The Perfect Smoothie - Liquid Milk versus Powdered Milk

Question

I recently attempted to make myself a Strawberry Milkshake Smoothie (as what is defined here, that is, no ice cream used) and failed miserably. This made me wonder about two things regarding this drink.

This time I tried to make it using powdered milk instead of the liquid one usually contained in Cartons. What I did was to put all those three ingredients (water, powder and strawberries) into the blender and then blended it until it had the desired consistency and color. The result was not as I expected, as the drink was not too flavored (tasted like water mostly, and seemed like it did not blended properly).

Could the order of preparation have affected the quality of my Beverage? I am no master chef at all, but I have at least prepared Lemonade to know that order sometimes matters here.

Also, that made me wonder if using powdered milk versus liquid milk could affect somehow the preparation of drinks like Milkshakes or Smoothies? I tried this time the powdered option, as I think I saw my favorite Milkshake seller use it instead of Carton milk so I thought it could be worth the try.

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Other possibly important details on my failed attempt: The Strawberries were cold (not frozen but considerably cold), powdered milk was whole and fresh and used "standard" measure and added at most 2 cups of water (was a drink for one).

Answer 1

I've never heard of Powdered Milk being used in a Milkshake, personally.

When I worked at a restaurant, majority of our shakes were made from a Soft Serve machine. Having had shakes at other locations, I gather most use Soft Serve unless they specify "hand-scooped" or "real ice cream", etc.

We'd pour the Soft Serve into a tall metal cup, and add some milk (not too much at first, you don't want it too runny), and then blended with a milkshake blender (can be imitated at home using an immersion blender).

We also had Simple Syrup to add on occasion (can be made at home, or found in your local grocery store, usually in the alcohol/bar isle). You can add flavors, like strawberries, bananas, pineapple (chopped or diced and then thrown in before blending), chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, etc. Top with whipped cream and candied/maraschino cherries.

We also offered hand-scooped shakes, which were made exactly the same way, except we used real ice cream instead of soft serve.

The trick was to not put too much milk in, you can always add more and blend again. Blending will thin it out too, if you do it too much - so be careful.