Personal Twists: How to Make Flavored Milk or Cream

Infusing flavor into cream or whole milk is one of the easiest ways to get a little extra flavor into a cake, custard, or any other dessert that uses even a little dairy. Want a note of cinnamon in your cupcakes? Or lavender in your crème brûlée? Here's how!

Extracts and dry spices can obviously be used to add flavor as well, but dairy has a few other advantages. Dairy picks up flavors exceedingly well, making them somehow smoother and more subtle. This is great if you don't want the flavor to come out too strongly. Cream also mixes completely into the dry ingredients, which distributes the flavor evenly to every last crumb.

To infuse cream or milk, combine the dairy and the flavor ingredient in a pan and bring the milk up to a simmer. As soon as you see bubbles start to foam on the top, turn off the heat and let the cream sit until it's cooled to room temperature. Then strain out the solids and continue proceed with using the cream in your recipe.

If the flavor isn't as strong as you like, you can re-heat the milk and infuse it again with fresh ingredients. As long as you don't let it boil too long or scorch, dairy can be reheated a few times before it starts getting that cooked flavor.

Almost anything can be used to infuse milk! Any herb or spice, fresh or dried, works very well. Use the whole spice whenever possible, like whole cinnamon sticks, whole cardamom pods, or whole star anise. You can also infuse coffee beans or any kind of tea in your cupboard, ginger, vanilla beans, lemongrass - heck, even chili peppers, if you wanted!

Give it a try!

(Image: Faith Durand)

Comments (12)

I love the 'vanilla' milk that Horizon makes. Never knew it was so easy to make.

I love doing this! It really adds a little something special to standard recipes. I just made a lavender creme brulee this weekend and it was fabulous! http://healthy-delicious.com/2008/04/lavendar-creme-brulee/

Hmm... it can be debated that most dairy already has that cooked flavor, unless you're using unpasteurized milk, in which case, you probably don't want to heat it at all or you'll lose that grassy flavor.

Is there a cold flavor infusing process? I can imagine just plopping things in a container of cold milk working well for certain things (vanilla especially) but needing a much longer soak for others than is maybe possible with milk shelf life.

Snowville! All you Ohio and D.C. folks are lucky to get this!

I was wondering about cold-infusing too. I'm always hesitant to heat the cream when it's intended for whipping--I fear it won't whip up as well. Any tips?

I've done cold infusing to create mint infused whipping cream. I just added chopped fresh mint to the cream the night before I needed to use it. It worked out fine.

The cold infusion process takes a bit longer, overnight is best. I've put cold milk and a vanilla pod into a pitcher and left it in the fridge all night. It was wonderful the next morning. Same for cream, I've soaked green jasmine tea in cream in a bowl in the fridge, strained the next morning for whipping into cream.

I was going to make a lavender creme brulee this week!

I make lavender milk by putting the lavender in a tea strainer (for whole tea leaves), and that's worked out well. That way you don't have to strain it. I've added honey too, but it's best if the milk is warmer than room temperature. I also float cinnamon sticks in milk. My mom used to do that in Puerto Rico when she was little.

I love Snowville Creamery! I second any such name! I wish I could get their products here in California, even if it's not local.

I know this is really late in posting. But I have a question related to this.

After reading this when it was first posted, I started making homemade vanilla creamer for our coffee. I infused Organic Valley half-and-half with vanilla bean and added sugar to sweeten it. My boyfriend LOVES vanilla creamer and I cannot bear to drink it with that ingredient list that most store brands have. My creamer infusion came out really good and we love it except for one issue I am concerned about.

My question is that after the heat-infusing process, as the creamer cools it forms this really thick skin on top. I usually just remove it and everything is fine. But is this normal? Am I doing something a little wrong to cause this?
Also, after sitting in the fridge, sometimes a thin skin forms. We don't realize it at first until its poured into our hot coffee. It always sorta grosses us out because it doesn't melt or mix into the hot coffee. It just sits on top.

Help! Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to avoid this?

I've had the skin form on top when I heat milk to make ice cream. I usually put saran wrap right against the surface, and if nothing else it pulls the skin off when you open it. I'm not sure how to prevent it though, I'm sorry.