Whey Bread
No Way!? YES WHEY!
As I was making Ricotta I knew that I just couldn’t bear to throw out all of the beautiful whey. While my ricotta was draining, I did some internet searching. While there are many uses for Whey, a lot of them scared me. It seemed to be that the best way to use your whey is in a bread. Eating Small Potatoes had a straight forward recipe which I decided to run with.
The whey gives the bread just a little bit of an undertone of flavor. I was really hoping for more of a sourdough flavor to magically develop from the use of the whey, but in reality I just got a totally delicious white bread (that is a pretty good “just”). Since this bread does not get kneaded or knocked down a second time, you also get a delicious, light and airy loaf of bread.
Yes Whey! Bread
| Whey Bread |
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp. salt
- 1 Tbls. sugar
- 4 1/2 tsp. yeast
- 3/4 cup hot whey (leftover after the making of ricotta)
- 1 cup warm water
- 5 Tbls. butter, melted
- Add dry ingredients to a bowl (like the bowl of your electric mixer) and mix together. If your whey has cooled already, heat whey and water. Slice butter and stir into the hot liquid to melt. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients. Stir well until combined. Or if you are using your electric mixer – turn on medium with a dough hook to mix and knead. Either way, stir and knead for an additional five minutes, until the dough is smooth and warm.
- Divide dough into desired portions. Two pieces for full size loaves or three pieces for more individual loaves. Shape your dough into a circle or rolled up cylinder, depending on what you like.
- Place onto a sheet pan that’s been sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover and rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Bake at 425F for 30 minutes. (mine was done and felt perfectly fine with a bit of a crust at 30 minutes, but as it cooled, the crust seemed to soften. I would have liked a bit more of a crust to it -another 5 minutes in the oven probably would have been perfect).
from the great descriptions at Eating Small Potatoes 
Once baked, enjoy with some fresh butter OR your fresh ricotta you have just made (which is why you are using your whey to bake this bread). Maybe even some garden fresh tomatoes & basil…. yum
And I leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… What item do you hold on to, save, or re-use (especially those that others just throw out)?