Hey!
How are you today? It's a lovely day in my neck of the woods since the heat took a leave of absence for a few days! I spent some time in the yard yesterday and today I plan on making some banana bread with a couple of very ripe bananas. First I'll need some butter for my recipe.
Have you ever made butter? I hadn't until recently and since I can't recall my mother or grandmother ever making butter, I assumed it must be a real time consuming and or messy proposition. But it's not, it's actually easy and delicious !
To make butter you simply need a food processor, blender, or Kitchen Aid mixer. A pint of heavy whipping cream, a little salt and some cheese cloth. That's it!
In a blender whip your cream and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt approximately 10 minutes. It's important to buy heavy whipping cream. At first your cream will become a whipped cream consistency.
Later, lumps of butter will appear along with a bit of liquid...this is buttermilk that can be used for pancakes or making bread.
Scoop the lumps of butter out onto a piece of cheese cloth. Make sure your butter is completely wrapped and then squeeze out any excess buttermilk. This part is a little messy, but as I've made more batches, I've learned how to keep the mess at a minimum.
Store your butter in a container. Or make fun shapes using chocolate molds. I use vintage glass refrigerator containers because our family is trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use.
Here I have some homemade wheat bread that I toasted, the perfect way to enjoy butter! Hope you give butter making a try. I bet the kids would enjoy participating too! You can make sweet butter by adding honey instead of salt. You can make unsalted butter or experiment with garlic and herbs. Enjoy!
Kathy :)
