A little love for flax seed eggs and powdered milk

Flax seed eggs and powdered milk in baking....they sound intimidating and INconvenient, right?

I would like to say how much I have come to appreciate them! They're so convenient!

Most bread recipes that require milk have instructions like this. "Heat milk, butter, sugar, (fill in the blank); stirring constantly to melt butter, until hot (115-120 degrees)." Unfortunately by the time I get the butter melted, the liquid is MUCH too hot (usually 140 degrees) and would kill the yeast. I then have to wait for it to cool.

If I use oil and powdered milk, I can just add the powdered milk and other dry ingredients to the flour, add oil, and use hot tap water. My highly experienced finger thermometer recognizes the correct temperature for the water.

Also, I don't have to worry about having milk in the house that might spoil before I can use it.

One of our homeschooling subjects was "homemaking" and it often included math. Homemaking often consisted of helping cook dinner, bake bread, or make dessert. We would half a recipe, double it, etc. My mom would make us try to figure out the new amount of each ingredient. I still do this frequently today. This morning's "jam-dotted kuchen" recipe is multiplied by 1.5 to better fit my available pans. Sometimes I will multiply a recipe by 1/2 or 3/4 if I am short the full amount of an ingredient.

Unfortunately this doesn't work well with eggs. If I need 1 1/2 eggs, I might use 2 or I might use 1 large egg.

Problem solved with flax seed eggs! If I need 1 1/2 eggs, I can simply use 1 1/2 Tbsp flax seed and 6 Tbsp water! Yay! That is why today, I decided I truly love flax seed eggs.