BACK TO BASICS ~ HOME MADE BUTTER

This is a truly inspired post. Inspired by the talented Quinn of  Quinn's Baking Diary. Quinn has not blogged about this yet but she had facebooked it. 

I was smitten and so were many of her facebook friends. And I promised her I would make this since over beating is in my nature. Indeed if there is anything that I will over beat to a hilt and without a quiver of guilt in the future it will surely be cream.

Yes Ma'am. When I had created the butter I felt like a little Miss Dairy Queen who had just milked a cow and who lives on a farm with plenty of know-how.

Some of us, like me, after some googling, will know that cream is the butterfat-rich part that rises to the top of non homogenized cow's milk. It is not made. It is, in the words of www.ochef.com, "an ur-ingredient if you will." "It is not the product of another recipe, it is a naturally occurring food that you cannot make yourself." Like chicken livers, salt and apples" says he.

But butter is something else. Butter is made the way I just did. By over whipping or over beating cream. 

When I had made the butter, the butter made me ~ a little Dairy Quinn.

The Recipe ~ by Quinn of Quinn's Baking Diary

Whip whipping cream. Then, over whip it.

Like magic, the cream will first look as light and as fluffy as a cloud, and then it will go on to become curdly and quite, quite ugly and when, finally, it splits completely, a little like magic again, you will be very pleased to see a solid hump of yellow butter swimming in some swishy, skinny milk which, by the way, is what is called buttermilk. 

You'll be laughing and moo-hooing all the way to the refrigerator. Because you have not just made butter but buttermilk too. Moo-hoo.

Drain the buttermilk from the butter in a sieve and rinse the butter under the tap or by pouring filtered water over it. Pat dry gently with a paper towel. Pat into a suitably sized bowl and keep both butter and buttermilk in the refrigerator.

The after effects of making butter ~

I had a conversation with myself ~

Me : I wonder how long it will keep before it turns rancid? 

Me :  I don't think it'll sit around long enough for you to find out.

Me : And you know what? 

Me : What?

Me : It tastes just like butter! 

Me : Heck.... it is butter.

Me : I still can't believe I've made butter. 

Me : Aren't you're such a clever old cow. Moo-hoo.


Thank you Dairy Quinn. xoxo


Do you always buy a 1 litre box of whipping cream because it's cheaper than buying the smaller 250 ml packs? I do. Only now I know what I'll do with the cream that's always left over after I use part of it. Make butter. Would you?