Enriching foods (hopefully bread) with whey protein? Anyone ever done this?

Spadesheart
Spadesheart Posts: 479 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So I'm eating a lot of protein, like lots of people here. My protein supplier sells unflavoured whey protein powder for the same price as the flavoured stuff, so I was thinking on the next go, I might buy it to experiment with.

I was looking online for a whey protein enriched bread, but I didn't really find any solid recipes.

Does anyone enrich any of their normal food with protein powder? How are your results? Any good recipes for baked goods?

Let me know!

Replies

  • Daisy_Girl2019
    Daisy_Girl2019 Posts: 209 Member
    Bread flour already has protein in it, but good luck with your experiment. Let us know how it turns.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    I've made banana bread and subbed out some of the flour for protein powder. Worked fine.
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    I've never made bread, but I've done pancakes and mug cakes. The Protein Chef has a lot of great recipes you can give a try. I would imagine it depends what kind of protein powder you use though. My favourite is Quest multi purpose, it's great for baking and stuff.
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,092 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    I've made banana bread and subbed out some of the flour for protein powder. Worked fine.

    I'm guessing this was a quick bread (i.e., leavened with a chemical raising agent like baking powder or baking soda)? I think that would work better than trying to sub any significant amount of whey protein powder into a yeast-raised bread, which relies on stretchy gluten to trap the gases created by the yeast. If OP wants to try it in a yeast-raised bread, I'm thinking maybe find a recipe that already calls for dried milk and substituting the protein powder for the dried milk -- but most such recipes don't call for that much dried milk to begin with.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    lynn_glenmont wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    I've made banana bread and subbed out some of the flour for protein powder. Worked fine.

    I'm guessing this was a quick bread (i.e., leavened with a chemical raising agent like baking powder or baking soda)? I think that would work better than trying to sub any significant amount of whey protein powder into a yeast-raised bread, which relies on stretchy gluten to trap the gases created by the yeast. If OP wants to try it in a yeast-raised bread, I'm thinking maybe find a recipe that already calls for dried milk and substituting the protein powder for the dried milk -- but most such recipes don't call for that much dried milk to begin with.

    A quick bread, yes.
  • Spadesheart
    Spadesheart Posts: 479 Member
    Could probably heavily enrich if you added some vital wheat gluten as well in order to create a better gluten matrix.

    Actual bread would be so useful. Imagine having a PB&j with 20 grams of protein haha

    I like meat, and I don't mind the shakes, but sneaking it into other foods would be super helpful

    I also bet you could make some bomb cookies and cupcakes with it, as gluten wouldn't be needed.
  • Spadesheart
    Spadesheart Posts: 479 Member
    sardelsa wrote: »
    I've never made bread, but I've done pancakes and mug cakes. The Protein Chef has a lot of great recipes you can give a try. I would imagine it depends what kind of protein powder you use though. My favourite is Quest multi purpose, it's great for baking and stuff.

    Canadian protein, best bang for the buck up here and I'm fairly price sensitive.
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    I've also done banana bread subbing out some protein powder for some flour. The texture wasn't as good, but tasted fine. I do pancakes and I do protein oats very often. Also have done protein balls as a snack in the past, but haven't done those in ages.
  • fcanad
    fcanad Posts: 48 Member
    Be Careful.
    I’ve accidentally overcooked protein powder too many times, resulting in a clumpy mess (microwaving with cereal was a disaster)
    Consider if you are okay throwing away a test batch or three while you experiment.
  • Spadesheart
    Spadesheart Posts: 479 Member
    edited April 2019
    So it's definitely doable in the way that I think it is, looking by the ingredients of this production high protein bagel. They're using whey, vital wheat gluten and whole wheat flower to get to 28 grams of protein. most of the other ingredients here are flavour, and preservative, and I imagine the acids are for boiling as it is a bagel and they boil bagel dough first.

    https://p28foods.com/product/high-protein-bagels/

    ... intriiiiiguing

    You can probably figure out their ratios by going backwards with the nutrition.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    With the application of heat whey protein gets bitter and clumpy.

    My best success is to add to a pancake recipe.

    Or I add to oatmeal AFTER cooking.
  • Keto_Vampire
    Keto_Vampire Posts: 1,670 Member
    pancakes & oatmeal are pretty popular choices for baking

    I personally prefer non-heated whey protein concoctions like "sludge" (essentially just a pudding with very minimal amounts of water and or oil added)
  • Spadesheart
    Spadesheart Posts: 479 Member
    Keto_Vampire wrote: »
    pancakes & oatmeal are pretty popular choices for baking

    I personally prefer non-heated whey protein concoctions like "sludge" (essentially just a pudding with very minimal amounts of water and or oil added)

    I think I'm gonna mad scientist some bagels up when I order again in a couple of weeks.

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