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I Made My Own Organic Milk Powder - Here's How It Went

Writer's picture: Lela MarieLela Marie

Have you ever looked at the expiry date on your bottle or carton of milk only to come to the realisation that you have waaaayyyy more milk than you can possibly use before the deadline? Sadly, that happened to me the other day.

 

Being someone who hates to waste things, I tried to figure out what I might be able to do to save it, other than stand in the kitchen trying to chug the entire litre of milk I had left.

 

The last time I ended up in this position (which I'm embarrassed to say, wasn't actually that long ago 🙈), I was able to dilute my remaining milk with water to make a foliar calcium spray for my garden but unfortunately, it hadn't been long enough since the last time I sprayed my plants with milk for me to be able to do that again this time.

 

Using milk in the garden can be great for certain plants to add calcium and prevent powdery mildew but should only be used occasionally and not on a regular basis or in place of regular watering.

 

Thankfully, I came across a video on YouTube the other day that gave me the inspiration to have a crack at making my own milk powder.

 

The YT channel that I drew my inspiration from is called My Lockdown Rasoi (link to video below). The name of the channel (as well as the content) sparked my curiosity and a quick search on Google taught me that the word 'Rasoi,' in India, means kitchen, which I also found out is one of the most important rooms in an Indian household.  

 

I have been extremely interested lately in watching videos and reading articles on making things from scratch. I just think it's so cool to be able to make your own common household pantry items at home.

 

It's always good to know exactly what ingredients are going into the foods and condiments that you consume.

 

To begin turning my milk into organic milk powder, I first got myself a ceramic-coated frying pan, my spatula and the litre of organic cow's milk that I was trying to save. Nice, simple recipe and minimal equipment required which I always love when working in the kitchen.


Norco Full Cream Organic Cow's Milk
Norco Full Cream Organic Cow's Milk

 

As I began to heat the milk, I realised one thing fairly quickly - the frypan that I was using looked the right size when I first started the process, but as the milk began to heat up, even though the milk began to slowly reduce, the frypan felt as though it was getting smaller and smaller.

 

The more the milk heats up, the more important it becomes to stir continuously, which becomes quite difficult when you don't have enough room to move your spatula around the pan quickly enough to avoid it browning or burning without spilling the milk over the sides.


My frying pan looks big enough now, but I don't have enough room to stir the milk without making a mess!
My frying pan looks big enough now, but I don't have enough room to stir the milk without making a mess!

As I was using one of my fairly new Baccarat ceramic coated frying pans that I've so far managed to keep in very good condition, I spent a lot of the time making my milk powder terrified of destroying my frypan - especially when milk would spill over the sides and run down underneath the pan.

 

I was so scared that the flame from the stove would burn the spilled milk on the bottom of the pan, or that I was going to burn the milk inside the pan and ruin my batch of milk (and my frypan!), so that was a little stressful. I also made a mighty big mess of my cooktop, too!

 

If you decide to attempt making your own milk powder, I would definitely recommend using a pan on the larger side. Using a larger pan probably would have sped up the process a little, too.

 

One thing that I will say about turning milk into milk powder using this method was that it was not a hard task, but very time consuming and labour intensive. 

 

As it turned out, turning milk into milk powder took forever (I was literally standing over the stove for an entire hour!), so another thing that I would recommend would be to make sure that you've eaten something before you start.

 

I decided to take on this project before I'd eaten my breakfast and I was starving almost the entire time. Unfortunately, once you start the process, you can't just stop halfway through or your milk will burn.

 

By the end of this process, my hand was sooo sore after all that stirring!! By the time I was up to stage 2 of the process, my hand was cramping, almost numb and felt extremely weak and shaky.

 

My other recommendation if taking on this project would be to start the process of stirring the milk with your non-dominant hand in the beginning when there is less danger of the milk sticking to the pan and you don't need as much control to scrape the bottom and sides and then switching to your dominant hand later on when your stirring requires a little more control.

 

Once the milk had changed from a liquid to a paste and had reached the desired consistency, it was then time to put it in the oven to dehydrate.


After an hour of stirring, my milk has FINALLY become milk paste! 🥵
After an hour of stirring, my milk has FINALLY become milk paste! 🥵

In the video that I watched on YouTube, they dehydrated their milk paste by sun-drying it however, I'm not quite sure how that process works and I'm not sure how I would have been able to keep it safe from flies, my cats and other critters that might have gotten at it if I attempted to dry my milk paste this way, so I opted to oven dry mine instead.

 

I spread my milk paste on a baking tray lined with baking paper and put it in my fan-forced oven at 150°C for 20 minutes with the oven door partly open.

 

Spreading the milk paste in a thin layer onto the baking paper was also little stressful. The mixture was clumpy and sticky and I felt like I needed a third or forth hand to spread it out as the baking paper kept sliding on my baking tray and the baking paper was constantly threatening to rip on me.


Milk paste spread onto the baking tray (not as easy as it sounds!)
Milk paste spread onto the baking tray (not as easy as it sounds!)

I wouldn't mind trying one of those re-usable silicone baking sheets next time. Not only would it prevent the sheet from sliding around on the baking tray, it's also a more environmentally and cost friendly option than disposable baking paper and definitely much harder to rip.

 

Part way through oven-drying the paste, you're meant to flip the mixture to dry the other side. It was still quite tacky and it was at this point that I realised that I may have spread the mixture a little too thick.

 

This time, the baking paper actually did rip on me, so I transferred the half-dried milk paste onto a fresh baking sheet.


Baking paper disaster!
Baking paper disaster!

 

The mixture also broke into pieces while I was attempting to flip it over, so it was a bit fiddly trying to turn over all of the un-flipped pieces individually. Time consuming!

 

After flipping, I put the paste back into the oven for another 5 minutes, turning the oven temp down to 140°C.

 

I pulled it out once the five minutes was up but it was still not quite ready, so I put it in for another 4 minutes. Pulled it out again after 4 minutes and it was still not ready. By this point, I was beginning to regret and question my life decisions.

 

Much of the milk paste still contained too much moisture to be able to deem it "dry", where other pieces were starting to look a little over done. By now, the little brown bits speckled across the baking tray were making me nervous. I'd put way too much effort into this project to stuff it up now!!

 

I broke up the pieces as much as I could, picked out a few of the really brown pieces and turned the heat down to 100°C. By this point, I was stirring and returning my milk paste to the oven and checking it every 1-2 minutes.


Some parts of the milk paste are starting to get brown and crispy while other sections are still wet and sticky which is making me a little nervous!
Some parts of the milk paste are starting to get brown and crispy while other sections are still wet and sticky which is making me a little nervous!

Checked it after 1.5 minutes. Still not ready. Checked again after 2 minutes. Still not ready. By this point, I was really kind of getting over it. This time, it was very close to being ready, but still just not quite there.

 

In all honesty, I was getting kind of sick of checking it by now, so I turned off the heat and left the milk paste to further dry out using the residual heat from the oven with the oven door slightly open.

 

I checked again after around 20 minutes and there were still a few sticky bits, so this time I left it in the oven (which was still holding quite a bit of heat) with the oven door closed.

 

40 minutes later, the pieces were still the tiniest bit sticky, so I broke them up, threw them in my Nutribullet and blended the mostly dry milk paste into a fine powder. I then spread the powder back on the baking tray and left the powder in the (still warm) oven for the rest of the day.


Yay, it finally looks like milk powder!
Yay, it finally looks like milk powder!

When I came back to check my milk powder that evening, it was FINALLY ready! After all that time and effort, I was extremely happy to find that my efforts were successful. My milk powder looked and smelled like milk powder - I'd done it!! By the end of this project I turned 1 litre of milk into 94 grams of milk powder.

 

I'd spent so much of my day scared that after all the effort I'd put into this project that it was not going to turn out the way that I had hoped but I'm happy to say that I was able to save my organic milk right in the nick of time. Not sure about my sanity though! Props to My Lockdown Rasoi for making this look so easy!

 

Note: the process is very simple, just very time consuming and labour intensive. Don't attempt this on a day that you have an appointment to get to or lots of other things going on!

 

I have seen instructions for making milk powder by placing a baking dish in the oven with a shallow layer of liquid milk in the bottom and leaving it to dry on a low temperature, so if I make milk powder again, I might give this method a go and see if it's any easier/ quicker.


My Baccarat ceramic-coated frying pans. The one on the left is the one I used. The one on the right is the one I wish I used!
My Baccarat ceramic-coated frying pans. The one on the left is the one I used. The one on the right is the one I wish I used!

How about you, have you ever made your own milk powder? If not, do you have any plans to give it a go in the future?

 

Alternatively, would love to hear about some of your kitchen experiences - have you ever attempted a recipe that ended up taking a whole lot longer or being a lot more work than you expected?

 

I'd love to hear from you!


Happy to have you here and I hope you have a great day/ night!


If you’d like to see more of my blog posts and follow along on my journey with me, please do me a big favour and be sure to subscribe! 💖


Hope to have you back soon. Thanks for reading.


Lisa. 😊xx

 

YouTube Link to Homemade Milk Powder by My Lockdown Rasoi

 

 

 

Disclaimer:

 

This recipe uses organic cow's milk which is not suitable for consumption by those who suffer from lactose intolerance or allergies to cow's milk. Author suggests that readers do their own research or consult their nutritionist, dietitian, or medical professional before attempting to recreate this recipe or consume organic milk powder.

 

The author can not guarantee the efficacy or results obtained from using any other type of milk or milk substitute.

 

Please keep food safety in mind. The author advises against using milk that has reached its expiry date or using any milk powder or milk product that is discoloured, has an odd or sour smell, has an odd texture or has grown mould. If milk powder (or milk) is contaminated or you are unsure, discard immediately and do not consume. 

 

Any attempt to recreate this recipe will be done so at the reader's own risk. The author of this blog post will not be deemed responsible for any incident or adverse reaction (including illness, injury, death, or property damage) caused by the reader's use of the information contained on this website.

 

Please note that the information on this website/ contained in this blog post is for informational purposes only. None of the information contained is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any illness, disease, ailment or condition.

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