If you've never tasted homemade butter, please take note: It's delicious! It's also fresher and creamier than store-bought butter. It's easy to make, too. Just pour some heavy cream into your food processor, and you can acquire a cupful of bragging rights in exactly 10 minutes.
I was in the third grade at Adams Elementary School when I first tasted homemade butter. Our teacher, Miss Dokken, poured cream into a mason jar, and then let each child in the class shake the jar for 30 seconds. What fun! As the jar passed from student to student, the cream thickened and then separated into two components: watery buttermilk and solid butter. Dokken strained the butter at home. And the next morning, she presented us with the finished product, along with four loaves of delicious-smelling yeast bread, still warm from her oven. What a feast.
I know what you're thinking. "That was a lovely story, Kevin. Now where's the buttah?"
Alrighty then. Let's get this party started.
First, select some decent cream. For the very best butter, use heavy cream from local, grass-fed cows. Such cows produce the sweetest, best-tasting cream.
Pour the cream into your food processor, making sure that you do not exceed the machine's liquid fill-line. My 14-cup processor was able to accommodate 1 pint of cream, which resulted in an entire cup -- or the equivalent of two sticks (226 grams) -- of butter.
Now press the "on" button, and...
Let 'er rip!
After 1 minute has passed, you'll find whipped cream in the work bowl. Not that you have to remove the lid to check. I removed mine just to show you what's goin' on beneath the lid.
After 2 or 3 minutes, the whipped cream will dramatically thicken to the consistency of cream cheese. Also, the cream will pull away from the sides of the bowl.
In another 30 seconds or so, the thick cream will take on a craggy appearance. In other words, it will resemble Miss Dokken's face.
Miss Dokken was a strict disciplinarian. Her warden-like personality matched her appearance: gray hair, no make-up, and a fashion sense that never exceeded a housecoat. I and my classmates were deathly afraid of her. That is, until the butter-making business. Then she morphed into the hippest woman on earth.
After processing for another 2 minutes or so, you'll hear a "sloshing" sound. The sound indicates the cream has separated into clumpy solids and cloudy liquid. Stop the processor.
The liquid, by the way, is uncultured buttermilk.
Now place a fine-mesh sieve over a pale blue bowl...
And pour the butter "curds" and all of the liquid into the sieve.
Then transfer the strained liquid to a jar or measuring cup. As you can see, my cream produced nearly a cup of liquid. You can drink this uncultured buttermilk, or use it in breads, mashed potatoes, and the like.
Run cold water over the butter to firm it up. Do this at your faucet, unless you are taking pictures and require the light of a window.
Use your impeccably clean fingers to knead the butter as the water runs over it, to encourage any remaining buttermilk to escape. Keep kneading under cold water until the liquid runs clear -- about 1 minute.
Then add a little salt, and knead it in. Salt will not only flavor the butter, but it will preserve it, too. You can store salted butter in the fridge for about 2 weeks.
You can, of course, knead in other ingredients, too. Like honey. Or chopped herbs. Or minced garlic.
Form the butter in whatever shape you like. Or, just pop it into a green ramekin.
Now grab a loaf of crusty bread, such as this homemade Sourdough Boule (recipe here).
Cut off a portion of the bread, spread it with the just-made butter...
And then tell me this isn't THE best butter you've ever tasted in your life.
As you've just seen, butter is really very simple to make at home. It's screamingly delicious, too. I hope you'll try it some day.
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Here's the printable:
[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:46]
Also in Kevin's Kitchen:
Herbed Cottage Cheese Biscuits
Linguine with Butternut Squash and Sage
Chocolate Chunk Cookies with Fresh Mint
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