When The Recipe Says "milk" What To Use; Whole, Sk
Baking By sweetmonkeycheese Updated 14 Dec 2010 , 10:56pm by saffronica
I usually have skim milk and Lactose free whole milk on hand at all times. I have been wondering wh/ would be best to use when the recipe calls for milk, sometimes I mix the two kinds together just so I dont have to wonder about it!
if a recipe indicates "milk" I'd assume whole milk. Usually, if a recipe requires a specific type of milk (buttermilk, skim etc..etc..) it will usually say. That being said, I've had a whole life time of using whatever milk I have on hand (usually 2%) in a whole variety of recipes without any troubles. I guess if you didn't have whole milk on hand and really wanted to stick with the exact recipe-you couldn't go wrong throwing in a tsp. of butter into the mix, afterall that's what is being removed from the milk when it goes from whole milk down the spectrum of fat levels.
i use whatever i have more of. My kids both drink whole milk right now... we drink skim. I've used both interchangebly and no noticeable difference.
Ditto here.
I grew up on 2% milk simply because it was cheaper and my mom was trying to feed a family of 8. So "milk" was 2% just because that's what was in the 'frig. I've used everything from whole milk to skim milk in making my icing. No difference.
I grew up on 2% milk simply because it was cheaper and my mom was trying to feed a family of 8.
lol, we used to drink 2% and went to skim for the same reason. When my BF and I moved in together we were drinking 1 gal a day (still avg that) and i figured it out that we got an extra gallon of milk a week for the same price...... to bad it doesn't still avg out to that with the price of milk these days.
I use whole milk in baking just because it has a higher fat content. It does make a significant difference in the texture of my pound cakes if I switch to the 2% or skim. Using the whole milk, the cake seems to hold together better especially when it is being cut.
I keep evaporated milk in my pantry incase I'm low on milk or want something more fatty than our 1% it works great and lasts for a long time cuz it's canned!!! 
- so I've always got milk on hand.
I'm the same as the above posters - I use whole milk for baking unless the recipe specifically calls for another type of milk. I also keep evaporated milk on hand - that also works REALLY well. I find that whole milk really just adds a richness to cakes that you don't get from lowfat or fat free milk.
Hope that helps!
I had used nothing but skim milk for decades. When I started doing cakes 3 or so years ago, I started buying buttermilk and whole milk and didn't really notice the difference until I made my good ol' rice pudding and decided to use some left over whole milk in it. OMG did that really make a difference. It was so creamy and smooth. I also subbed golden raisins for my ususal raisins and steeped them in Cpt. Morgan's spiced rum which didn't hurt the taste either.
For cakes and icings, I don't think it matters. But for some things, like homemade puddings, custard-based pies, soups, etc. whole milk really makes a difference. We always have whole on hand, which helps; if you don't, I'd do what a PP recommended and use evaporated milk when you need to make things a little richer.
When we got married, we of course had to make a lot of compromises. But I grew up on skim and my husband grew up on whole, and we just couldn't meet in the middle on that one! I still drink skim, but I use whole in cooking. The first time I made tomato soup (from a can) with whole milk (as opposed to water, which my mom used), I was amazed at how much better it was. (But now I don't like it anymore, ever since I found a great scratch recipe!)
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