Okay, I'll admit an addiction in our family. While most people will readily admit to a sweet tooth, I have a savory tooth! The saltier, butteryier, the better! So, as a first post we will start with a foundational ingredient. It's pretty, smells wonderful, its creamy...its butter.
At over $3.50 a lb in stores, for butter that's been handled who knows how, and salted to different levels, I really got sick of wasting my money on it. We use a lot of butter. A sweet sister on mjf suggested I make my own a simplier way than with an old fashioned churn. This has saved my an amazing amount of time, and the results are fantastic, and the butter, delicious!!
I do try to watch for sales on whipping cream, but dairy doesn't go on special often. The cheapest places I've found it so far are Costco and Winco.
You need to let the whipping cream at least come to room temp, but its even better if you can let it sour a bit before you make your butter.
It's so easy!! To begin, all you need is a food processor, two containers, and salt if you want salted butter. Simply poor whipping cream to max liquid mark on your processor, and go! The length of time you need to whip changes. It's all determined by weather it is sour, what the date is on the carton, and what temp it is. Whip until you see it separate, and bits of butter swirling around. Watch closely at this point...as soon as these bits start to clump together, stop the machine.
Take the lid off, and the blade out. Starting at the center, use a rubber spatial and push the solid butter up and around the sides, essentially packing the butter, and wringing the buttermilk out. Pour off the buttermilk into one of your containers, to use for baking or drinking! Push the butter back down off the walls of the processor and replace blade. Sprinkle salt to taste, and give it a quick whirl to distribute the salt.
I put about 3/4 of the butter into a shallow tuperware bowl, and chill. Once set, I slice into three equal sticks of butter, and wrap them in waxpaper. The last 1/4 of butter stays in the processor for one more quick spin. I add 1/2 tsp of olive oil to the butter, and whip it in. This butter is spreadable right out of the fridge. I put this on a airtight container, and toss it in the fridge.
The more you do this, the better each batch turns out. If you stop too soon, the butter isn't as creamy, and you will not get as high a yeld. If you process too long, you will cream the buttermilk back into the butter. The taste is amazing. And for about $3.00 you have a lb of butter, about 1 1/2 cups buttermilk, and a bit of whipping cream left to toss in the processor with powered sugar, and make your own whipped cream.
Once you get it down, you'll never go back to storebought again.
Better baking days to all from this Fried Okie!
