Can you believe it's September? This summer seemed to fly by. Technically, we have 22 days of summer left, but being here in the UK, that's arguable :).
As cooler weather approaches, I find myself in heaven. I love Autumn. The crisp air, the colourful leaf display and most of all... comfort food!
Can you think of anything more perfect than hot bread and salted butter? There is no more perfect food on earth! Except if you make the butter yourself!
The process itself is so satisfying. I love squishing the butter between my fingers as I squeeze out the buttermilk and then knead in the salt. (Do not discard this treasure! Use it to whip up delicious scones or all American buttermilk pancakes.)
It is incredibly simple to make and super fast using a food processor. You can also use a stand or handheld mixer, elbow grease and a whisk, or even just by shaking the cream in a lidded container!
You can get fancy and make fresh cultured butter by adding 2 tablespoons of your favourite live dairy culture to the cream. You will need to do this 8-24 hours before you intend to make the butter. This ensures the cream infuses with the cultures, lightly or deeply, it's up to you. Once you do that you can proceed with the recipe below. Substituting your cultured cream for regular cream in the recipe.
You can use yoghurt, sour cream, kefir or crème fraiche as long as it's bio-live (containing live cultures).
After making this you can infuse the butter with endless ingredients to create compound butters.
Here are a few of my favourites.
Whipped spreadable butter, whip ½ cup of the prepared butter with 1 teaspoon high quality extra virgin olive oil.
Honey butter, whip ½ cup of the prepared butter with ¼ cup of your favourite honey until smooth.
Compound butters, work in herbs and spices to create delicious compound butters.
Garlic, parsley, tarragon, chives, chipotle, black pepper, brown sugar, chilli, lime..... you get the point.
They also make great hostesses gifts. I love whipping up a batch and gifting it to the hosts at a dinner party. It makes a great conversation starter and is a totally unexpected surprise. I have had friends send me "toast" pics in the morning...makes me smile.
Homemade Butter
Makes approximately 250g.
600ml. Double cream, cold from refrigerator
1 tsp. Sea salt, I used Maldon salt flakes
1. Place cream in bowl and begin to whip on high speed.
It will quickly turn into thick whipped cream, continue to beat and it will soon separate into butter and liquid buttermilk.
Stop beating as soon as this happens.
2. Tip butter and buttermilk in strainer over a bowl. Do not discard the buttermilk, save it to use in loads of other recipes.
3. Grab butter and run under cold water, gently squeezing it to remove as much buttermilk as you can.
4. Knead in salt and other ingredients if making a compound butter. Place in cling film and shape it into a round log. Refrigerate. Butter will keep for about a week or freeze for up to 3 months. Enjoy xoxo
