butter

My eldest daughter came home from school on Friday full of tales about how they had made butter at school and asking if we could make some at home.

I have been wanting to make my own butter for ages now and just haven’t got round to it.  I have been hunting for the perfect butter pats and nearly bought these, but then didn’t, but I will next time I pass the shop.

So we set to it to see how easy it is to make your own butter.  The eldest had made hers in a jar at school – pouring the cream in and then shaking and shaking until it turned into a solid block.  She wanted to do it this way again but she wanted to do it straight away and I didn’t have a sterile jar.  So we did it in the KitchenAid instead.  It was very easy, very quick and deeply satisfying.  We have enjoyed the butter on our bread, on pikelets and on our toast all weekend.

400ml of double cream yields 200g butter and 150ml of buttermilk.  I am not sure it works out much cheaper to make your own butter, but I will make sure I use up any odds of cream in this way from now on. The buttermilk will be used to make some scones later today.  If I had my act together better over the weekend I would have made the scones then and enjoyed them with the butter. You could also use the buttermilk in soda bread or waffles.

I added sea salt to the butter as I like my butter slightly salted, if you prefer yours unsalted then by all means leave it out.

400ml double cream
scant ½ tsp fine sea salt

Method

Place the cream and the salt (if using) in a mixing bowl and whisk. The mixture will begin to look like this.

Continue whisking and in no time at all the butter will clump together and separate from the buttermilk.

Place the butter onto a board and squash with a wooden spoon (or butter pats) until all of the buttermilk has been squeezed out.  If you don’t do this, the remaining buttermilk will turn the butter sour.

Then using two spatulas (or butter pats) shape the butter into a block, or something resembling a block if you are aged six.

Enjoy your butter and that smug glow you will have developed.