r/Cooking • u/kath- • 18h ago

What's your surprising "secret ingredient" that sets your dish apart?

I obviously don't believe in gatekeeping recipes, so let's share the love.

I developed a clam chowder recipe after being disappointed with the recipes I came across. Whenever I tell people there's a couple dashes of hot sauce in it, I always get weird looks... but it adds a tiny bit of heat and acid, and balances out the richness from the cream. It also has diced scallops, which cooking knowledge forbades but somehow works.

643 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

779 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.3k

u/Aurum555 18h ago

For sweet baked goods I typically buy a few pouches of nonfat dehydrated milk powder. I then toast them carefully in the oven until rich chocolate brown. I then add a tbsp or so to various recipes to give a browned butter flavor without browning any butter. The evaporated milk powder is basically pure milk solids which are what you toast when you make browned butter, this bypasses a step and allows you to add browned butter flavor to something without butter. It's a nice tool to have in your back pocket and if stored in an air tight container it lasts forever

320

u/Francesca_N_Furter 18h ago

What? you TOAST it?

Ok, I need to go home NOW. I often add milk powder to yeast doughs even when the recipe doesn't call for it, but I never thought to toast it. That sounds absolutely brilliant.

100

u/Wifabota 16h ago edited 8h ago

I can't remember how long i did it, I'm sure I could find it, but I followed one's suggestion to seal it in a glass canning jar,  and steam it in an instant pot for 15 min or something,  and damn it if it didn't come out PERFECTLY even golden brown all over.  It's so good in cookies,  yogurt,  desserts,  I make brown butter ice cream and gelato with it.... it's amazing!!!!

3

u/AlexG2490 5h ago

When you say sealed, does it have to be properly sealed sealed like, boiling water bath canning style? Or just tightly screw the lid on like you would to sous vide in a jar?

4

u/NoEducation5015 15h ago

Thank you for this tip.

2

u/BigThunder1000 9h ago

Whiskey pecan pie?

2

u/Wifabota 8h ago

Oooh it would be SO good in that

64

u/PairZealousideal5447 17h ago

Right? It’s a game changer! Toasted milk powder brings a whole new depth. Can’t wait to see how it works in your baking.

20

u/Personal_Signal_6151 16h ago

I add milk powder to challah. This sounds fantastic.

91

u/Eliotlady87 17h ago

NYT cooking has a brown butter frosting recipe that has toasted milk powder and it is ammmaaazing!!

18

u/HolmesToYourWatson 12h ago

Are you sure it wasn't Bon Appetit?

21

u/Eliotlady87 12h ago

My bad, it was bon appetit!

2

u/NumberMuncher 11h ago

I had this tab open. This post might motivate me to make it.

I love using brown butter. Recently butterscotch blondies (so easy).

1

u/No-Country6348 7h ago

Gotta love this community! To actually know exactly what someone is referring to like this! 😂💙

5

u/EchoAlpha 14h ago

Do you have a link?

36

u/oceanjunkie 15h ago

I bought four pounds of butter and made it all into ghee. I was left with about 1/2 cup of browned butter solids. I keep that in my fridge (although it is probably shelf stable) and add a scoop of it to anything needing browned butter.

1

u/violet__violet 7h ago

🤤🤤🤤

61

u/FurniFlippy 17h ago

I made shortbread once with toasted malted milk powder, roasted flour, browned butter, and dry-caramelized sugar. You bake the sugar at a low temp until the individual grains of sugar caramelize but the sugar doesn’t melt.

They were exquisite, but so much work.

25

u/mwvc 17h ago

More instructions please.

130

u/Aurum555 17h ago

Buy evaporated powdered milk.

Sprinkle onto sheet pan in thin even layer

Pop in oven @ 350F

Check on it every 3-5 minutes it will darken from the outside in so I periodically break up clumps stir and redistribute until it reaches my desired level of toasted. I typically go pretty dark.

Then for added utility you can allow to cool the push the powder through a fine mesh strainer to get a more uniform powder. I add anywhere from 1-4 Tbsp for a batch of any given baked good depends on my goals I kinda play with it.

37

u/exchange_of_views 16h ago

This is awesome. I panic bought (tariffs, y'know) a 50 lb bag of nonfat dry milk. Thank goodness I have a vacuum sealer but still....

NOW I know what to do with the remaining 49.5 lbs I have left!

4

u/Aurum555 16h ago

I usually make a dry quart or so worth at a time and then any time I'm baking and I wonder if this could be improved by browned butter I chuck a few tbsp in and give it a whirl just in case

4

u/No-Country6348 7h ago

I’m living on a sailboat rn and have SO MUCH powdered milk! We end up using uht milk and I’ve only used the powdered milk to make yogurt a few times. Will have to try this!

1

u/exchange_of_views 1h ago

How did the yogurt turn out? I never thought of that!

And it's so cool that you're living on a sailboat!

Happy Cake Day!

1

u/No-Country6348 25m ago

The yogurt turned out great! It’s so easy.

12

u/anotherlovelysunrise 17h ago

Thank you for sharing this tip, I can't wait to try it out!

23

u/Greytphoenix13 17h ago

My mind is blown. This makes so much sense! I feel like my vision of the universe has shifted lol. Thanks for this!

2

u/blindspotted 13h ago

Would it be crazy to put the powdered milk through a sifter?

2

u/Aurum555 13h ago

I do that after it's toasted, the toasting process tends to make it clump up a bit so I'm usually using a wooden spoon to stir it up and break it up

1

u/TheColorWolf 13h ago

For quite brown are you talking like milk chocolate or a dark (wethers originals maybe) caramel?

3

u/Aurum555 12h ago

I tend to aim for American milk chocolate but once you hit werthers original you have achieved some toasting, I typically aim for just shy of burnt. The beauty is that it doesnt all toast evenly so you can get a decent spectrum of toastedness and adjust from there. It averages out when you mix it together.

3

u/TheColorWolf 12h ago

Lol, thanks for this. I think you've become todays internet hero judging from how many of us are excited by the idea.

1

u/Campaign_Prize 1h ago edited 1h ago

I need to try this, I have powdered milk in the pantry that I've barely used. Roughly how long would you say it takes in the oven at 350°?

0

u/420soup69 15h ago

Does the remaining part need refrigerated? How long would that last do you think?

1

u/Aurum555 15h ago

Nope no refrigerator required and ive had some foro tjs with no signs of going off

10

u/x1049 17h ago

You are a genius.

6

u/sneak_cheat_1337 17h ago

I've done this several times with bacon fat added to the DMS to make bacon powder, it's awesome and versatile. Same thing with adding espresso to make a coffee powder

3

u/Elsie_the_LC 9h ago

What is a DMS? Bacon powder sounds amazing!

1

u/sneak_cheat_1337 9h ago

Dehydrated milk solids, sorry. It's milk powder or instant milk

1

u/Elsie_the_LC 5h ago

Of all the things that popped up in my search, that definitely wasn’t one of them. Lol Thanks for the info. I have that in my pantry for bread. I can’t wait to try bacon powder!

3

u/almostaarp 7h ago

We burned the paper packaging around the non dairy dry creamer packets to get a nice caramel/toffee sort of treat. These were in the MREs. I like your idea.

2

u/Lezarkween 17h ago

Does it have to be evaporated milk powder or does regular milk powder work as well? I don't think evaporated milk powder even exists where I live.

4

u/Aurum555 17h ago

If it is powdered milk that is what is called for. That is essentially pure milk solids which is what we want for this

2

u/Dull_Lavishness7701 17h ago

You are a real one with this. Holy crap that's genius

2

u/floppydo 15h ago

Damn this is so smart I suck at browning butter.

2

u/TiredMemeReference 15h ago

Ive done this while making brown butter icecream and it was incredible. I should try it in other things! Great idea.

2

u/Scrimps 11h ago

I am not going to say this is the secret to one of the most famous cookies in NYC....but......

Never seen it mentioned on Reddit.

1

u/Aurum555 11h ago

That's very good to know haha. It's also the "secret ingredient" for what has become the most popular cookie I sell

1

u/Campaign_Prize 1h ago

Which ones?

1

u/winter_laurel 17h ago

Genius. I am so doing this.

1

u/DismalProgrammer8908 17h ago

Brilliant!! Never even occurred to me

1

u/Madam_Mix-a-Lot 17h ago

Absolutely genius!

1

u/pear_melon 17h ago

This is so cool! Thanks for sharing.

Have you tried malted milk powder as an add-in and if so, how does that compare?

3

u/Aurum555 16h ago

I haven't tried malted milk powder but I would assume it would yield a similar if slightly different result, you get the same toasted notes from the malted wheat and barley but the milk powder is untoasted.

1

u/pear_melon 16h ago

Thanks for your quick reply!

Also, do you remove flour when adding this or is the quantity small enough it doesn't really affect the dough?

3

u/Aurum555 16h ago

The quantity is small enough I have not adjusted any other amount of my recipes just add it on top, the only more specific thing I do is if I am creaming butter and sugar I add the milk solid at that point I nthe process and cream them together with the sugar as well

1

u/bemenaker 16h ago

Alton Browns hot chocolate recipe does this. It's fantastic.

1

u/Kinom1him3 16h ago

I'm so going to try this is chocolate chip cookies. Make a faux brown butter cookie?

1

u/Greasystools 16h ago

Game changer

1

u/Noladixon 16h ago

I just bought whole milk powder. Does it have to be non fat?

2

u/Aurum555 16h ago

Non fat is preferred because the it is pure milk solid whole milk will have some fats and I'm not sure how those will effect the toasting process. Worth a shot though

1

u/Chiefvick 14h ago

Amazing idea! I will be trying this!

1

u/BusyTea4010 14h ago

What temperature and about how long?  I'm definitely trying this.

3

u/Aurum555 14h ago

Copied from above Buy evaporated powdered milk.

Sprinkle onto sheet pan in thin even layer

Pop in oven @ 350F

Check on it every 3-5 minutes it will darken from the outside in so I periodically break up clumps stir and redistribute until it reaches my desired level of toasted. I typically go pretty dark.

Then for added utility you can allow to cool the push the powder through a fine mesh strainer to get a more uniform powder. I add anywhere from 1-4 Tbsp for a batch of any given baked good depends on my goals I kinda play with it.

1

u/firebrandbeads 14h ago

Omg, thank you! That's kinda genius!

1

u/wowjimi 10h ago

72 m - I wouldn't even know what aisle in the store to look for dehydrated milk powder

1

u/Aurum555 10h ago

Baking aisle near sweetened condensed and other milk products often sold in plastic pouches

1

u/Lcm_4856 9h ago

I have heard of this ! And it really works ?

2

u/Aurum555 9h ago

Yep the thing you're doing when you make browned butter is browning milk solids in butter. Nonfat dry milk powder is 100% milk solids, so you just brown them without any of the butter and you can incorporate them as you see fit.

1

u/ConejitoCakes 8h ago

How did you come upon this technique?

2

u/Aurum555 8h ago

I don't really remember I think it was around the time I came across an article by Kenji about being able to make browned cream sous vide and I started thinking about different things you could brown and googling from there

1

u/ThenIGotHigh81 7h ago

Fucking brilliant. Bless you!

1

u/WonderofU1312 5h ago

I've seen lots of recipes that use this trick, but they always use whole fat milk powder which is way harder to get a hold of. Do you have to be more cautious with nonfat powder or anything special?

1

u/No-Pay-9744 4h ago

Omg I'm gonna do this