Homemade Butter

Making your own butter is easy and if you bake a loaf of beautiful bread what better way to enjoy it than with some fresh homemade butter.  You can add some sea salt or leave it as is. Create some lovely compound butter by adding fresh herbs and lemon zest or add a pat on top of a beautiful steak. 

At holidays most people buy whipping cream for desserts and inevitably buy too much and have lots leftover, this is the perfect way to use whipping cream since you cannot freeze it. I make butter and then you can wrap and freeze the butter if you have too much or make different compound butters which store in the fridge or freezer for ages. It takes a few minutes and you can use any amount of cream you have on hand.

You will need:

• 500 ml/2 cups whipping cream (any amount will work I have just used an amount for people who need an exact recipe)
• 1/2 tsp salt -optional

Tools

• a food processor
• some cheesecloth

Step 1: never throw out whipping cream! take any amount you have and put it in a food processor. I have used 500ml/2 cups because that is what I had.

Step 2: turn on your food processor and let it go. It takes approximately 5-8 minutes. The cream will go through a few stages. First, it will become whipped cream, then it will become curdled and over whipped and finally it will separate solids from liquids. You will hear it change and it will sound all wet and sloshy (that's a technical term!) This is what it will look like. 

Step 3: place the butter in a sieve with a layer of cheesecloth lining it. Gather the cheesecloth and gently squeeze the butter to remove some of the liquid. Squeeze 5-6 times.

From my 2 cups of whipping cream 1 cup is removed from the finished butter. Discard.

Step 4: take your little package of butter and place in fridge for 5-10 minutes.

Step 5: remove from fridge and take some paper towel squeezing again to absorb any excess liquid remaining.

Step 6: add some nice sea salt (mine is grey salt) and fold in and mix with your clean hands until blended. If you want to add herbs or citrus zest do it here. The butter is nice and easy to blend.

put in a small crock to serve or wrap in wax paper and Ziploc bags to freeze for later.

TA DA!!! you made butter. Do it with your kids as an experiment and then slather it on a nice piece of bread and enjoy!