Homemade Strawberry Milk Recipe

This strawberry milk recipe uses real strawberries for all-natural colour and flavour. It tastes amazing and is so easy to make!

Simmer fresh or frozen strawberries to make a strawberry syrup. Add this to a cold glass of milk and you'll have delicious strawberry milk.

The flavour is fruity and natural and such a treat on a hot summer’s day. The milk is tinged with a pretty rose pink that comes purely from the natural colour of the strawberries. This post will show how to make strawberry milk with only natural ingredients. 

You’re going to love this homemade strawberry milk recipe which is all-natural, and all from scratch.

Strawberry milk ingredients 

There are only 4 ingredients needed for this easy strawberry milk recipe. One of those is water so we can pretty much say it’s only 3!

• Strawberries - Use either fresh or frozen strawberries for the strawberry syrup.
• Sugar - Add sugar to bring sweetness to the milk. Supermarket strawberry milk, whether it’s fresh or made from powder, is usually quite sweet. The good thing about making this from scratch is that you can increase or decrease the sugar for your own taste! 
• Water - Add water to create the syrup.
• Milk - Fresh, cold milk. I love to use full-fat dairy milk for the best strawberry milk, but you can use milk of your choice (oat milk, soy milk, coconut milk, almond milk or other nut milk would work too.)

The strawberries

The best strawberries to use are those that are at their most ripe and most flavourful. This doesn't mean they have to be the biggest or look the prettiest. This recipe is great to use up the uglier strawberries or bird pecked ones that you don't want to eat fresh.

In summer strawberries can be at their best, juicy and sweet, but in the cooler months, frozen strawberries will trump the fresh ones.

Frozen strawberries are usually frozen at their peak ripeness and sweetness.

Homegrown Strawberries 

If you’re able to grow your own strawberries, nothing quite beats a freshly picked strawberry, super juicy and still warm from the sun.

Strawberries need plenty of sunshine and good compost to grow big and juicy. Learn more about growing strawberries. 

Equipment 

You’ll need a saucepan in which to cook down the strawberries, and a fine sieve or cheesecloth to strain out the pulp and seeds at the end.

Straining the strawberries 

Strain out the strawberry pulp and seeds so you can create smooth strawberry milk. Use the leftover pulp and seeds of the strawberries in the recipes listed below. 

Alternatively, if you’d rather not cook or strain the strawberries you can make Korean strawberry milk instead which uses freshly mashed or pureed strawberries.

Step by step instructions 

Chop the fresh or frozen strawberries into rough chunks. Add the strawberry pieces to a saucepan over medium heat, along with the sugar and the water.

Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Use a wooden spoon or similar to press on and break down the strawberries a bit as they heat up.

Simmer the strawberries over low-medium heat for around 20 minutes to slightly reduce and thicken the water.

After cooking, pour the mixture through a fine sieve or cheesecloth to remove the seeds and strawberry pulp from the syrup. Use the back of a spoon to press the pulp to ensure you get all the syrup that you can.

Save the pulp to use in the recipes listed below.

Let the syrup cool down completely.

Once cold, add 3-4 tablespoon of strawberry syrup (more or less, according to taste) to a cup of cold milk and stir well. 

Storing the strawberry milk syrup

Leftover syrup can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks, or frozen for up to 3 months. 

Uses for leftover strawberry pulp

The strawberry pulp that is strained from the syrup does not need to be wasted! It’s still full of flavour and can be used in a variety of ways. Such as:

• Use it alongside more fresh strawberries to make homemade strawberry jam. 
• Strawberry filled brioche rolls - Add the leftover strawberry pulp along with fresh strawberries to recipes such as these berry brioche rolls, that use a strawberry jam filling.
• Swirl the strawberry pulp in yoghurt.
• Dollop over pancakes or waffles.
• Add it to a no-churn ice cream base to make strawberry ice cream.

Substitutions and variations 

• For a healthy strawberry milk, use an unrefined sugar for the sweetener such as honey or maple syrup.
• Add some fresh lemon or lime zest to the strawberries as the cook to add extra flavour.
• Add in a little vanilla extract to the syrup for extra flavour.
• Use a different but also strong flavoured berry such as raspberry to make other berry milk flavours. 

Korean Strawberry Milk

Another version of homemade strawberry milk is the Korean way, which uses fresh strawberries that are pureed or mashed along with sugar. This fresh strawberry puree is stirred into cold milk.

This strawberry milk is great if you like strawberry milk with a bit more texture, or if you prefer not to cook or strain your strawberries. Korean strawberry milk can also be made with frozen strawberries that have been defrosted.