After I made this crazy hot pink Valentine's confection, one of the comments on the strawberry milk required for the cake was, "Why not make your own?" Now that was a great idea! Creamy, smooth and straight from the diner of my dreams, a glass of chilled, pink, and homemade strawberry milk will make your after-school snack gee whiz terrific!
While preparing that cake I mentioned, I thought I fell in love with the bottled (eek, super artificially flavored!) strawberry milk, probably due to the novel taste, after a childhood bereft of processed foods and full of wholesome granola. It was like overly sweet, Pepto-Bismol pink, illicit moonshine. I lapped it up any time I passed the fridge.
Now I know better.
This homemade strawberry milk is full of fresh fruit flavor and velvety smoothness. It's what that cloying artificial stuff wants to be, and falls so short of. This recipe is simple to make, and could be adapted to whatever your favorite fruit might be (blueberry, peach and mango are all great substitutions). Essentially, you are making a fruit-infused simple syrup, then swirling it into a glass of cold milk. I tried this recipe with almond and soy milk, which were both pleasant, but the classic full fat dairy charm of whole milk is pretty unbelievable.
This recipe would be great treat to serve at a kid's birthday party, but it is just as wonderful as a surprise dessert for a bunch of adults. Re-inventing kiddie classics takes everyone down memory lane. You never know what 30-somethings will do when imbibing homemade strawberry milk until you try it!
1 cup strawberries, chopped (I used organic frozen with great results)
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 1/2 cup whole milk
In a small pot, heat strawberries, sugar and water until boiling (it's a bit like making jam). Let boil for about 10 minutes; mixture will reduce and thicken slightly. Using a fine sieve or mesh strainer, strain the mixture into a small bowl. You can save the cooked strawberries to add to yogurt or put on pancakes. Set the strawberry syrup aside.
Chill two small glasses in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Add 3/4 cup milk to each glass. Swirl in 3 tablespoons of the strawberry syrup into each glass of milk (more or less, depending on desired sweetness). You will have a little strawberry syrup left over, perfect for pancakes or adding to soda water.
Related: Make Your Own Fruit-On-The-Bottom Yogurt
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Um, I want to go to there. I LOVE strawberry milk in all of its artificial glory, and I can only imagine how wonderful this is.
Might have to hit the grocery store after work.
I'm totally going to do this. and not tell the kids....I'm just going to put it in the kefir bottle and call it their yogurt drink. I'll let you know how it goes
As the risk of sounding stupid, I *never* thought about making "real" strawberry milk. I always assumed it was only the fake stuff. I love strawberry milk, but haven't had it in years because I don't like the taste of it. Thank you.
I'm going to try this with skim milk. I can't stomach full-fat milk. :(
Do you think this would work with bananas? My brother LOVES banana milk for some reason, but it's not widely available in the states...
I wonder if you even need the sugar?
This sounds absolutely divine, even though i don't really care for strawberry milk. While at the grocery store, i was thinking of all the things i could be doing with strawberries that seem to be everywhere. While i love eating them, i'm the only one in the house that does, and when they get past their prime, i'd rather move on. This will be a great way to have some fresh, and use up the rest. I'll make the syrup, and use in my cocktails. I can't wait. Thanks for the tip.
You don't even really need the sugar - I make this all the time but all I do is puree the strawberries in the blender and then add the milk and blend again. For little kids, strain the seeds out, but still no need for sugar!
My daughter would go nuts for this.
love this! I have some less that prime strawberries that will be perfectly put to use.
When I was a kid, we made strawberry milk out of a nearly empty jar of strawberry jam. Pour milk into it, cover and shake. Voila! Strawberry milk.
I just made it, with strawberries that we picked ourselves and I froze.
I might even do this with blueberries once we pick them!
delicious.
I think I need to go picking for more berries...
hmm, we have frozen mango bits in the freezer. I think I might have to make some mango milk!
magzeen - that's genius!
That sounds genius.
Um. Raspberry milk.
I beat you to it on this one:) We tasted fresh strawberry milk at Cups in La Jolla and she gave us the abridged recipe of theirs. They make it fresh! I had seen the strawberry cake recipe and my daughter and I turned the recipe into cupcakes with the homemade strawberry milk. They were amazing!!! On the plus side, the milk tastes like a strawberry milkshake minus a lot of the calories!!!
Blueberries aren´t good for milk. Perhaps in small quantities, but once I tried making a blueberry smoothie, and instead of remaining liquid, in a minute or so it turned out the consistency of yogurt...
For banana milk you don't need to make the simple syrup. Simply blend a very ripe banana in a blender with milk, no cooking or sweetener required. Yum!
I'm kind of wondering if you would get the same results with just blending whole strawberries with milk and sugar? Always looking to cut corners...
over here we have something called "turmix" and basically just blitz your favourite fruit with milk, add sugar if you wish - voila :)
Since no one else asked ... where is the tablecloth from? I love it.
that 'tablecloth' is actually a vintage pillowcase from an estate sale in Portland, OR -- where I live. I think it's so adorable!
I made it yesterday and the boys had some today. I didn't tell them it was strawberry milk, but they drank every last drop. must get more strawberries!
Hot strawberry milk sounds divine.
The small dairy near our home sells bottles of "pink chocolate milk" at the farmer's market, made simply from two syrups and fresh milk, that makes everyone feel rich and content.
trying this right now.
OK, flashback. We lived in Singapore when I was a kid, and it came in BOTTLES and they sold it at lunch at our school and oh. em. gee. I'd forgotten all about it 'til I saw this post. I will try the homemade, it looks fantastic.
holy canoli - just made this with hemp milk! delish!! the berries will make a great topping for ice cream, etc later. :) saving to cookmarked.com immediately!
trying this. hands down. this is just awesome, a lovely idea!!!!
We are trying to eliminate RED40 dye from our son's diet and this is a perfect solution..he loves strawberry milk so I cannot wait to have him try this recipe!!!
Just made this and wow, it makes a lot of strawberry syrup! I doubled the recipe thinking two glasses was just not enough but instead, there's like enough for much more than just four glasses of strawberry milk. o.O
But it still is delicious. I'm just going to have to think of other ways to use up the syrup because there's a lot leftover...