It’s delicious spread on toast, gives a luxurious sheen to sauces and livens up simple grilled meat and vegetables. We use it so often it has become a staple, but very few people still make their own. When you do though, you realise the difference between the real thing and the shop bought imitations. Children love making it too!
As it comes from one ingredient, double cream, you need to make sure that it is of the highest possible quality. At the cookery school we like Roan’s Dairy!
The process is relatively simple but there are a few things to consider for success…
Making butter is simply agitating the cream so that the fat molecules separate from the buttermilk. This can be done by simply putting the cream in a jar and shaking until separation is achieved. The easiest way is to whip the cream using an electric or hand whisk (I recommend an electric one!)
So here we go, take your full fat double cream and place in a mixer with a balloon whisk attachment or in a bowl for use with an electric hand whisk. Whisk the cream and keep on whisking, you’ll notice it start to go grainy and then moisture begin to appear, that’s the buttermilk. Keep on whisking until you have what is clearly identifiable as butter sitting in the buttermilk.
Drain the buttermilk off and keep that for other uses such as drinking, soda bread or marinating chicken.
Now submerge the butter in very cold water and squeeze out as much of the cloudy buttermilk as possible. The buttermilk is acidic and will make the butter go rancid much quicker if you don’t wash it out thoroughly.
Butter stamp.
Add salt to the butter for preservation and flavour, it can be left out if you so wish however.
Form into your chosen shape, I use butter pats but you can use whatever you have to hand. Look out for old fashioned butter stamps which can make your butter look beautiful!
Watch the video above for ideas.
Wrap in greaseproof paper and use as required. It freezes well. Flavour it up with herbs or spices. Having small individual butters in the freezer are great to have on hand to throw into grilling meats or veg for extra flavour.
Let me know how you get on!