Does anyone have experience using almond milk in recipes?

[Arkansas Granny]

I spent the weekend at my son's house and made pancakes for the grandkids Sunday morning, as I do every time I spend the night. They were awful! They didn't rise well, they didn't brown well and they were heavy.

I used my old standard, basic recipe which makes a light, fluffy pancake. I checked with my daughter in law and the flour in the cannister was plain old all purpose flour. The baking powder was from a brand new can, the eggs were fresh, but the only milk in the fridge was almond milk, which I've never used before.

Could the almond milk have made such a difference in recipe?

[pnwmom]

1. Sigh. We put it in a cornbread mix because we were having a vegan for dinner.

Yuk. The texture was bad -- very heavy.

I'm sure it's good in some things.

[Arkansas Granny]

2. Maybe that was it. It was really disappointing.

[catbyte]

3. I made a really good chocolate pie with it.

I've had mixed results with other desserts, but chocolate pudding/pie always turns out great. Here's a recipe from NYT Cooking:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015406-old-fashioned-chocolate-pudding-pie?action=click&module=Local%20Search%20Recipe%20Card&pgType=search&rank=2

[Phentex]

4. Used it in vegan mac and cheese...

and it worked fine. I think my son uses soy milk in pancakes with good results.

[NotASurfer]

5. It's more water-y than dairy

Milk from the cow has more dissolved solids in it - higher in sugars, salt, fat, protein. And a little acidic (lactic acid). Though today we tend to skim some or all of the fat out, so this depends on what you have in the carton at home for your go-to recipe.

Almond milk by comparison is very low in sugar, salt, protein, and fat - depending on brand and how much they water it down or sugar it up. And it doesn't have the lactic acid.

If you want to experiment, you could try your go-to recipe using water and see if you get similar results.

Lots of other variables though - regional differences in AP flour, egg size, stove or griddle differences, hard to say. Guess you just have to make more pancakes to figure it out!

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Next time I'll make sure I have dairy milk to use.

I have quite a reputation to uphold among the younger people in my life when it comes to pancakes. I have never had a batch turn out like this before and was trying to figure out what went wrong.

[NotASurfer]

7. Sounds like a plan

Didn't know if you were dealing with a dairy-free diet or not, sounds like no need to start doctoring almond milk, or politely suggesting soy milk in the pantry (closer to dairy in fat & protein).

Plenty of time to defend your reputation before Pancake Day (2/13)!

[Arkansas Granny]

8. My dil is mildly lactose intolerant, but they usually have dairy milk on hand.

Next time I'll check the fridge first.