Friday, September 25, 2009

Like Buttuh

I made butter! Gone are the days of churning and shaking, now that we have modern appliances.

Okay, so this is totally easy. There are a few methods to making butter that I found while I was researching how I would do it. 1) in the Kitchenaid 2) by shaking it in a jar - could you imagine? and 3) in the food processor. Obviously the Kitchenaid and food processor methods are very similar.

Here's what I did:

All you need is whipping cream (I used a full liter) and about 1/2 teaspoon salt (optional). Add these ingredients to the bowl of your food processor, fitted with the chopping blade.

Start to blend and you will see the cream pass through several stages. At first, from sloshy soft whipped cream, firm whipped cream to coarse whipped cream.



Suddenly the cream will start to seize, the shape will collapse, and the whirring will change to sloshing.


The butter is now fine bits of butter in buttermilk (and it actually is buttermilk, you can save it and use it). Within a few seconds, the yellowish butter will separate from the buttermilk.



Drain very well. I pulsed it a few more times and drained it over and over, then wrapped it in cheesecloth and squeezed out as much moisture as I could.

At this point you can also 'wash' the butter, a process with ice water and further blending to help it store better. I didn't do that this time because I'm going to be using the butter quite quickly.

I portioned into 1/2-cup rations to store, wrapped in plastic wrap.

My 1 liter of whipping cream made about 2 1/2 cups of butter.

4 comments:

  1. Behold! You have magical powers! LOL! This was an idea I have been kicking around as well. I'm glad to see it was successful!

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  2. By the way, how long did the process take from start to finish?

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  3. It was totally easy - go for it! Start to finish in less than 15 minutes. I baked cupcakes and cookies with it today and it's really nice and smooth, blends well.

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  4. Cristin,

    Please do get in touch with me before you travel out here. I'd love to help, and we can meet up for coffee, lunch or a visit to the Union Sq. farmers market.

    Christine

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