Home-made butter

We've all been there- you're cooking away happily when you take your eye off the ball for just one second and BOOM you've got a kitchen disaster on your hands...or have you?

Sometimes kitchen accidents can become kitchen revelations helping you to discover something entirely new and delicious.

Thus is what happened to me on Valentines Day...

2 courses down and copious amounts of pink cava drunk, Mr KG and I were just about ready to serve up dessert. Mr KG had cooked an amazing meal; all I had to do was hand whip some cream to serve with his chocolate lava cake (I hope he'll be sharing the recipe soon!)

I got bored of handwhipping pretty quick so we served up with half whipped cream. After the meal I decided I didn't want to be outdone. So with a bowl of cream and a whisk in my hand I started whisking like I've never whisked before. But in an attempt to whisk even faster, I shut my eyes. By the time I opened them it was over whipped!

At first I was disappointed. I was secretly hoping to sit and eat a bowl of whipped cream as post-dessert-dessert! But then I remembered something I’d seen on the Baker Brother TV show when I was back at uni.

With a little bit of research I realised I’d made butter!

So here’s how to do it...

Take 4 pints of double cream. Grab an electric mixer and get mixing.

You need to keep whisking the cream until it is soft, stiff and then over whipped. Keep whisking even more as lumps of fat start separating from the butter milk. Drain off the buttermilk (you can keep this should you choose) and keep mixing the butter. Keep doing this until you have removed as much butter milk as possible.

Place the butter into a bowl of cold water and squeeze out as much buttermilk as you can. Drain off the liquid and wash 2-3 times more, or until the water is clear.

Once the water is clear you have your butter! You can add salt (roughly 2 tsps) to make it last longer.

4 pints will make roughly 1 kg of butter so reduce the amount cream as necessary.

If you do not add salt you should eat the butter within a few days. If you do choose to add salt however it will keep fine for a few weeks.

Once you’ve made your butter you will really, really want to bake some warm bread to slather it over! It’s so satisfying knowing you’ve made something from scratch especially something like butter which is a staple in everyone's house. 

Have you made butter from scratch before? Or perhaps you've had a go at flavouring it? Let me know in the comments below.