What do you think of powdered buttermilk?

[dipsy]

I saw, and then bought, a container of buttermilk powder at Whole Foods last night. It seemed like it would be good in a pinch. Does anyone use it? I find I often buy buttermilk but toss it before I get around to using it, unless I have a specific recipe in mind when I'm grocery shopping, so this seemed like a possibly good pantry staple. Thoughts?

[Ruthie789]

I bought some and used for my Red Velvet Cake. The cake was very good but wonder if the texture would have been better with the regular buttermilk. It is very handy, and keeps well and is always on hand this way when recipes call for it. I see this is an old thread so have you been using it and what are your thoughts on it now. I was also wondering if the powder could be used with milk instead of the called for water?

[MmmDatGood]

I use it and I like it for baking, pancakes, etc. The good thing about it is that it is handy and keeps for months in the fridge. But I think if you were making, say, a salad dressing, you might want to use the real deal from the dairy rack. A good powdered brand is Saco.

[meatn3]

The dried is great. Just a heads up, as long as it is sealed well it will last for years in the fridge!
As another-adam said, I wouldn't use it for buttermilk soup but it is terrific in other applications.

[alliels]

Curious question for you powdered buttermilk users.

I've followed the directions and added the powder to the dry ingredients and water to the liquid ingredients. However what if a recipe asks you to alternate between adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the already mixed wet ingredients (this is for quick bread recipes)?

Sounds weird to be alternating between adding flour and water.

[paulj]

Why would a quick bread recipe add the buttermilk like this? Why doesn't it just add all the buttermilk the wet, and then mix the wet and dry as in a normal 'muffin method'. Does it suggest adding only enough buttermilk to give the right consistency?

I can think of two options:
- mix the buttermilk powder with the water, and use that like regular buttermilk
- put the water in the wet bowl, and then mix wet and dry, ignoring the 'alternate' instructions.

[alliels]

Yea I think I'm gonna go with skipping the alternate instructions. I was looking at past quick bread recipes I've made and they vary from doing the alternate method to the regular wet into dry method.

I always thought adding it by alternating is a good way to prevent overmixing the batter with the addition of all the dry ingredients but I think I've made enough quick breads to hopefully know what I'm doing!

[pattisue]

I use it for Texas Sheet Cake (great chocolate cake). It's very convenient to have on hand.

[sarahjay]

I use it in my red velvet cake and use water from cooking beets as the liquid to color the cake without food color. Definitely a staple.

[fern]

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/283681
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/280044

Do yourself a favor and make Candy's Chocolate Pound Cake. The first link above takes you to some discussion about using fresh vs powdered buttermilk in the recipe. I tried it with powdered and have done it that way each time. It's really delicious.

The second link takes you to the recipe.

Powdered buttermilk is very handy.

Enjoy.

[QSheba]

Second the rec. for Saco/Saeco sp? We use it for all our baked goods, pancakes, etc. Better than normal buttermilk! We don't use it as a sub for things like, salad dressing however.

[Querencia]

SACO powdered buttermilk makes the best biscuits I have ever been able to produce. The recipe used to be on the can but isn't always nowadays, but here it is: 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, 3 tablespoons SACO, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp soda, 1 tablespoon sugar. Cut in 1/3 cup cold butter. Quickly stir in 2/3 cup ice water. Pat to 1" thickness, cut into biscuits, bake on greased cookie sheet @400* x 10-12 minutes.

[heidipie]

Indispensible in my weekly pancakes. I haven't branched out into much else besides baked goods though. Thought about sprinkling some into my mashed potatoes tonight, but didn't get around to it.

[another_adam]

Ditto, I love the stuff! THough I wouldn't necessarily use it for something where buttermilk is the front row ingredient (e.g., buttermilk soup), I use it in just about anything else!! I think it's one of the greatest inventions of the modern era. :)

[speyerer]

I use it like well...buttermilk. After all buttermilk powder is pasteurized buttermilk that is concentrated with an evaporator and dried to produce the buttermilk powder

[The Librarian]

I have it in the frig at all times. I use it in cornbread and biscuits, any kind of baked item calling for buttermilk. I initially bought it because I was tired of throwing out half-empy cartons of fresh.