Milk is something that people have been eating and using in cooking for centuries, even millennia. It is, arguably, one of the most versatile cooking ingredients out there with the number of recipes that people can include milk in and the number of recipes that require milk in them to truly shine.
While this is certainly more of a modern change in the way that people cook and go about their daily lives, even milk alternatives are beginning to have more and more of a place compared to your regular, store-bought, dairy cow’s milk.
Whether you want to live a healthier life with milks that aren’t as full of fat as cow’s milk is or you simply cannot drink cow’s milk due to dietary reasons, there are tens of different types of milk alternatives that you can choose from.
Because milk alternatives have been gaining traction in the past few years, more people are learning how to work with them in much the same way that they work with other milks, creating ways that people can use their alternatives milks in coffees, teas, and even some recipes.
Between milks that originate from nuts and seeds to milks that are made from plants, there are enough different milks to choose from, no matter what your dietary needs might be.
The question then becomes a matter of trying to get these milks to work with you the way that dairy milk would have. People tend to use cow’s milk the most for two reasons.
One, because it is the most popular and readily available milk to choose from if you don’t have to follow specific dietary guidelines. Two, because people have been using it for so long, there are countless guides out there on how to get cow’s milk to do what you need it to do, such as froth.
Frothed milk is an incredibly common ingredient in many coffees, especially those with espresso in them. The frothed milk adds more volume and texture to the drink, making it easier to swallow and more enjoyable when you do drink it.
Naturally, people are going to want to figure out how to do this with their milk alternatives, and one of the most popular milk alternatives out there that people are trying to work with is coconut milk.
Coconut milk is incredibly popular not only for its use in Thai recipes, but because it tends to be a very healthy alternative to your standard cow’s milk.
The question is, though, does coconut milk froth like cow’s milk, and if it does, how do you get it to do so when you don’t have a frother to work with?
The Problem with Coconut Milk
Coconut milk, as one might expect, has a different consistency than cow’s milk does. Coconut milk is actually, in a sense, a type of fruit juice as it is made exclusively from coconut “meat” (the white part of the coconut fruit).
As a fruit juice, coconut milk has a tendency to clump up and have more solid masses than cow’s milk does, mostly because cow’s milk should never be clumpy or have a consistency other than that of liquid. Coconut milk, on the other hand, has a frequent tendency to clump up every so often, which can be a problem for frothing.
This becomes a problem because frothing makes use of air bubbles and eventually turning them into a more stable form that one can use to add volume to the milk.
If there are solid chunks of coconut in your coconut milk, this is going to take up much of the room that the air bubbles will need for frothing, making it significantly harder to get coconut milk to do what you want, especially when you don’t have a frother to work with.
This problem is relatively easy to solve by stirring or shaking the container of coconut milk, but it is a problem that you need to be mindful of as it will interfere heavily with frothing your coconut milk. There is, however, a bigger problem that comes with coconut milk and its ability to froth.
Coconut milk, as a liquid, is much thinner than cow’s milk is as it is almost entirely water compared to the fatty cow’s milk. This means that when you do froth coconut milk, it will produce much larger bubbles and it will heat up much more quickly than cow’s milk will.
If you try to froth coconut milk the same way that you would try and froth cow’s milk, you will end up with a bubbly mess that will not be as suitable. The best way to get around this is to use lower settings than you normally would so that you can achieve a more “normal” amount of froth when you are manually frothing your coconut milk.
You could also opt to froth the milk the way that you normally would, but you need to be prepared to stop earlier because of how quickly coconut milk naturally froths. Be mindful when you are planning to froth coconut milk that it has the capability to froth quickly.
Frothing Your Coconut Milk
You don’t necessarily need a frother or a frothing wand to create froth in milk, including milk alternatives. The crux of frothing your milk is not only to introduce air into the milk, but also to introduce heat so that the air bubbles can stabilize for a nice and tasty cup of coffee in the morning.
When you think about it, it is incredibly simple to add air into the milk and then to heat it up, although with coconut milk you need to be more cautious about the “heating up” aspect of it as it is notoriously fast to heat.
There are two different methods that you can opt for when you want to froth coconut milk and they are much the same methods you would use when frothing typical cow’s milk.
You can either use a container with a lid and the microwave, or you can use the stovetop and a French press to get the job done. Using the container with a lid is far more accessible to people, as you don’t need a French press to get the job done.
Many people do say that using a stovetop and a French press offers more control over the heat and the amount of air bubbles you can add, which may be more suitable for the delicate coconut milk.
Starting with the simple method first, using a lidded container and the microwave is the easiest to work with, although you have to be careful when you get to heating up the coconut milk. The steps for this method are as simple as you might be able to imagine.
For this method, you will first want to pour the designated amount of milk into the container, with most people using between four and eight ounces of milk depending on how frothy they want their coffee to be. Next, you will want to securely place the lid onto the container and shake the milk up for 30 to 60 seconds.
The more you shake the container, the more air bubbles you will get, so keep this in mind when you are shaking it up. You will then want to remove the lid of the container and then place it in the microwave for no more than 15 seconds (compared to the maximum 30 that you would use for cow’s milk) so that the milk doesn’t expand quite as much.
To be extra careful, keep an eye on it so you can take it out of the microwave once it reaches the acceptable level of froth that you want. From here, you would proceed to add it to your coffee the same way that you would add other kinds of frothed milk.
Using a French press allows you to have more control over the amount of air bubbles you want in your milk since you are the one who is manually pressing it so you can physically see how much is in there, compared to the relatively broad method of shaking a container full of milk.
With this method, you also heat the milk up on the stovetop, which allows you far more control over the heat and the time that you are cooking the milk.
For this method, you typically want to use the French press for no more than 30 seconds, as this will get you all of the froth that you could need for your coconut milk. From here, you will then move on to heating your coconut milk on the stove.
Heating coconut milk is a delicate process, as its extremely low fat content means that it heats up about as fast as water does, compared to your standard dairy milk.
As long as you are working with a relatively low heat and you keep your eyes on the milk as it heats up, you should be able to make sure that you achieve the right amount of froth from your coconut milk, just as you would for any other type of milk.
Sarah is the founder of Baking Kneads, LLC, a blog sharing guides, tips, and recipes for those learning how to bake. Growing up as the daughter of a baker, she spent much of her childhood learning the basics in a local bakery.