteners added. It's worth a trip to the health food store to buy a small carton of each and try them all. My sister loves almond milk but I can't stand the stuff.

My personal experience is that rice milk doesn't bake as well as soy milk. I made muffins and a cake with it, and the texture was weird, sort of chewy, sticky and dense. I really think it's worth giving soy milk a try for baking. You'd be amazed at how difficult it is to detect. My in-laws claim to hate soy milk but I've served them cakes, pancakes, and pies containing soy milk that they raved about.

As for the frozen desserts, I've had Rice Dream brand frozen "ice cream", which tastes okay but has a strange, oily mouth-feel in my opinion. I've never used rice milk to make my own frozen desserts, though.