Today’s new thing was prompted by a pre-Christmas fridge clean. I wanted to rescue any lonely carrots, or packs of butter stuck at the back of the fridge before I started preparing my Christmas foods next week when I found a full container of double cream. I think this was leftover from my sticky toffee pudding a few weeks ago and was only just in date. I didn’t have any sweet baking on the cards so I took to Google to work out what I could do with it, and I found I could, very easily, make my own butter. Who knew?
All it required was a can of double/heavy/high-fat cream (the name changes depending on where in the world you are) and a stand mixer. You could, of course, make it by hand by vigorously shaking the cream in a jar until the solids start to separate, but you’d be a better person, with stronger arms, than me if you did. I stuck to the good old mixing route and whipped the cream on it’s highest setting for around 10 minutes, until it had gone past the thick cream, started to yellow, and started to separate.
At this point, it looked pretty disgusting, but I knew the liquid was purely buttermilk, and I tried to save as much as possible of it so I could use it in a recipe for some scones or pancakes, which also meant nothing went to waste. I squeezed everything through a muslin cloth, and then rinsed the butter under cold water: basically, the more of the buttermilk you can rid of the longer the butter will stay fresh.
I lightly salted the butter and was left with a golden, light tasting spread. I actually couldn’t believe that it was so simple to make and that I’d actually managed to do it! It actually made me feel very accomplished, something I’ve usually only felt from the harder, more complex new things before now. I guess I’m officially a domestic goddess now!
New Day, New Thing 