January 17, 2011 - 8:56am
Powdered Dry Milk vs. Scalded Milk vs. Reconstituted Dry Milk
I have not had time to run any tests, but thought I would throw out the question.
Is reconstituted dry milk any better than milk?
Is it better to use dry milk powder mixed straight into the flour?
Should I scald the reconstituted dry milk to break down the yeast inhibiting enzymes (I forget the name at the moment) before baking?
Has anyone used King Arthur's Baking Dry Milk? How is it?
These are general questions and anyone with experience using these variables and knowing the benefits of each, I would graetly appreciate anything you can offer.
Cheers!
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I typically don't keep fresh milk on hand, and choose not to order the doubly expensive Baker's Dry milk, so I reconstitute store bought nfdm, and scald it. It's been proven that, generally speaking, scalded milk gives a better rise than non-scalded.
Some are perfectly happy with the results they get with non-scalded milk, fresh or dry.
I think the choice between fresh and dry is just a matter of convenience. Dry milk(store bought or Baker's) is just more convenient to keep on hand, measure and use as a dry ingredient.
There is no need to scald dry milk. The dehydration process uses heat to remove the water already. That is one of the main reasons for using dry milk to begin with. Bear in mind that dry milk is non fat. If your recipe calls for whole milk and you are substituting dry milk solids youmwill need to add melted butter or oil at a ratio of 4% of then volume of dry milk.
Thanks for sharing your opinions. However, in researching milk(nonfat, whole, dry, etc) and the process of scalding and it's effects on bread baking, for my pruposes, I have reached a different conclusion. At least one published author and expert has posted here on TFL that typical store bought NFDM has not been processed at temperatures high enough, and for a long enough period, to be as effective a factor in getting the best volume(rise) in bread, compared to truly scalded milk.
That you and many others are pleased with your results using regular milk and regular nfdm is a good thing. Again though, I will usually choose the scalded milk route.
Is reconstituted dry milk any better than milk?
No.
Is it better to use dry milk powder mixed straight into the flour?
Yes. I find mixing unreconstituted dry milk into my other dry ingredients to be much more convenient than dealing with a liquid. And it works. In fact, as far as I know it's the usual procedure.
Should I scald the reconstituted dry milk to break down the yeast inhibiting enzymes (I forget the name at the moment) before baking?
I dunno. Scalding milk (especially reconstituted dry milk) sounds to me like quite a pain. And I've found that although not scalding milk is certainly not optimal, it nevertheless works reasonably well (at least in the breads I bake with the quantities of milk I use).
Has anyone used King Arthur's Baking Dry Milk? How is it?
"Baker's Dry Milk" is produced by a higher heat process, so it's essentially pre-scalded. That's why it's better for baking than the "Instant" stuff you find on supermarket shelves. It's available from a variety of sources (even some supermarkets carry it); KAF is just one of many sources.
I use the KA powdered 'Baker's Special Dry Milk' all the time. On the bag it reads.. A non-instant non-fat-dry milk specially formulated for yeast bread baking.
Suggested use: to increase the protein and calcium in your favorite bread recipe, add 1/4 cup Baker's Special Dry Milk per 3 cups of flour. Mix milk with dry ingredients; it won't reconstitute. To substitute for liquid milk in a recipe, use 1/4 cup BSDM plus 1 cup water for each cup of milk called for.
There has been a discussion here before. Dan Di Muzio, baker...It is said that most bakeries use the dry milk because it is cost effective, etc...
I noticed when once when I just added it onto top of the ingredients and it sat for a while and became moist it hardened and was hard to mix in the flour ingredients...So now I always take my wisker and wisk it into the dry ingredients so it's well blended.
If you are using just regular dry milk like you get in the grocery store for drying..it's not necessary to scald it.
Sylvia
I use this, at $4/# it is cost effective, plus it is local for me...
http://www.niblackfoods.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=929
Rick
For baking bread at home, I used to scald reconstituted dry milk. But then at times when I skipped that step (just lazy), I found no significant difference. So now I always skip that step and mix the milk powder in with other dry ingredients.
Before I opened a bakery, all my recipes (breads, cakes, pastries, etc) used liquid milk. Eventually, every recipe was converted to dry milk powder. The powder was always mixed in with other dry ingredients and we used water for the liquid amount of milk. Cost savings was huge - milk powder was approximately 1/4 the price of liquid milk.
Mimi
Hello, there is another option:
I often use long life milk (UHT) then you can skip the scalding stage as it has already been heated to a high temperature. Plus you can keep it at ambient temperature, buy in bulk and so on. Also useful for home made yoghurt. I have been making Hamelman's pullman pain de mie recently and following his recipe I used dried milk and I find the bread much sweeter than if I had used liquid milk. Depends on your taste in bread I guess, like almost everything :)
It is good to hear so many ideas on the topic. I have run some experiments with muffins and have found not too big of a difference with nfdm and milk. Thank you all for the information and it certainly helped.
Cheers!
The "scalded milk produces a higher rise" phenomenom was confirmed in tests by Cook's Illustrated, some years back.
However, (afaik)the test was performed using yeast breads that depend on gluten development for the rise. It is all about gluten development and integrity.
I don't believe it was ever meant to assume the results also apply to quick breads, muffins, cakes, etc, where the rise is not based on gluten formation.
This same principle applies to the Baker's Special dry milk, which as has been mentioned, is essentially milk that is scalded, then dried. If scalded(or Baker's) milk is used in other applications, and produces more rise, it is for different reasons.
Old thread on the subject, with opinions from an expert:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12076/why-milk-powder-milk-bread-and-not-just-milk
Another brief article:
http://www.ochef.com/1078.htm