How to Make Powdered Milk

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

When my children were small, we would all gather at the goat stand and milk the goats. It was a fun – and educational time – for my kids. They loved those early mornings and the goats so much that my youngest daughter’s first word was “Anna,” the name of our best milk goat.

Fresh goat milk is delicious, but what do you do when you get more milk than you can use? You can either make cheese or make your own milk powder.

Powdered milk is a great way to stock up on milk for when your goats are dried up in between kidding season. It’s also a great way to prep for an emergency or save money when you find milk on sale.

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What is powdered milk?

Powdered milk, also called milk powder, dried milk, or dry milk, is a manufactured dairy product made by evaporating milk to dryness. One purpose of drying milk is to preserve it; milk powder has a far longer shelf life than liquid milk and does not need to be refrigerated due to its low moisture content.

Why do you want to make your own powdered milk?

Powdered milk can be expensive to purchase, but it does have a long shelf life. If you have your own cows or milk goats, you may want to preserve some of your excess milk by dehydrating it and turning it into powdered milk.

It’s always a good idea to be prepared for emergency situations, and having powdered milk on hand can be helpful if you can’t get to the store to buy fresh milk.

How to Make Powdered Milk in a Dehydrator?

Making your own powdered milk in a dehydrator is actually very simple.

The only ingredient you need is – milk! You can use just about any kind of milk to make powdered milk, but I found that fresh, low-fat milk works the best. The lower fat content will make the milk powder last longer than if it has a higher fat content.

Here is how I made my own powdered milk.

1. Set up your dehydrator. Many dehydrators come with fruit roll trays. If this is the case for you, you can set up the trays to hold the milk. My dehydrator has fruit roll sheets but not trays that can hold liquid. So, instead of pouring the milk into individual trays, I removed all but one tray from my dehydrator. I used two oven-safe dishes – one on the bottom and one in the middle on the remaining tray.

2. Heat your dehydrator to 57 degrees Celsius or 135 degrees Fahrenheit. On my dehydrator, this is the same setting used for fruit leather.

3. Pour your milk into the trays.

If your dehydrator uses fruit roll trays, you can pour a small amount of milk into each tray. This is more effective because your milk will dry out much faster. In my case, I poured two cups of fresh, low-fat milk into each oven-safe dish. This will take a few more hours since the milk is deeper, but either way works just fine.

Let your dehydrator run. If you are using the fruit leather trays, your milk will probably take 8 to 12 hours to dry. Otherwise, it will take longer. Just keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t scorch and turn brown. If it starts to turn brown, set the temperature just a few degrees lower.

4. When your milk starts to turn to a paste, you’ll want to scrape it loose from the pan so it doesn’t stick.

5. When your milk is dry and crispy, put it in your blender or Nutribullet and crush it into a fine powder. If you want to make it even finer, you can run it through a sieve.

6. Store in a mason jar in a cool, dark place for up to 3 months. Alternatively, you can store your powdered milk in the freezer so that it lasts indefinitely.

How to Make Powdered Milk in an Oven?

If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can make your powdered milk in the oven. Use an oven-safe glass dish to pour a small amount of milk into. Set your oven on the lowest setting, and place the dishes in the oven. Keep the oven door cracked to allow moisture to evaporate. Watch carefully so that your milk doesn’t scorch. Your milk is ready to crush when it is completely dry and crispy.

How to Reconstitute Powdered Milk?

To reconstitute powdered milk, add ¼ cup of powdered milk to 1 cup of warm water and stir well. Always add the powder to the water rather than adding the water to the powder to avoid clumping.

Chilling the milk for 8 hours after it is mixed can help it to taste more like fresh milk. While it may lose some of the intensity of its flavor, reconstituted powdered milk should not taste bad or bitter. If the milk does not have enough flavor, you can try adding more powdered milk or mix in a little bit of sugar or vanilla to flavor the milk.

How to Use Powdered Milk?

You can use reconstituted powdered milk in any recipe that calls for regular milk. To make the milk creamier, you can add a little bit of extra powdered milk. However, if you oversaturate the water, it won’t mix well.

You can also add powdered milk directly into your recipes. For example, a tablespoon of powdered milk can be used in your coffee instead of fresh milk.

Powdered Milk Tips

First of all, the shallower the dish (the less deep your milk), the faster your milk will dehydrate. This is ideal because you don’t want to grow bacteria in your milk instead of dehydrating it. It’s better to have multiple shallow trays than one or two deeper trays.

If you can’t get a dish into your dehydrator, you can use a combination stove and dehydrator method. Start your milk in the oven following the oven directions. Then, as the milk begins to thicken into a paste, you can transfer it to your dehydrator and spread it across multiple trays. This will speed up the process and reduce the risk of burning your milk in the oven.

Four cups of liquid milk gave me 1 cup of powdered milk. The texture, fragrance, and feel isnearly identical to store-bought powdered milk.

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