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Introduction
 Whey protein powder is a pretty strong staple in my diet, so today I wanted to try making it myself. On doing research into it, I realized I would also be making cheese (ricotta in particular). So cool, a 2-for-1 deal, or at least if the protein powder fails, I'll still have some cheese to work with.

How it should go
 Below is an outline of the steps that (should) produce ricotta cheese and protein powder. This is my outline to follow; let's see how well it works.

 1. Add milk to a large pot over high heat. Bring to a simmer

 2. When it reaches 185F, add in the acid and salt. Stir for a minute, until curds start to form

 3. Remove from the heat, cover with a lid, and let sit for 15 minutes

 4. Remove the curds (cheese) with a fine mesh strainer, and allow to drain over a bowl for 30 minutes to an hour

 5. Add the liquid (whey) to a large pot over high heat

 6. Cook until all the water has boiled off, and you're left with a powder

 7. Spread the powder onto a baking sheet, and dehydrate in the oven at 200F for about 4 hours, until left with a dry powder

 8. Blend the powder in a food processor to make your protein powder, and flavor (if desired)

Ingredients
- 1 gallon (3904 g) Skim milk ($2.69)
- 1/3 cup (80 g) White vinegar ($0.07)
- 2 tsp (12 g) Salt ($0.01)

How it actually went
 Most of the ricotta recipes I looked up called for whole milk, but I wanted to use skim to get a leaner cheese, as well as a fat free protein powder. To start, I poured the entire gallon of milk into a large pot over high heat, and proceeded to wait. Right off the bat I screwed up. MIX FREQUENTLY. I burned the bottom of my pan pretty bad here. I don't have any pictures, but learn from my mistakes if you make your own cheese (note: I've never made cheese before, actually don't take any advice from me).

 Next, I waited until the milk hit 185F, which probably took about 10-20 minutes. At this point, I added my acid (1/3 cup, 80 g) white vinegar and salt (2 tsp, 12 g). I stirred for about 30 seconds, or until curds started to form. I took the pot off the hot burner, covered it with the lid, and set a 15 minute timer. At this point, all was seeming well.


 After 15 minutes, the curds had definitely separated from the liquid whey (yay). I used my fine mesh strainer to scoop out the curds, and placed them over a large bowl to drain. The liquid whey I put to the side to cool down; it was too hot for me to strain (I tried, spilled it, and almost burnt myself).


 After draining, I transferred the ricotta to an airtight container, and stored in the fridge. I ran the liquid whey through the mesh strainer to remove any cheese curds that I missed.



 With the cheese done, it was time to make the protein powder. The metal bowl above is very large, and it's nearly full. That's a lot of liquid to boil down. I transferred the liquid whey to a large pot (a different pot from before since I scorched the other one pretty bad), and set the stove to high heat.


 Over high heat, I let the liquid boil (with occasional stirring) until it greatly reduced. This took me about 2 hours. I was hoping to boil this down to a powder, leaving me with just whey protein powder. Unfortunately, that did not happen. I think I accidentally created caramel, because that's what the boiling looked like. What I ended up with was essentially an amber colored syrup. Look how much that pot of liquid cooked down to! The bottom of the pot was starting to burn, so I decided to call it here.


 I transferred the whey syrup to an airtight glass container, and threw it in the fridge for about an hour with the ricotta cheese to cool. After an hour, I tasted the syrup, which was certainly an...interesting flavor. It basically tasted like an unsweetened caramel, which should make sense. Caramel is made of the browning of sugar and milk (butter and cream). My guess that that the cooking down of the milk let to a syrup like produce due to the lactose. The browned milk solids were full of flavor.

 Like I said, it tasted and felt like a less sticky caramel syrup without sugar. It was noticably salty though, like too salty to eat on its own. Can you picture a cross between caramel sauce and Better Than Bouillon, but without any sweetener? That's what this felt like (which is as gross as it sounds, like a midly sweet marmite). It also hardened in the fridge. The thick center in the middle of the container was solid, but the thin edges had a honey-like consistency.


 As for the ricotta, it didn't fair any better (it was actually worse). I guess I let it drain for too long, becauce it was dry as hell. While the whey syrup was extremely salty, the cheese somehow ended up with basically no salt. This had absolutely zero flavor. I don't know what I did wrong in the cheese making, but this was certainly not right.

 At this point, I was at a loss. I had no protein powder; instead a weirdly salty and midly sweet milk syrup (that was probably high in protein), and a dry and grainy fat free "cheese". Looking back, I should have just dumped these and moved on with my day, but I'm too stubborn to waste food. So here's what I made...

Cost
Total Cost: $4.85
Cost per Serving: $0.20
Ingredients
- Whole batch (480 g) Ricotta cheese ($1.34)
- Whole batch (180 g) Whey syrup ($1.34)
- 1/4 cup (60 g) Lemon juice ($0.19)
- 3/4 cup (180 g) Water ($0.00)
- 2 tsp (10 g) Almond extract ($0.16)
- 2 tsp (5 g) Cinnamon ($0.08)
- 1.5 cup (120 g) Quick oats ($0.40)
- 1/2 cup (123 g) Unsweetened applesauce ($0.29)
- 1 tsp (5 g) Baking powder ($0.04)
- 3/4 cup (60 g) Cocoa powder ($0.08)
- 3 medium (330 g) Banana, overripe ($0.42)
- 2 tbsp (42 g) Honey ($0.46)

Brownies?
 To a large bowl, I added the ricotta and whey syrup. Note that I microwaved the syrup for about a minute to soften it so I can mix it into everything. Being too dry to mix it, I added in some lemon juice (I was originally thinking a lemon cheesecake vibe) and water. I tried beating it together with my hand mixer, but it splashed water and curds everywhere, wouldn't mix properly, and was gritty and gross looking.

 Clearly, making a liquid cheesecake batter wasn't working; this was way too clumpy. Needing to salvage this, I decided to add some flavors in the form of almond extract and cinnamon. I thought the coarseness of oats would help hide all the curds and help break them up, so I beat that in too.

 That certainly helped, but the mix was still too dry and salty. I needed some more liquid and sweetnesss. In came the applesauce (god this whole recipe is like someone threw a grenade down isle 6). The flavor was certainly better, but there was still much to improve.

 Deciding that brownies would probably be the best course of action, I mixed in some baking powder and cocoa powder. My thought process was that cocoa is so strong in flavor that it would cover up the saltiness and burnt milk flavor. And it actually worked, while still leaving some milky caramel flavor (nice!), but the batter definitely still needed to be sweeter. I opened my pantry, and added in ripe bananas until I was happy with the flavor and texture. Using up all my bananas (3) and still wanting it slightly sweeter, I decided to drizzle in some honey (2 tbsp).


 At last, this weird frankenstein brownie batter was done. Not going to lie, this actually tasted really good. I must have had spoonful after spoonful of this raw batter. But it was time to actually bake this monstrosity. I transferred the batter to a well oiled an 9x13" pan, and transferred in the mix with a silicone spatula. I smoothed the top, and baked it for 30 minutes at 350F (uncovered), or until it registered a temperature of around 190F and a toothpick to the center came out almost clean. Here's how it looked.


 After letting it cool in the pan for about an hour, I ran a butter knife around the edges, and cut it into 24 pieces. All extra brownies were flash frozen, and then stored in the freezer in an airtight bag. As for the brownie itself, it was honestly pretty decent. Obviously it was much different than a standard brownie, but it was fudgy, midly sweet, and a pretty decent snack. More like a banana brownie baked oatmeal. This would be really good with some peanut butter on top, but unfortunately I'm out right now, and I don't feel like making any at the moment.



Nutrition Facts
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Servings: 24
Calories: 100
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Total Fat: 0.9g (1 %)
 Saturated Fat: 0.3g (2 %)
 Trans Fat: 0g
 Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g
 Monounsaturated Fat: 0.2g
Cholesterol: 5mg (2 %)
Sodium: 282mg (12 %)
Total Carbohydrate: 17.9g (7 %)
 Dietary Fiber: 1.8g (7 %)
 Sugar: 10.3g
Protein: 6.9g (14 %)
------------------------------------------
Vitamin B12: 0.9mcg (39 %)
Vitamin D: 1.8mcg (9 %)
Potassium: 336mg (7 %)
Calcium: 234mg (18 %)
Magnesium: 46mg (11 %)
Iron: 0.6mg (3 %)
------------------------------------------
 Glycemic Index: 40.2
Glycemic Load: 4.7
Conclusion
 I think it's safe to say that making both ricotta cheese and whey protein powder was a resounding failure. At least I ended up with decent tasting brownies that are a healthy snack; 7 g of protein for 100 calories (without any protein powder) is nothing to scoff at.

 Would I try this again? I may try making cheese again (and actually learn how to make ricotta ahead of time). I could use the cheese to make Hassle Free Eggplant Parm (which was my original plan) by replacing the cottage cheese with my homemade ricotta.

 But would I try to make protein powder again? Certainly not. Learn from my mistakes, this was a waste of time lmao.

 The one good thing I learned was that I actually like skim milk (I took a sip of it prior to cooking). It's tastier, cheaper, and healthier than unsweetened almond milk, which is what I usually buy. It just doesn't last as long in the fridge; about 3 weeks as opposed to about 2 months for the almond milk. I'll still buy almond milk (Vic is lactose intolerant), but I think I'm going to start buying skim milk for myself. It's more of a whole food, contains (real) calcium, is a good source of protein, and doesn't have any added gums or preservatives.

Sources
1. HOMEMADE Whey Protein Powder | How to make Whey Protein Powder at Home in Oven.
2. How to Make Homemade Whey Protein
3. How to Make Whole Milk Ricotta Cheese - Easy Recipe
4. How to Make Whey Protein: A Step-by-Step Guide to Making Homemade Whey Protein
5. Homemade Low Fat Ricotta Cheese
6. Homemade Fresh Ricotta Cheese
7. The Effect of Temperature on Caramel's Texture