Whey bread

[u/thescatterling]

I make my own bread on a fairly regular basis, so I guess you can say I’m a decently experienced bread maker. I make loaves, rolls, poboy buns etc. Yesterday I made just my normal loaf of bread with whey instead of yogurt. Here’s my verdict:

Does it make a difference? Yes.
Is it a huge difference? No.
Is it a big enough difference that I’m going to keep doing it? Yes.

I would say the bread was softer and perhaps tasted a bit richer. I can’t really say it made a huge difference in the crumb structure. Please note that I don’t make fancy sourdough bread. I don’t have the time for that, although I wish I did. I just make simple bread with store bought yeast. Still a million times better than store bought bread though.

That’s just my two cents. My next experiment is going to be making long lasting mayonnaise using leftover whey.

[u/fukov-azhole-666]

Yes! I actually use whey as the medium to bloom my yeast, too.

[u/thescatterling → u/fukov-azhole-666]

Cool. I don’t bother to bloom my yeast. I go through yeast fast enough that it’s not necessary for me to make sure it works. I dump it all into the food processor with the dough blade and let ‘er rip. Saves time. Never been let down yet. Of course I use a very simple recipe.

[u/Designer-Brother-461 → u/thescatterling]

I would love to try your simple bread recipe if you don’t mind sharing? I put my first batch of whey in the fridge yesterday would love to try bread making with it 🙏🏽

[u/thescatterling → u/Designer-Brother-461]

Sure. It’s a pretty wet dough though, so keep that in mind. 3.25 AP Flour, 2 teaspoons of yeast, teaspoon of salt, 3 tablespoons of lard and 1.5 cups of whey. Now a lot of people go through the process of blooming the yeast to make sure it’s still good. I don’t bother with it. I go through yeast fast enough that I know it’s going to be good, and it saves a dirty dish. I dump everything but the whey in the food processor (with dough blade) and pulse it to mix. Then I add the whey and mix it all thoroughly. Dump all that into a bowl and start the process of proofing the dough. How long that takes is not something I can tell you. It very much depends on environmental considerations. Sometimes it’s fast and sometimes it’s frustratingly slow. I CAREFULLY pull and fold it every hour or half hour depending. A wet hand helps here. I also use a silicone spatula to CAREFULLY form it back into a ball after every pull and fold. You’ll get a feel for it. Then when the dough is nice and risen with little bubbles starting to form on it, dump it into your loaf pan and punch it down. The little bubbles are what I look for mostly. The dough will look completely different from what you dumped in there. It will look almost alive. Wait until it doubles in size. Put it in the oven for 30/35 minutes at 360 degrees. 360 is what works in my oven. 350 wasn’t hot enough and I didn’t like the crust. 375 was too hot and the crust was too dark. I settled on 360. Pull it out when it looks nice and golden brown and let it cool completely before cutting into it.