Making your own butter

Making your own butter is fun and easy, and if you have an excess of cream, it is also economical. Unfortunately, if you have to purchase your cream at supermarket prices, then it is usually cheaper to buy butter. The good thing about making your own butter is that you can get creative and make European style cultured butter. 

Cultured butter has a wonderful flavour that is subtle yet quite distinctive. This flavour is caused by the bacteria that you add to the cream before churning and is enhanced as the butter ages.

The first step is to make Crème Fraiche, which is a cultured cream. Then, once this is complete, you take your Crème Fraiche, and using a food processor, or mixer, beat it into butter.     

Ingredients:

• 1 litre light cream
• 1 package direct set Crème Fraiche starter culture or one smidgen of MO 036 direct inoculation culture

Equipment:

• Large double boiler (2 large pots, one inside the other, like this will do)
• Cheese thermometer

Method:

• Heat your cream to 30° C and add your starter culture, mixing in well.
• Let rest undisturbed for 12 hours at room temperature. 
• When your mixture has set, spoon it into an airtight containing and store in the refrigerator for up to a week. 

This Creme Frachie can be made into dips, used in cooking, served with fresh fruit, or churned into butter.  

Directions for making butter:

1. Take your cream or cultured cream (Crème Frachie) and using a food processor or mixer, beat it till it turns to whipped cream, thickens even further, and then separates into butter and buttermilk.  

2. Pour off the buttermilk and then, using cold water, begin to wash the butter using a kneading action with a spatula, to remove the remaining buttermilk. Continue rinsing your butter, replacing the water as it gets cloudy, till the water runs clean. Then you know you have washed all the buttermilk out of your butter. Failure to remove all the buttermilk will result in butter with poor keeping quality, as the buttermilk left in the butter will go off.

3. Once you have washed your butter, place it into a container and refrigerate until ready to use.

We had cultured butter on scones today with some home made quince jam and it was a real hit.

Now you can try it yourself.