Today I spontaneously wanted to make bread. I didn't have milk. My whey was frozen from the last time we made cheese. I did, however, have two extra half pints of heavy cream left over from Christmas that was in danger of going to waste. So to use the cream, have delicious home made butter for the warm bread, and to get the butter milk that we need to make the bread, we made butter. I am still surprised when people are surprised that you can make butter at home.
When we were little, every Easter weekend our mom had us make butter in a cleaned out mayonnaise jar. You put the cream in the clean jar, add a half teaspoon of salt and then start shaking. Everyone got a turn shaking. And then everyone got two turns. And then everyone got three turns with bonus opportunities to pursue acting careers while each of us kids started rolling on the floor complaining about arm cramps and feeling faint. It did take a long time. Still, we would never give up those memories.
So today I use my KitchenAid Mixer
since I don't have enough family in the house to make into jar shakers.
I put both half pints into my mixer bowl, half teaspoon of salt, and mixed using whisk attachment at speed 4 for about 5 minutes until it turned into whipped cream.
Then you just keep going... mixing on speed 4.
It takes about 12 minutes from when you have cream to get it into butter. You can see the changes as it thickens and then kinda slaps the bowl and then gets thick and slightly yellow. At 10 minutes I turn the speed down to 2 so that when the buttermilk starts to separate, I am not just beating it back in. After what feels like forever (but without the sore arms) your butter will suddenly start separating from the buttermilk. Keep mixing for another 2 mins and then you have really delicious butter. Plus buttermilk that is perfect for making bread.
I then put the whole thing in a fine strainer lined with paper coffee filters. You need to drain and then press as much buttermilk out as you can. This helps it last longer.
My bread is in for second rising, then a half hour to bake and then fresh, hot bread ready to smother with home made butter. What a perfect thing for this snowy winter day.
When we were little, every Easter weekend our mom had us make butter in a cleaned out mayonnaise jar. You put the cream in the clean jar, add a half teaspoon of salt and then start shaking. Everyone got a turn shaking. And then everyone got two turns. And then everyone got three turns with bonus opportunities to pursue acting careers while each of us kids started rolling on the floor complaining about arm cramps and feeling faint. It did take a long time. Still, we would never give up those memories.
So today I use my KitchenAid Mixer
since I don't have enough family in the house to make into jar shakers. I put both half pints into my mixer bowl, half teaspoon of salt, and mixed using whisk attachment at speed 4 for about 5 minutes until it turned into whipped cream.
Then you just keep going... mixing on speed 4.
It takes about 12 minutes from when you have cream to get it into butter. You can see the changes as it thickens and then kinda slaps the bowl and then gets thick and slightly yellow. At 10 minutes I turn the speed down to 2 so that when the buttermilk starts to separate, I am not just beating it back in. After what feels like forever (but without the sore arms) your butter will suddenly start separating from the buttermilk. Keep mixing for another 2 mins and then you have really delicious butter. Plus buttermilk that is perfect for making bread.
I then put the whole thing in a fine strainer lined with paper coffee filters. You need to drain and then press as much buttermilk out as you can. This helps it last longer.
My bread is in for second rising, then a half hour to bake and then fresh, hot bread ready to smother with home made butter. What a perfect thing for this snowy winter day.
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| heavy cream in the bowl with a half teaspoon of salt |
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| just starting to peak into whipped cream |
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| it's starts to thicken, slightly yellow, and is butter that hasn't separated yet |
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| the buttermilk is separating now. |
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| home made butter. press as much buttermilk out as you can to help preserve it. |
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