Dairy
Milk powder
Also called powdered milk, dried milk, full-cream milk powder, dry whole milk
Milk with the water evaporated off, leaving a fine cream-coloured powder. Full-fat milk powder keeps its butterfat; skimmed powder has almost none and behaves differently in sweets.
Origin
Made industrially wherever dairy is produced. In Indian home kitchens it is the standard shortcut for khoya, the slowly reduced milk solids that sweets like gulab jamun and barfi were built on.
Flavour
Sweet, milky and slightly cooked, like the skin on hot milk. Good full-fat powder tastes rich; old powder tastes stale and flat.
How to use it
For milk sweets use full-fat powder and bind it with ghee and a little milk into a soft dough. It also goes into breads and cakes for colour and softness, and into chai when there is no fresh milk.
Storage
Keep it sealed, cool and dry. It soaks up moisture and smells, and the fat in full-fat powder goes rancid a few months after opening.
