My 5 Top Tips & Tricks For Baking with Protein Powder

#NHgang we have a bunch of new recipes right around the corner and with the festive season almost here, you'll want to start testing out these new favourite treats. Most of our recipes contain our THRIVE plant protein and Steph from @betterbeingsteph has kindly done all the trial and error for you so you don't need to make any of the common mistakes that happen when people first start using protein in their recipes! Over to Steph...

Creating healthier & high protein recipes shouldn’t have to mean getting a dry, tough or tasteless outcome! I know there’s a lot of confusion or hesitancy when it comes to using protein powder as an ingredient in recipes - and often this is because people just don’t know how to use it in a way that makes the outcome super delicious and flavoursome - plus, packed with the added benefits of protein.

Here are my top tips:

1. DON’T SUBSTITUTE PEA PROTEIN WITH WHEY OR CASEIN

I know they’re all protein powders, but they have totally different textures, tastes, and consistencies - and function so differently in recipes!  For baked recipes, you’ll notice I mainly use pea protein in the form of the Naked Harvest THRIVE Proteins. This is because it adds thickness to the batter without making it dry or sticky. It essentially acts much like almond meal and bulks up the recipe without relying only on flour.

Whey protein is less suited to baking, and at high heat becomes tough and chewy (not how you want a muffin or cake to be!). Whey also reacts with liquids to become really sticky - which can be useful for certain recipes! You’ll notice I use whey protein as a binder in recipes such as oat cookies, protein balls, cheesecake bases and raw slices. It’s also fine for smoothies.

2. DON’T JUST USE PROTEIN POWDER

As a general rule, when you’re baking with protein, you still want to have an equal or larger amount of other dry ingredients e.g. oats or flour. It’s also really important to include enough wet ingredients to add moisture, especially when baking with whey which absorbs the liquid used in the recipe! By wet ingredients I mean things like banana, egg or egg whites, milks, Greek yoghurt, pumpkin puree etc. Which leads me to my next point….

3. ADD LIQUID SLOWLY

4. DON’T SKIP OUT ON FATS WHEN BAKING WITH PROTEIN

5. START WITH A VANILLA FLAVOURED PROTEIN 

MY RECOMMENDATIONS: