Every week I answer a question from a Good Food listener. You can email me a question to goodfood@kcrw.com, leave one on Facebook or add one in the comments section here. This week’s came from Jesus:
I used to make my own ricotta when I lived in Atlanta GA but recently moved to Panama City Panama. Over here there is no organic non UHT milk and the dairy farms are hours away. I had read that you can use powdered milk but I’ve had not success with that approach.
Yes you can make ricotta from powdered milk! The resulting texture of the cheese is drier, more like a farmer cheese curd. So I would use it more for ricotta cakes and tarts and baked casserole dishes instead of slathered on bruschetta where a moister, creamier ricotta really shines. I’m really curious to see how my ricotta gnocchi would come out using the powdered milk ricotta.
The trick is to find whole milk powder which will give you a richer product. You can make it from the more widely available non-fat milk powder but the result will be leaner, less rich. If you are using non-fat milk powder you can opt to add a few tablespoons of butter to the reconstituted milk as it heats.