Homemade Butter

I used to use Margarine instead of butter when it came to baking. My mother always used Margarine and so I figured that I'd be fine. Unfortunately, most of my baking came out wrong. It didn't taste right, or whatever I'd made had all the texture of a rock. I just couldn't for the life of me figure where I was going wrong.

Then I came across a recipe that called for Butter, and everyone stated that it HAD to be butter. No substitutions. 'Yikes!' I thought, 'the hubby won't like this with the cost of butter these days!' Vaguely, I remembered that somewhere I'd seen a post by someone who had made their own butter at home, and suddenly Google Search became my best friend! I was astounded by how easy all the various posts made it seem. I mean heck, its one ingredient! How hard can it be??

As stated, making your own butter uses one single ingredient - Cream. BUT - And this is key - it should be heavy whipping cream, or for those of you in the UK, Double cream. The higher the fat content, the more butter you'll get, and lets face it, why buy a small carton of half and half cream to get a piddling little amount of butter? It wouldn't be worth it. There are two ways to make butter, an easy way, and a hard way. Nonetheless, it adds up to the same result.

The hard way.

Empty a carton of cream into a clean Mason jar with a screw lid. Screw the lid on tight and shake. Shake it and shake it till the buttermilk separates from the butter. This will take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on how well you shake it. Keep shaking, even when the cream is thick and doesn't seem to be doing anything, trust me it is! Eventually, you'll hear a 'sploosh' sound and you'll have bits of butter floating around in the buttermilk. Take off the lid, and drain the buttermilk off. You can keep this and use it for pancakes, or even as a treat for the lucky family cat, or, you can do what I do, and tip it down the drain.

Place the butter into a bowl, and with the back of a wooden spoon, press it against the sides of the bowl to squeeze out the buttermilk remaining in the butter. This is important. The buttermilk left in the butter will turn it rancid so it needs to be squeezed out. Tip a little bit of Ice water into the bowl, mix it with the butter, and squeeze again. Keep doing this till the water runs clear. It may take a few goes but hang in there, it'll be worth it.

When the water runs clear, place the butter into an airtight container, and store in the fridge, ready to be used for all your baking/cooking.

The easy way.

This is exactly the same as the hard way, except you empty the carton of cream into a food processor or into a bowl and use an electric hand-held mixer. This is MUCH easier than shaking a Mason Jar! An added bonus is that it doesn't take as long. If you're using a hand-held mixer, mix the cream on the highest speed till the cream reaches the stiff peak stage, then turn the speed down to the lowest speed. The butter and buttermilk separates very fast, and if you're still using the highest speed on your mixer, you run the risk of involuntarily decorating both yourself, and your kitchen, with bits of flying butter and buttermilk. And yes I AM talking from personal experience LOL! Once separated, the method is exactly the same as the hard way - rinse and repeat till the water runs clear.

If you so desire, you can add a little bit of salt to the butter, I'd recommend no more than a quarter teaspoon for a small carton of cream, but this is personal preference. Add it after you've squeezed the buttermilk out, mix it in well, then place in an airtight container and store in the fridge.

Till next time, keep cookin'!