Back to School Food Storage Basics-Powdered Milk

Today Crystal is talking about powdered milk on her Everyday Food Storage website during her Back to School series. You can see her full powdered milk article here. Everyday I plan to list things I learned from that series on my blog to help me better understand it. I am pretty new to the food storage area so I hope these really help me! I bought some powdered milk from an order we took up at church and it was the instant powdered milk. I think that is all I have ever used. My family never noticed when I made some and put it into my empty milk carton. But I never really knew about non-instant powdered milk, so this was a good lesson for me.

Here's what I learned today:
1. There are lots of things you can do with powdered milk besides drinking it. Like making your own sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk, cream soups and just cooking with it. The benefits of doing that are that you will save money if you use the non instant kind.

2. As of August 2009, if you buy non instant powdered milk you would only spend about $1.00 for a gallon of milk made with it. If you made sweetened condensed milk you would spend about 60 cents a can where as at the grocery you would find it for $2-$3 a can. If you made evaporated milk it would cost you 25 cents a can whereas it is usually about $1.00 at the grocery. Those are some big savings!

3. There are two types of powdered milk: instant and non instant.
Instant is puffed with air and it would take 2 #10 cans to = 1 #10 can of instant. So, it is more expensive and takes more room to store. Instant also mixes better for drinks. I have found that I like instant better for drinking.
Non instant does well in baking and is cheaper and takes less room to store.

4. There are milk alternatives which are like a flavored milk drink. They add shortening, corn syrup and other stuff to it so it really is not as healthy of a drink as milk. You can use it in baking but most say you need to use less shortening because it is already in the milk alternative.

Some things I found on Crystal's site that I find helpful about powdered milk is:
1. Powdered milk conversion sheet- this will help you know how to mix the milk.
2. Powdered milk handout- this gives lots of information and recipes on using powdered milk
3. Making Powdered Milk Drinkable - This gives you some great tips on getting your family to drink powdered milk.
4. A video on mixing powdered milk- this video gives tips like using sugar or vanilla to help family members like the taste better and to make sure and serve powdered milk cold.

Some recipes I want to try using powdered milk are:
1. Sweetened Condensed Milk
2. Evaporated Milk
3. Magic Mix
4. In other recipes I already make that call for milk

What I take away from this lesson:
I need to buy some non instant powdered milk and use it in my baking to save money. I probably will still use the instant for drinking because my family seems to really like it, but I might have to try it on them too and see how they react.

Questions I still have after this lesson:
1. If you do not live near an lds cannery are your only other sources to buy it from emergency like companies and how much more expensive are they? I need to go check that out. I wonder why stores do not carry non instant milk.

Powdered Milk...Will They Notice?

Yesterday, my kids ran out of the 2% milk they use and since I will not be able to buy anymore for the next couple of days, I decided to mix up some powdered and pour it back in the milk carton. I had an Enrichment Activity group meeting so I left them as they were eating dinner. When I came home, I ask dh if he gave them milk and he said yes. So, they will drink powdered milk without knowing that's what it is. Now since powdered milk is nonfat, I won't be doing that all of the time, but it is cheaper and can get me through some tight spots.

Dry Powdered Milk and Mexican Chocolate Drink

We recently had an Enrichment Meeting in our branch on Cooking With Food Storage and we used dry milk in several recipes. I have been using some powdered milk in some recipes that I bought at Save-a-Lot. It really was not seeming to dissolve and actually looked like little balls. I bought some recently from Emergency Essentials when my church did a group order, but had not opened any because I was trying to get rid of the other box first. At the meeting they made a Mexican Chocolate drink. It was bought at Big Lots on clearance for $1.00. (I bought a bunch.) I was really shocked to see how well the powdered milk from Emergency Essentials dissolved so well and tasted so good in the Mexican Drink. The Mexican Chocolate Drink tasted like hot chocolate with a hint of cinnamon. I made it yesterday because I have a chest cold and my kids and dh loved it. My dh and oldest kid were shocked when I told them it was made with powdered milk. So, now I know 2 things.
1. My family will drink powdered milk.
and
2. I must buy a better brand of powder milk than I was buying.

With the savings you get from using powdered milk, I know I will be using it more in my baking and sometimes as our regular milk.

Mexican Chocolate Drink
2/3 cup powdered milk
1 quart water
1 capsule of Nestle Abuelita (Mexican Chocolate Drink Mix)
sugar to taste
Add powdered milk to water and stir until dissolved. Microwave until hot. Add 1 capsule of chocolate to blender and sugar (I used 1/4 cup) and then add milk. Pulse until chocolate is broken up and blend until chocolate blended well.

Note: A friend of mine said she got the Chocolate mix at United Grocery Outlet for 50 cents each.

Recipes Using Powdered Milk

It is really hard for me to buy powdered milk because I just don't think I will ever use it. Now with these recipes, I can feel a little easier about buying it and storing it.

Evaporated Milk
To make evaporated milk, mix 1 C water with 2/3 C powdered milk.

Sweetened Condensed Milk
To make sweetened condensed milk, mix
½ C very hot water
1 C powdered milk
1 C sugar
1 T butter
Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve sugar & powdered milk.

Truffles
For a decadent treat, make sweetened condensed milk (above) and stir in a 12 oz. bag of chocolate chips. Chill, then shape into balls (a melon baller works nicely).

Chocolate Milk (1/2 gallon):
Mix together
8 C water
2½ C powdered milk
1/8 C cocoa
1/4 to ½ C sugar
pinch of salt (optional)
a few drops of vanilla (optional)
I like to mix this in a half-gallon jug, which is small enough for kids to handle. If you want, you can mix together just the dry ingredients and use as hot chocolate mix (about 1/3 C mix to 1 C water).

Purple Cow
Mix reconstituted powdered milk and grape juice half and half. A good way to give kids grape juice, since when it's mixed with the milk, it doesn't stain like regular grape juice does.

Peanut Butter Balls (from the TightWad Gazette)
Mix together
½ C honey
½ C peanut butter
1 C powdered milk
Form into balls (a melon baller works well).

Home-made Yogurt
One of the very best ways to use powdered milk is to make yogurt. This is fast, easy, and inexpensive. (It takes 5-10 minutes to start a batch of yogurt. A pint of plain yogurt runs about $1.39; a pint of homemade yogurt costs about 30 cents). There are lots of ways to make yogurt. Here is one basic method (makes one quart). You'll need some plain yogurt with active cultures for the "starter;" a thermometer; and a way to incubate the yogurt.
Mix together 4 C water and 2 C powdered milk.
Heat in the microwave about 2 minutes. Take out and let sit until the temperature reaches about 120 degrees. Mix in 1 heaping T of plain yogurt (mix thoroughly). Pour into a container and cover. Now let the yogurt incubate until it sets up. You can use a commercial yogurt maker; a heating pad set to low, with a large pot inverted over top your yogurt; or even the pilot light on an oven. The important thing is to keep the yogurt at a constant temperature of 100-120 degrees for from 4-8 hrs.
When you use the yogurt, reserve a little to start the next batch.
Note: You can freeze yogurt starter. Just spoon into ice-cube trays, then store the yogurt ice-cubes in the freezer. Thaw 1 cube (don't microwave) for a batch of yogurt, and use as usual.