Next time you see a large pot of double cream going cheap, make sure you snap it up. For in just a few minutes you can have your own, deliciously creamy, home-made butter. Plus a little buttermilk, ideal for making soda bread or muffins.
So here's what to do.
Buy the cream. It doesn't matter if its on its sell-by date. In fact it's better.
Pour into a food mixer. We use a plastic blade, or you can use a balloon whisk.
Whizz.
Until it looks like this...
Whizz more...until it looks like this...
Whizz more...until it looks like scrambled egg sitting in a pool of liquid.
This is your butter and buttermilk, separated.
Now drain through a muslin - you could just use a sieve.
Squeeze as much liquid out of the butter as possible
From now on, keep the butter as cold as you can.
We got our lovely neighbour to make us some special butter paddles, which were soaked in iced water beforehand. You could just use cold hands!
Wash the butter several times in cold water. You are trying to get every last drop of buttermilk out, otherwise your butter will quickly go rancid. Don't worry though, it doesn't take very long and after a few washes the water stays clear.
Here's what you should now have.
You're almost there.
Add salt if desired. Dairy salt is recommended (whatever that is). But you can just use normal salt.
Half a teaspoon per 4oz of butter (Half a pint of double cream makes about 8oz of butter)
Work the salt through the butter
Shape the butter
And there you have it.
You can cut it into blocks to freeze, but you'll probably just want to spread it on some lovely fresh bread and eat it straight away.
