I have a book with several bread recipes that call for 1-2 tablespoons of powdered milk. This isn't something I usually use and I was thinking substituting it with normal milk, and putting less water to compensate for the added liquid. Would this be ok? And if yes, how much milk should I put for one tablespoon of powdered milk?
5 Answers
A general reconstitution of milk with dried powder is 1/4 dry milk and 1 cup water to reconstitute milk. So 2 tablespoons is 1/8 cup to 1/2 cup of water.
If you want to replace 2 tablespoons, replace 1/2 cup water with milk. 1 Tablespoon is 1/4 cup milk instead of water.
I have done this as a replacement for dried milk in bread many times with success.
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3Yep; note that dried milk is normally non-fat, so if you want a perfectly accurate substitution, use skim milk. But really it won't matter if you use whole, the bread will be a tiny bit richer. Commented Sep 6, 2010 at 15:37
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2So why do recipes (not for the bread maker) often call for powdered milk?– Jolenealaska ♦Commented Sep 27, 2013 at 1:52
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Does someone know what the conversion would be by weight? I don't know the density of milk powder so this doesn't help me bake by weight.– JakeCommented Sep 24, 2020 at 21:27
Yes, you can. I use the King Arthur Flour Small Pain de Mie recipe all the time http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/a-smaller-pain-de-mie-recipe, which calls for non-fat powdered milk. An answer to another question here Why is milk powder used in bread machine recipes? says to scald the milk, a concept reiterated by the folks at King Arthur. So as an experiment, I made two loaves of bread, identical in every way except that in one I substituted 170 ml scalded skim milk for the powdered milk and that volume of water.
Right out of the oven and three days later, I can find no difference between the two loaves of bread.
My package of powdered milk calls for 7 ounces of water to 1/3 cup powder to make 1 cup of milk, so I figured 8 tsp powder + 7 Tbs water = 1/2 cup milk. I converted to metric just to make the math easier, but it doesn't seem to me to require that much precision.
answered Oct 7, 2013 at 23:14
One thing to add to the answers mentioned before: if you leave the ingredients in a bread machine overnight, then powdered milk is better as it doesn't go sour.
Yes, you can substitute as already answered, but you can also just leave it out! I've found it makes no noticeable difference.
Just leave it out - least in those quantities. We make bread in a bread maker with and without it, and anecdotally adding it tends to make for softer, less chewy bread, especially if its a recipe with some sort of fat in it.
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"We make bread in a bread maker with and without it, and anecdotally it tends to make for softer, less chewy bread". I'm sorry, which makes it softer? Including milk powder? Or leaving it out? Commented Oct 28, 2019 at 16:35