Protein Fluff

Ever since Martin Berkhan posted his “Amazing High Protein Recipes” describing protein fluff, I’ve been experimenting with the stuff.

The basic recipe was to put some casein powder, skim milk and fruit (berries) together and whisk them together with an electric mixer until it became a bowl of frothy goodness. Extremely satiating and great tasting, this is a fitness enthusiasts dream.

As I would find, there are a few keys in doing it right. This post talks about the preliminary results of those experiments.

The Tools

Being a frugal college student, I couldn’t afford a good stand mixer. Those would typically cost upwards of $100 dollars, not something I would pay for just to make some protein fluff.

Fortunately, my local Woolworths (i’m in Australia) sold this baby for $18.

It’s only 125W, but as we will see, it more than sufficed.

Initial Questions

On my first try, I used about 50g of casein protein from Professional Whey (not an affiliate) and about 100g of berries. It fluffed up nicely.

However, I instantly wondered if it could be done in a different way. Of course, I was also trying to do this in the most budget-friendly way possible.

I tried just casein itself, which led to failure.

I tried whey protein with berries, which led to failure.

I tried adding wheat bran to the casein, which led to failure.

I was even naive enough to try baking powder, which obviously led to failure.

However, after all that failure, I think I’ve found a way to get this done right.

The Method

First, I’d get some berries. And crush them up. I found using my fingers to be a much more nimble and efficient way of achieving this. Below is 200g of crushed strawberries.

Next, mix everything in a large bowl.

It resembles a tiny clump, and doesn’t look impressive yet.

Next, is the crucial step. Fire up the mixer, but don’t just let it blend. Instead, try to “fold” air into the mixture. The pattern which I like is to draw a ‘U’ in the mixture, alternating back and forth.

You’ll have to keep on mixing with this pattern for about 5 minutes. It’s a little bit of added effort, but the results are well worth it.

A beautiful fluff!

The exact ingredients were: 100g strawberries, 50g casein powder, some sweeteners. 220kcal of awesomeness!

Other experiments

I found that adding milk didn’t make a difference in the volume nor the taste of the fluff, so I’d rather omit it to keep the calories down.

I also found the ratio of 100g berries to 50g protein to be just right.

Here comes the interesting part though. I said I failed with whey protein. The reason was that whey protein forms a very tight paste when water content is low. Adding more water makes it watery and unable to fluff. Add to the fact that the berries release some water when mixed, and your initial mixture is a hard blob of hard-to-mix goo.

I originally tried adding things to absorb the water. The poor man’s option would be bran, but that experiment failed.

I tried again today with 50g of whey and 100g of berries, and the results were atypical. But then I wondered, “Hey, why do I need to restrict myself to a mixture of pure whey?” So I added 10g of casein to the mix, and lo and behold, the thing started fluffing.

In fact, it fluffed so much that the bowl I was mixing it in proved too small, and I had to resort to mixing it in the sink to contain it’s awesomeness.

That aside, it turned out pretty dam good. A little less volume as expected, and a little creamier than the one with just casein, but still really good.

Got Fluff?

After 3 hours in the fridge, they came up beautiful and a ready addition to today’s post-workout meal.

Casein is pretty affordable, costing 3cents/g protein here depending on how much you buy. That is compared to 4cents/g protein with chicken breast @ $8.50/kg, making it a permanent addition to my pantry for sure.

All I need to do is to watch my calcium intake (50g of casein has 1000mg calcium), and I’ve got a great addition to the diet.

So what are you waiting for, go get some fluff nao!

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Tagged as: Diet, protein