Toasted powdered milk it's unexpected everywhere.
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I first came across this technique about a year ago, when Bon Appetit food editor Shilpa Uskokovic debuted it. Chocolate Sheet Cake with Brown Butter Frosting. The frosting buried the lede—it didn't just use brown butter, but a supercharged version of brown butter, made more flavorful by adding toasted milk powder. (“I read about (this technique) years ago Ideas in food,” Shilpa recalls.) When King Arthur Editor-in-Chief David Tamarkin made it, he couldn't stop worrying about her.
Other bakers have embraced the benefits of toasted milk powder. Hetal Vasavadaauthor of Milk and cardamom, says it is based on the making of classic Indian sweets and makes a connection with Indian-Americans' embrace of powdered milk to recreate classic milk-based sweets. She calls toasted milk powder “a flavor enhancer” and likes its caramel notes in cookies, as well as dairy-based desserts like custards, custards and puddings — recipes with a neutral flavor profile so that the subtle notes of bread to shine. Tres leches cakeshe suggests, is an excellent option.
British baker and cookbook author Edd Kimber started baking milk powder after a chocolate maker let him in on a little secret: They made caramelized white chocolate with roasted milk powder. “That was a lightbulb moment,” says Edd. He's used it in his baking ever since, including “double brown butter” cream cheese (with brown butter and toasted milk powder), cookies, cakes and more. “Adding toasted milk powder to baked goods is like a secret flavor enhancer… I like to think of it almost like a seasoning.”
And recently, in our test kitchen, recipe tester Lydia Fournier decided to use it in her Ultimate Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats as a way to increase the taste of these typical desserts by a notch. It served our Editorial Team and we were still talking about it months later.
So, toasted milk powder is everywhere. But why exactly are so many bakers doing this?
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Advantages of bran milk powder
You are probably familiar with brown butter and all that glorious nutty, toasty flavor it adds to baked goods. But what if brown butter could equal, well, more brown?
This is what happens when you add powdered milk.
Let's back it up: To make brown butter, you're cooking the butter on the stove until the water evaporates, at which point the milk solids, which make up about 1% to 2% of the butter itself, begin to brown and brown. . Dried milk it's basically just those milk solids on their own, providing “a potent source of the same elements—protein and sugar—that give brown butter its characteristic flavor,” according to Shilpa.
Adding powdered milk to brown butter picks up the flavor of more toasted milk solids without having to use more butter. Or, to think of it another way, you're increasing the ratio of fried milk solids to melted butter for even more flavor. “Milk powder is to browning butter what tomato paste is to tomatoes: an intense, concentrated source of flavor,” says Shilpa.
Alternatively, you can emphasize just the powdered milk, rather than adding it to the brown butter, to make what Edd calls “powdered brown butter.” This can be done in a dry pan on the stove (which Edd recommends, as it allows him to keep a close eye and make sure it doesn't get too dark) or in the oven, as Hetal tends to do.
Food photography and styling by Liz Neily
Choosing your milk powder
There are two main types of powdered milk you will come across: nonfat dry milk powder AND whole fat dry milk powder. Both toast and coffee in a similar way, but different bakers have their preferences. Lydia says that, as with most baking, more fat is always better. After testing both nonfat and whole milk powders, she found that whole milk contributes more to the flavor. The added fat in whole milk powder has another benefit: It helps extend the shelf life of her Rice Krispies treats (if they last more than a day, which is doubtful!).
Edd, meanwhile, leans towards skimmed milk powder, partly because it's easier to access in the UK. use over time,” he shares.
Tips for baking powdered milk
If you are cooking powdered milk in brown butter, be careful how you cook it. Because it's suspended in hot butter, it will continue to cook—and brown—after you remove it from the heat. If done as well brown, it goes from deeply aromatic to straight burning. (“It happens very soon“Lidia trembles.)
There are two ways to avoid this. Or remove your pan from the heat when the dry milk/brown butter mixture is a few shades lighter than the color you want, as it will continue to darken in the pan. Or, once the mixture has reached your desired color, immediately pour it into a heatproof container so that it stops cooking and does not darken. (If you're doing Lydia's Ultimate Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats, immediately add the other ingredients to the hot pan at this point, according to the recipe, as they will cool the mixture and prevent it from browning too much. Lydia likes to have all her ingredients measured to prevent any delays.)
If you are dry roasting your powder, the same rules apply. Hetal compares it to cooking garlic: “As soon as it gets a little color, immediately remove it from the heat, as it will continue to darken.” You're looking for “warm, golden brown tones, not dark mahogany,” Edd specifies. Fry in a dry skillet over medium-low heat for about 3 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heat-resistant spatula to avoid clumping.
And if the toasted powder clumps (a frequent occurrence) Hetal recommends putting it in a food processor or spice grinder until it's powdery.
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Can you reconstitute toasted milk powder?
Not really. You can mix powdered milk with water to make a liquid that can be added to recipes, but it will not dissolve and reconstitute to make milk.
Can you add roasted milk powder to other recipes?
Dry roasted milk powder can be used in recipes that call for powdered milk. However, depending on the recipe and the ratio of milk powder to flour, it may not add much flavor. I baked a piece Japanese milk bread with whole milk powder and because the recipe only calls for 2 tablespoons (14 g) of dry milk (mainly for texture), the flavor of the bread was lost in the final loaf.
You can also experiment with adding dry roasted milk powder to recipes that don't already include milk powder, but be aware that it can affect hydration, and thus your final recipe. Cookies are a good place to start, as they are very forgiving: I baked a bunch Sugar cookies with 6 Tbsp (38g) of whole milk powder added, and I also mixed some of the milk powder into the sugar to coat the outside of the cookie dough. The result was sugar cookies with slightly more complex flavors and delicious whispers. It's also great when added to creams, especially American buttercreams – simply beat with powdered sugar to taste.
Finally, you can try adding powdered milk to brown butter in recipes to enhance the flavor. Follow directions at Lydia's The ultimate Brown Butter Rice Krispies treat for instructions on how to make brown butter with milk powder; The recipe percentage of 8 tablespoons (113 g) of butter + 1/4 cup (25 g) of dry milk is a good measure to stick to in all recipes. Again, this is something to experiment with in recipes as powdered milk can affect hydration, but simple bakes like cookies (I've had success with Brown butter with rye AND Joy's Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies) are a good place to start.
Take a bag with whole milk powder (We also offer nonfat dry milk) and get toasted. We can suggest a few Rice Krispies treats are out of this world?
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
