Put Some Butter On It!!

     You might say I have a slight obsession with dairy products.  You might also say I look like Gisele Bundchen but you'd be wrong and maybe a little high.  It's not so much milk itself I'm obsessed with, but the things you can do with it.  I've been making my own yogurt for a while now.  I haven't bought a tub of whipped cream in years.  I gave you a peek into my foray into cheese making (I want to try cream cheese next.)  And I have been known on occasion to buy a pint of cream to make butter.  I seriously just need to suck it up and buy a couple of cows.  Cows won't scratch up my hardwood floor much, right?

     I can't even begin to tell you how simple it is to make butter.  Which is to say, I totally can tell you exactly how simple it is.  It's extremely simple.  All you need is two bowls, a mixer, a strainer, a spatula, and some salt which is optional.  Start with heavy cream.  This one looks lumpy, I know.  The brand I buy is a local one and almost always has a heavy plug of cream at the top of the bottle.  I know they don't homogenize their milk.  I don't know if the plug is a result of that or because it travels far enough to begin churning in the bottle on the way to the store.  At any rate, it doesn't effect the outcome at all.

     Start whipping your cream at the top speed of a mixer.  This stage is whipped cream.  You could stop here if you want.  I encourage you to actually...  Stop, taste it, wonder why anyone would ever buy store-bought whipped cream. Forge ahead.

A moment later it will cease to be whipped cream.  It's crazy how fast this happens, actually...

Almost done here at the "scrambled eggs" stage.  Notice how much yellower the cream has gotten.  I swear, there's nothing here but cream!

At this point, the milk begins to separate from the cream.  You're almost done! This process from pouring the cream to milk separation takes about 5 minutes.  Maybe less.

At this point, drain the buttermilk out of the butter.  Keep it!  It's great for cooking with!  I pressed mine a little with a wooden spatula not enough to mash the butter through the strainer, but enough to push out a good bit of milk.

     You can stop here if you like.  It tastes fantastic!  I find that butter at this stage will only keep for a few days.  Of course, it's so delicious you will probably eat it up before it goes bad anyway.  If you'd like to save yourself from needing to eat a half pound of butter by yourself in two days, that's where washing comes in.

 Pour cold water over your butter and push the butter with a wooden spatula, wooden spoon, or rubber spatula to squeeze out as much buttermilk as you can.  I actually bought this spatula specifically for butter making but you certainly don't have to.

 Drain and rinse again.

This is how the final rinse will look.  You can see the water is very clear and I'm not getting any more out when I squish it with my spatula.

     For a little more longevity insurance, I add 1/4 tsp sea salt.  The amount of salt you will want to use varies with the type of salt you have.  Try an 1/8th of a teaspoon first and then add more to your liking.  I store mine on my counter in a butter crock which keeps it soft without going bad for up to a week and sometimes a week and a half if it lasts that long.  You can also keep it in the freezer if you want to keep it for months at a time.  One pint of cream yielded 3/4 C buttermilk and 7 oz of butter this time, though yours may vary some.

 You just made butter, my friend!

Quit drooling and go make some already!