Serious Efforts: Evaporated Milk Crisis
Have any of you successfully replaced evaporated milk with something else in an icing or candy recipe?
And if so, what did you use?
I'm in Denmark, and evaporated milk is not to be found anywhere; I've spent the entire morning looking.
Unfortunately, I am planning on testing a CI recipe (the 'Wellsley Fudge Cake'), which some of you may also be taking on. I was fairly certain I could find evaporated milk, but when I went to get it, I found that the tins were actually sweetened condensed milk, and (because of the added sugar and the relative water content) that's no substitute.
The most sensible sounding suggestions come from this site:
http://www.ochef.com/664.htm but I have no idea how they'd work out in practice.
IFF you have any experience with this, please share! I'd appreciate it enormously.
Thanks,
M.
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8 Comments:
Can you get your hands on dry milk? You can use that reconstituted. You could also try buttermilk. Either option is going to change your cake in some way (flavor, texture, etc.) but it's better than not making the cake at all!
arm1970 at 9:38AM on 05/16/09
I rarely use evaporated milk, most often substituting 1/2 & 1/2 or whole milk for it. I have also added powdered milk to regular milk with good success.
Evaporated milk has it's water content reduced about half, so adding powdered milk to regular, whole milk would appear to be a good route to go.
Let us know what you do and how it goes. Good luck!
CJ McD at 1:34PM on 05/16/09
I've made my own evaporated milk by just cooking down milk really slowly, it takes awhile but it worked fine.
P.S. I had to do it because I needed it to be lactose free so I used Lactaid.
swampyankee at 5:13PM on 05/16/09
Scald the milk, let it cool. Use it. You need to use a little more than the recipe calls for because some will "evaporate".
JerzeeTomato at 6:24PM on 05/16/09
jerzee, i'm confused. scalded milk is not the same as evaporated milk. scalded milk would still have a higher water content than evaporated and you would actually have to use less not more.
dmarina at 11:53PM on 05/17/09
I found at this site that you could sub evaporated milk for 1 cup water and 1 cup powdered milk... try it.
@swampyankee - I saw in a local grocery store circular (in Puerto Rico) the other day that there's now lactose free evaporated milk. I noticed because I also prefer lactose-free products. I wish I could remember the brand... If I find it, I'll post it.
MadelynRodriguez at 10:02AM on 05/18/09
Thanks everybody, and sorry about not replying sooner.
I'm going with reconstituting powdered whole milk with a reduced amount of water (I just happen to have a big bag of the stuff in the freezer). I'm also planning on browning a bit of the powdered milk, before mixing it with water, since information on evaporated milk (including McGee's OFAC) mentions that some caramelization takes place, and contributes to the product's flavour.
mongoose at 6:34AM on 05/19/09
Just wanted to add a postscript about the substitution I chose (in case anybody else finds themselves wanting the information): powdered whole milk reconsituted with only 40% of the amount of water that would normally be used worked beautifully (in this frosting recipe) as a substitute for evaporated milk. Browning a bit of of the powdered milk before reconstituting it does bring out a toasty-caramel flavour (which evaporate milk supposedly has), but a low temperature needs to be used, since it starts to burn really quickly
For one cup of evaporated milk substitute, combine 60g (about 2oz) whole milk powder and 176ml (about 6 fluid oz) water, and warm gently, stirring until it is even and thick.
mongoose at 4:44AM on 06/01/09