Friday, July 06, 2007

make your own butter

Thanks to Randy for this recipe. I had never tried making my own butter until the Fourth; it turned out great and tastes awesome.

2 pints organic heavy cream (preferably not ultra-pasteurized)

Pour the cream into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk. Tightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap (this is important) and start mixer on medium-high speed. The cream will go through the whipped stage, thicken further and then change color from off-white to pale yellow; this will take at least 5 to 8 minutes. When it starts to look pebbly, it’s almost done. After another minute the butter will separate, causing the liquid to splash against the plastic wrap. At this point stop the mixer.

Set a strainer over a bowl. Pour the contents of the mixer into the strainer and let the buttermilk drain through. Strain the buttermilk again, this time through a fine-mesh sieve set over a small bowl; set aside.

Keeping the butter in the strainer set over the first bowl, knead it to consolidate the remaining liquid and fat and expel the rest of the buttermilk. Knead until the texture is dense and creamy, about 5 minutes. Strain the excess liquid into the buttermilk. Refrigerate the buttermilk.

Mix salt into the butter, if you want. I prefer it unsalted. Transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate.

This is fun to do and tastes great.

Peace,
Milton

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm trying to figure out how to put plastic wrap over the bowl without interfering with the wisk...can you explain? I can't wait to try this.

don't eat alone said...

Cindy

What I did was put a couple of pieces over the top, turn the whisk on low, so I could see the hole it needed to make, and then wrapped again, a little higher up on the motor part of my Kitchen Aid. (Does that make sense?) It worked well. Even if there is a little hole because the whisk needs room to move, you'll be OK.

It's a lot of fun.

Peace,
Milton

zorra said...

How cool is this?! And how easy. This has just been added to my weekend plans.