What effect does milk play in a recipe?
Molly

In what regard? texture? flavor? stability? creaminess? workability? durability? taste? what recipe are you looking at?

Hi Indydeb!
I am wondering what part does milk play in a recipe. What does it do? I am wanting to play around with some recipes that call for milk. I am not looking at any particular recipe. Just for my own knwoledge.
Thanks,
Molly

In baking there are stabilizers, (such as eggs) and Liquifiers. Milk is a liquifier (as are oils, shortenings, butters and sugar) - they add moisture and tenderness.

If you are looking to swap out the milk with another liquid, you can generally do that. But if the recipe calls for milk with fat in it, you may have to account for the fat you are removing by adding more in another way. It depends on the amounts and what you are swapping the milk with.

When I'm baking I often substitute liquids. For instance, if a recipe calls for 1 cup milk, I may use juice or water or liquor or tea or anything that seems flavor compatible. And I disregard the fat issue, so if the original recipe called for 1 cup whole milk, I may use 2% which is the only milk I ever buy; or I may use coffee or juice or water, you get my point. If I need a vegan product (no dairy allowed) I use any liquid from the list above.

I've read many "food scientists" who make claims about how ingredients interact to provide certain results. And sometimes these food scientists are correct. But sometimes not. (Did you know that anyone can call themselves a food scientist? I once worked for a national company whose sales and marketing team woke up one morning and made themselves new name tags. Five more "experts" were born.)

I've baked thousands of loaves of bread, and tens of thousands of cookies and brownies and cakes and I've learned that the best (most trusted) information comes from people like myself (and indydebi and Leah and Susan, the list goes on) who know baking from a practical standpoint. The best advise I can offer is to experiment and see what works. Great recipes and products come from trying something new.

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I've learned that the best (most trusted) information comes from people like myself (and indydebi and Leah and Susan, the list goes on) who know baking from a practical standpoint. The best advise I can offer is to experiment and see what works. Great recipes and products come from trying something new...........

YEAH!!! Right on. Most of the time it's what 'we' learn when we make a mistake or try something different just to see how it turns out