Butter was the name of the game for day 5. Making butter from scratch, I honestly thought it was going to be a lot harder than it was and I really did not expect it to be so much fun and the process is pretty amazing.
I youtubed the process (of course I did) and found a great video by LaurenGrov, Lauren goes into great detail about the process and offers a detailed video of how to easily make butter without the use of an old jar and a ZZ Top beard which was apparently a requirement in many of the other butter making videos I found.
Lauren suggests not using Ultra Pasteurized Heavy Cream so I went to Freddy's thinking they would have a better selection than Safeway but all they offered was one small carton of ultra pasteurized so I went with my favorite life motto and said "fuck it" and got it anyway. I figured its my first try and if it turned out gross I would throw it out or give it away as a gift to someone I don't really care for.
I got home and put out all the necessary ingredients and tools like I normally do when cooking up something delicious. This is when I realized this was going to be much simpler than I expected - heavy cream, food processor, and salt - that's it. I added the cream and salt to the food processor and let 'er rip! It literally took all of 3 minutes before the cream "broke" and became butter. The entire process is pretty interesting and fun to do and watch! Ana got a kick out of watching the cream turn to butter inside the processor, giggling and pointing at the various stages.
With each high power spin of the food processor (or shake of the jar for all your dirty hippies out there) the globules of butter fat in the cream start to come together. This togetherness first allows teeny tiny air bubble to held captive in the cream, trapped against their tiny air bubble will, and this captivity creates a foam that we know as whipped cream – light as [trapped] air, fluffy, delicious whipped cream. When the spinning, beating, or shaking of the cream continues those fat globules (the word globule makes me giggle) begin to clump tighter together causing the air and fluid currently being held in place to bust free – "FREEDOM!!!!" the air and fluid scream as they stand up against the oppression of the fat bastard globules. This is the moment the butter “breaks”, the once small butter fat globules are now air & fluid free and are collected into large fat clusters that we know as delicious creamy butter and the fluid that is now screaming "REVOLUTION!" is what we call buttermilk. Pretty cool right?!
After its all blended up simply strain out the fluids, I used a cheesecloth but you could use a clean kitchen towel (NOT terry cloth) to squeeze out the excess buttermilk from the butter. That's it, your done! Plate it up and serve it to family and friends at your next party.
I made three small batches, enjoying the process more and more as I cranked out more butter. Ana and I made some delicious beer bread (recipe below) to go along with it. I lost my bread pan in our recent move so I experimented with making my beer bread into a baguette, it turned out great!
I loved butter making, I will never serve store bought butter at any holiday dinner ever again! Special thanks to Lauren for the wonderful youtube video and to Doc for always eating everything I make!
Beer Bread
Serves/Makes: 1 loaf
3 cups self rising flour
2 tablespoons sugar
12 ounces Beer, room temp.
***Variation, add***
1/2 cup of any extra ingredient - ex: raisins and a dash of cinniman or shredded cheddar cheese or chocolate chips.
In a mixing bowl combine flour and sugar. Add beer. Mix well. Place in a greased loaf pan and bake at 375 for 50-60 minutes. Brush with melted butter.
The butter ingredients and tools:
Added cream to processor
After just a few moments we got whipped cream (a little past whipped cream actually)
Just minutes later its butter time!
Straining and squeezing out the excess buttermilk. Tip - use the buttermilk squeezed out to make pancakes or biscuits - yum!
Don't you just want to eat my butter balls!? LOL
Ana helping me to make the bread
The end result of home made butter and beer bread
Delicious!!!
CLICK HERE TO GO TO DAY 6
5 comments:
Love this!
That beer bread sure smells good!
Yes... I do want to eat your butter balls! Ana's face is priceless! I need a food processor
I have now made butter two other times, once just before leaving to a friend's house I whipped up some butter and packaged it up. I have experimented a little with flavors too and so far have made a honey almond butter that I would consider killing over!
You have just inspired me to make butter
Heidi I am so happy to hear that!! Making butter was one of the easiest things I have done and really has a high level of satisfaction that comes along with it! Bonus, its a total party pleaser!
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