I am a bit of a cheese addict. I just really really love cheese! Mozzarella cheese is probably my all-time favorite cheese. It is so versatile. Did you know you can make homemade mozzarella cheese from milk powder? You totally can with just a handful of ingredients.
And if you love mozzarella you can try this homemade 2-Ingredient mozzarella cheese recipe as well. After I had posted about the 2-ingredient cheese someone asked if it was possible to make mozzarella cheese with dry milk powder. So here we are!
If you are a fan of making things at home and you love cheese give this recipe a try. This is perfect for people who may have lots of powdered milk in their food storage or for people who may not have easy access to fresh milk. But milk powder is readily available.
Whatever the case, time to learn how to make mozzarella cheese using powdered milk. If I can do it, you can do it. Let’s get started!
In order to make homemade mozzarella cheese from milk powder you need just a handful of ingredients:
Tools
Traditionally mozzarella cheese is made from raw milk or pasteurized unhomogenized milk. So to make it with milk powder, first, you need to create the milk.
Add the water to a large pot then take the milk powder, and slowly incorporate it into the water. I really recommend using filtered water, unless your tap water tastes good.
Use a slotted spoon or other spoon and slowly stir. Don’t agitate or stir too hard, it will create too many bubbles that you don’t want.
If you like you can make the milk the night before and let it sit in the fridge before using it.
Since I am using non-fat dry milk powder I need to add some fat into the milk. Take the butter and melt it just until barely melted in the microwave or in a pot on the stovetop.
Then take about a cup of the milk and heat it up until it is around 110F (43C) it doesn’t have to be exact. The main thing is you don’t want to pour the melted butter into cold milk. So heat the cup of milk up first.
Combine the two and either whisk it really well for 1 minute or put it in a blender and blend it for a minute.
Now slowly pour and add the buttered milk into the main pot of milk. Again, don’t stir super quickly and agitate it too much, this will create unwanted bubbles.
Heat the pot of milk slowly over medium-low heat until it reaches right around 90F (32 C). Stir gently so the milk heats up evenly. Use a thermometer to check the temp.
Once the milk has heated up, remove the pot from the burner and turn the heat off.
Add 1/4 cup of filtered water or good tap water to a small bowl and then add the citric acid to it. Stir until dissolved. Add the citric acid to the pot of warm milk. Gently stir for about 30 seconds. You will begin to see curds form.
Then smash up the half tablet of rennet in a bowl with the back of a spoon, or use a mortar and pestle if you have it. Add that rennet powder to a bowl with 1/4 cup of water, just like you did with the citric acid.
Mix it until it dissolves, then pour it into the pot of milk. Again, gently stir for about 30 seconds.
Cover the pot, and allow it to sit for 30 minutes up to 2 hours. You really need to give the curds time to develop. The time doesn’t have to be exact either. So this works perfectly if you need to leave to run errands.
Time to heat up that curd.
Place the pot back on the burner and set the heat to medium-low. Instead of stirring the curd, rotate the pot which will move the curd around.
Heat the curd until it reaches between 110 and 115 F (43 to 46).
Once the curds have heated up to the proper temp, remove the pot from the burner. Time to separate the curds from the whey. The yellowish liquid you see is whey.
Use a slotted spoon and scoop out the curd. Place it in a colander lined with cheesecloth. Also, make sure to have a sheet pan or roasting/baking pan under the colander to catch the whey that drains out.
Now fold up the corners of the cheesecloth and squeeze the curds, this will release the whey. Do this a few times until you get most of the whey out. At first, the volume of the curds will be heavy and feel very soft. As you squeeze the volume will decrease and the curds will get firmer.
Pour the curds into a microwave-safe bowl.
Time for the fun part, or at least I think it is the fun part, well honestly it is all fun to me. We need to heat and shape and stretch the cheese. This is what will turn the curd into cheese and give it that classic mozzarella cheese texture.
Place the pot of curd in the microwave and heat for 1 minute on high. This should bring the temp to right around 160 to 165F (71 to 73 C).
NOTE: An alternative method is to heat up the whey in the pot until it reaches 170 F. Then soak the cheese curd in that until it softens. Then stretch and knead and resoak it.
You will see a pool of whey around the cheese. This is good. Use a spoon and press the cheese on the side of the bowl releasing more whey, then dump the whey out.
Smash the cheese and stretch it in the bowl, it will probably be too hot to handle at first. Then using clean hands or wear gloves, knead and stretch the cheese.
You will wind up doing this for 3 to 5 minutes. You may need to put it back in the microwave as it cools down because the cheese will get harder as it cools. Dump out the leftover whey as needed.
Finally add in a bit of cheese salt, flaky sea salt, or crushed kosher salt. Then knead the cheese again so the salt gets mixed in.
Shape the cheese into a ball, it should look nice and smooth and a little shiny. There you go, you just made homemade mozzarella cheese from milk powder.
Place the cheese ball completely covered in a bowl of cool water mixed with a tbsp of salt, for about 10 minutes. After that add some ice to the bowl to further chill the cheese for another 10 minutes up to overnight.
Wrap it with plastic wrap and then place it in a sandwich bag or Tupperware and store it in the fridge to use later. It will taste a little better the next day. But you can also eat it now if you like.
Slice that cheese and eat it! Or it will shred easily if really cold or frozen, then you can use it on pizza, or any recipe that calls for shredded mozzarella cheese. Enjoy!
It will last 1 to 2 weeks stored in the fridge and 4 to 5 months if stored in the freezer.
You can use heavy cream instead of butter if you like. It really depends on the type of milk powder that you buy. If you have full-fat milk powder, give that a try first without adding extra fat from butter or cream and see how it works. You will just have to experiment a bit.
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Print Recipe Pin Recipe from votesLearn how to make homemade mozzarella cheese using milk powder! This is perfect if you have powdered milk in your pantry or food storage or if fresh milk is harder to come by where you live.
Prep Time
20
mins
Cook Time
20
mins
Resting Time
1
hr
30
mins
Total Time
2
hrs
10
mins
Servings:
8
people
Calories:
108
kcal
Large Pot
Slotted Spoon
Cheesecloth (optional)
Collander (optional)
Paper Towel
Sheet pan or baking pan
Thermometer
Half Gallon of water
use filtered if you have it (1892 mL)
1/2
cup
water
divided (118 mL)
3
cups
milk powder
375 g
1/2
of a rennet tablet
1
tsp
of citric acid powder
6
Tbsp
butter
Add the water to a large pot then take the milk powder, and slowly incorporate it into the water, stirring gently with a slotted spoon.
Melt the butter until barely melted in the microwave or in a pot on the stovetop. Then take about a cup of the milk and heat it up until it is around 110F (43C) it doesn't have to be exact. Combine the two and either whisk it really well for 1 minute or put it in a blender and blend it for a minute.
Now slowly pour and add the buttered milk into the main pot of milk.
Heat the pot of milk slowly over medium-low heat until it reaches right around 90F (32 C). Stir gently so the milk heats up evenly.
Remove the pot from the burner.
Add 1/4 cup of filtered water or good tap water to a small bowl and then add the citric acid to it. Stir until dissolved. Add the citric acid to the pot of warm milk. Gently stir for about 30 seconds. You will begin to see curds form.
Then smash up the half tablet of rennet in a bowl with the back of a spoon, or use a mortar and pestle if you have it. Add that rennet powder to a bowl with 1/4 cup of water and mix until dissolved. Now pour it into the pot of milk. Again, gently stir for about 30 seconds.
Cover the pot, and allow it to sit for 30 minutes up to 2 hours. You really need to give the curds time to develop.
Once the curd has had time to develop, remove the lid and use a long knife, I always use my bread knife and cut the curd into 1/2 to 1-inch cubes.
Place the pot back on the burner and set the heat to medium-low. Instead of stirring the curd, rotate the pot which will move the curd around. Heat the curd until it reaches between 110 and 115 F (43 to 46).
Remove the pot and turn off the heat. Use a slotted spoon and scoop out the curd and place it in a cheesecloth-lined colander with a baking pan or sheet pan under it to catch the whey.
Fold up the corners of the cheesecloth and squeeze the curds, this will release the whey. Do this a few times until you get most of the whey out.
Pour the curds into a microwave-safe bowl. Place the pot of curd in the microwave and heat for 1 minute on high. This should bring the temp to right around 160 to 165F (71 to 73 C).
Dump any whey that seaped out of the curd. Smash the cheese and stretch it in the bowl, it will probably be too hot to handle at first. Then using clean hands or wear gloves, knead and stretch the cheese. You will wind up doing this for 3 to 5 minutes. You may need to put it back in the microwave as it cools down because the cheese will get harder as it cools.
Add in a bit of cheese salt, flaky sea salt, or crushed kosher salt. Then knead the cheese again so the salt gets mixed in.
Shape the cheese into a ball, it should look nice and smooth and a little shiny. There you go, you just made homemade mozzarella cheese from milk powder.
Place the cheese ball completely covered in a bowl of cool water for about 10 minutes. After that add some ice to the bowl to further chill the cheese for another 10 minutes, then wrap with plastic wrap and place in a sandwich back or Tupperware and store in the fridge.
Slice or shred and eat that mozzarella cheese made from milk powder.
How to Make Homemade Mozzarella Cheese from Milk Powder
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