Baking with milk alternatives...

[KimKelly]

A month or so back we discovered my daughter has a milk allergy, hence I've been experimenting with baking using soy and rice milks in place of regular milk or nonfat dried milk. In the last couple of weeks I've noticed that breads or muffins using these products have not risen as much as they had before I changed. Now I also have to note that it has been cooler, and that may have affected the breads as well. But I was wondering if anyone knows if these products will cause baked goods to come out with different textures?

ChefChris posted a note for me a while back regarding substituting soy or rice milks. Chris.... you out there??? Do these things make a difference? Thanks again for your prior post - Olivia is doing well, enjoys her rice milk, but is not able to handle anything with casein. Yes... we have been doing lots of label reading!

Thanks everyone,
Kim

[sneezles]

Kim
When my boys were young they too had milk allergies. The doc we used said that lost likely they would be allergic to soy or develop it over time so he put them on goat's milk. I had to buy it in the baking isle but also used it like regular milk to bake and cook with and everything seemed to turn out fine. Of course, I never had the guts to taste it!! I figured the boys didn't have prior knowledge but my mind had slammed the door shut!
My two oldest had to quit drinking milk again when they went through puberty because they really got acne-two weeks after stopping the milk their faces were cleared up!

[This message has been edited by sneezles (edited 11-10-2000).]

[claire]

I too have a child with a dairy allergy and thus have been baking with rice milk. While I have not tried making any yeast breads, my quick breads and the one cake I made came out fine. I really did not notice a difference in the height, taste or texture of either the quick breads, muffins or cake. I know what you mean about the label reading.......