I have read a few articles recently talking about making butter. At first the thought was like Who the hell makes butter? "What?? Make butter? don't you just make a trip to Target and buy it?"
But after the last article I thought What the hell Why not give it a try? I think this will be a great activity to do with the boys - since we can either use a mixer or their psychotic massive energy to shake a tight container. Hopefully I can help them release some and mellow them out.
So here are the instructions I plan to follow. Let's hope it doesn't end up all over the walls it works! I will post pictures after it is destroyed completed.
Use a handy KitchenAid Mixer or you can make butter in any closed container too. An empty jar, martini shaker whatever. These directions are for the mixer. Start with one quart heavy whipping cream at room temperature, go ahead let it sit on the counter for an hour. It won't spoil and your butter will taste better. Open it up and let it breathe.Pour the cream into the bowl of the mixer and fit the mixer with the whisk. Starting on the slowest speed, turn the mixer on, after it is up to speed you can increase to one of the middle speeds. Now leave it alone.
1. After 10 minutes you should have something approaching soft whipped cream.
2. After 15-20 minutes it will be denser and more yellow. Turn up the speed to high and put a towel over the whole thing. Once the curds start to separate from the whey it gets messy.
3. In about 5 minutes you will see the foam get drier and start to deflate a little. Turn the mixer back to Medium.
4. Keep peeking at it, when it looks like cold lumpy oatmeal, turn it off. It doesn't take long to go from whipped cream to butter. This is the point where I like to add salt, some people do not. I add about a 1/2 teaspoon.. Look Curds!
5. Now you have curds and whey ( buttermilk). The curds will mostly stick to the whisk, but there is quite a bit in the buttermilk too. Pour the whole thing into a square of cheesecloth placed over a strainer and a bowl. Let it rest a minute.
6. Pick up the cheese cloth and squeeze as much of the whey as possible out of your butter. Some people rinse the curds before squeezing. I don't I like a little of the taste and smoothness of the whey to stay in the curds. Rinsing the curds will will allow you to keep your butter longer. We don't have to worry about butter storage around here, it never lasts longer than a week. So give it a good squeeze.
7. You now have a nice fist sized lump of butter
8. and about a pint and a half of buttermilk. We store our butter in canning jars in the refrigerator and on the counter. It can also be frozen. We keep the butter milk in the refrigerator and use it in baking for the week. Anything left at the end of the week goes into the freezer.
Now, why don't we normally make our own butter? Maybe because we can buy it at Target with a lot less energy than it takes to do the work. The effort seems worthless. My guess is that will not be true. I look forward to finding out. Maybe it will taste better - my guess yes. I will at least know that nothing else is added.
Wish me luck!!!!
