chickencam Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 We made some butter from a large pot of double cream that was 10 days out of date and hidden at the back of the fridge. I tentatively tasted it first and it wasn't sour, so we decided that we had nothing to lose if we tried to make it into butter like the Baker brothers did by whisking it in our Kenwood. Quite fascinating to watch as it suddenly splits from over whipped cream into butter and buttermilk. We didn't add any salt and it is lovely, I don't like salty butter, this also has a nice texture and is soft enough to spread even on a cold morning. No just to decide what to make with the buttermilk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Scones! Soda Bread! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chucky Mama Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 YS made some too after watching the programme. The butter was lovely but the soda bread using the buttermilk was not quite as good. Might have been operator error Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BizzyMomma Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Sounds scrummy!!! Not sure what to suggest for the buttermilk though..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluekarin Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 I make butter using my Kenwood chef. Its a bit messy though. I find involves a lot of tea-towels carefully draped. I love the moment when the cream is whipped to its nth degree just before it separates into butter and buttermilk I do like salt in my butter, as I prefer the taste on bread. That said, the butter I buy is unsalted so I can control the salt content of what I bake and cook with it. Homemade butter is just for bread and butter, or toast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 We didn't find it too messy but we do have a chef major so maybe the bowl is deeper. I was really impressed with the results. Will be making some scones or muffins tomorrow with the buttermilk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted February 4, 2012 Author Share Posted February 4, 2012 Blueberry muffins made with the buttermilk today, they are tummy. Blueberries are on offer in Morrison's at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue_F Posted February 19, 2012 Share Posted February 19, 2012 Buttermilk cake Katy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 If you are making butter in very small quantities, then using a food mixer is a really easy way to do it. If you are going to keep the butter for a few days (especially in the summer), or if you are going to freeze it, then it needs washing as well, to remove the last bits of buttermilk. If not, it'll go rancid (even if it's salted).. However, if you're making a really small quantity that you are likely to eat pretty quickly, you don't need to do this We make all our own butter using a KitchenAid mixer. I bought a lid for the KA, which is meant to be used for proving dough. DH cut a hole in the top so that I can fit it on with the blade in the machine, and now I don't tend to have problems when the cream separates (I remember well using lots of kitchen towels and tead cloths to try and mop up). I tend to do 8 litres of double cream at a time (in 1.5 to 2 litre batches, The bigger the batch, the more likely I am to have an overspill problem in the machine). I wash the finished butter to remove the last traces of buttermilk - I put it in a metal colander in a (huge) clean mixing bowl in the sink, and run cold water through it. I've found that since I started to use the newer KA beater, the one with the rubber sides which s"Ooops, word censored!"es the sides of the bowl as it mixes, there is usually very little buttermilk to wash out . Next, I weigh it into batches and salt it according to weight. This means putting up to 3 pounds of butter back into KA bowl, starting it mixing slowly, and then adding the salt. I then leave it mixing for a few minutes to make sure is really well blended. I then pot it up, chill it, and then freeze most of it. There is only two of us, so I use smallish pots and tubs. When I run out of receptacles, I use a burger press! I have a bit of a production line going, with the second batch being sepaated while I am washing the first, etc. When all the butter is washed, I have one batch having the salt mixed while I am potting another batch. Two bowls make this even more slick. I also make flavoured butters (garlic, lemon, rosemary, thyme, etc) For the flavoured butters I tend to put it into silicon ice cube trays, then pop the frozen butters out into a freezer bag. This means I can get out just the right amount for whatever I'm cooking. The plus here is that I have butters in heart shapes, pooh bear, piglet, tigger, eeyore... whatever trays I can find. The residual buttermilk is really versatile. We make soda bread, scones, buttermilk pancakes (Delia recipe), we use it in Yorkshire puddings (replacing the milk or milk/water), I use it in normal breadmaking and in the breadmaker. We never get to use all the buttermilk that the 8l of double cream produces, so some of it is thrown away. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted February 24, 2012 Author Share Posted February 24, 2012 How much salt do you use? I didn't find that I missed the salt in the first batch, but I did in the second one. i don't like salty butter, but I do like a little salt. We have started looking out for double cream on offer, because it makes it slightly cheaper than buying decent butter. I love butter and will not have margarine on toast, i will use it in baking, but I feel that although butter is saturated fat at least it is natural and you don't have to have masses, although that can be a nice treat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 How much salt do you use? I use 1 level teaspoon per pound of butter. Perhaps try that sort of amount for your next batch, and then you can adjust up or down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 When I first started making butter, I found this article very helpful as it had pictures as wel http://www.cookingforengineers.com/article/113/Making-Butter It's a US article, so just in case you don't know: "Heavy Cream" in the US is double cream, and a "stick of butter" nin the US is 4oz. Hope it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted February 29, 2012 Author Share Posted February 29, 2012 We made some more on Saturday morning, we probably used less than a level teaspoon of salt and it was too salty for us, fortunately we had two pots of cream to use, so we just mixed the two batches together and this diluted the salt in the first batch by half, just right We have frozen some this time too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WitchHazel Posted March 1, 2012 Share Posted March 1, 2012 We made some more on Saturday morning, we probably used less than a level teaspoon of salt and it was too salty for us, Sorry about that. Out of interest, how much butter did you initially add the teaspoon to? I find that the salt mellows once the butter is in the fridge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chickencam Posted March 1, 2012 Author Share Posted March 1, 2012 It was the amount made using a large pot of cream 800ml (?) so probably about 400g. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
