Edible Wednesday: Adventures in Making Butter

The adventures of butter making only started last year. I thought it would be so much fun to make it - since it's so easy! As we shook it - I ended up writing a song about it during February Album Writing Month last year. This awesome artist Jacob Morales ended up demoing the lyrics and the song is awesome! Because it was so easy - and so much fun - I knew I had to share the joy of making butter!

Here's what you'll need:
Heavy Cream
Small Clean jar
Pinch of salt
1/4 - 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
Any other ingredients - Honey, Chives, etc

The first ten minutes:
I'm shaking as much as I can. I can hear it sloshing back and forth. A few minutes done and it's getting thicker. It's hard to shake since my arm is tired. My daughter is taking turns with me - but sets it down. I'm shaking and typing at the same time and feeling spastic!!! (I corrected all my typos). I think it it's coated so thick against the wall of the glass that it doesn't feel like I'm shaking anything anymore. When the timer goes off - I open it up to find foam - thick, peaked, rich creamy foam! It looks so pretty!

Here goes the next 10 minutes:
My daughter is rolling it on the floor back and forth - wondering why it's not rolling straight and is complaining that the butter is "not listening to her"...she is frustrated that the floor is too slippery (it's a rug). She feels like she's making pizza. (She's funny!). I am shaking it continually and wondering if this is harder than an hour of karate! I'm pretty sure it is. But it will be yummier than karate at the end! I keep shaking even though it doesn't feel like it's doing any good! I feel like I'm shaking a small 5lb dumbbell - ok - maybe an 8lb! It's getting heavier. I look to the outside of the glass and find hope that this 10 minutes is almost over. The butter is forming and is pulling away from the glass and gathering together for a party! I walk to the kitchen to find the timer has only 4....3....seconds left. Yeah!But it looks a little chunky nasty...but - that's ok - I'm not done yet....Before starting the last 10 minutes, I pour out the liquid that has formed.

The last 10 minutes:
I stand next to the sink so I can dump out the liquids that are being separated every minute. The more often you discard the liquids the better off your butter will be. If you don't - it will begin to re-mix back into itself. It will also last longer the more you get out. At the 5 minute mark, we took another picture (I took one and so did my daughter)...and then we added a little pinch of salt and about 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon (use more to make it stronger!). The salt will make it last longer (about 2-3 weeks), the cinnamon will just make it taste *awesome* (that's me singing!). You really have to shake it until you feel there's no more liquid left in there!

I have now put it in the fridge to rest and harden. It looks like crystalized soft serve ice cream! It's pretty warm for March here in Maine, so it will help to firm it up. In a couple hours I will check on it again and shake it a few more times to get more liquid out.There's no shaking now - this is rock solid. We got most of the juices out - and the only bit of liquid I see is when I'm pushing it into the heart cookie cutter to take the picture! My daughter takes a couple pics too! She's so good to me - so helpful and cute!!

As I mentioned - we've only made this one other time. I didn't look at instructions or a recipe - we just did our own thing and tried it out. It's really fun for kids. You can do it by sitting in a circle - criss cross apple sauce style and play hot potato or something...or Pat, Pat, Butter....(like Duck, Duck, Goose). Have fun with it, make your own recipe (honey butter, or chive butter - yum!!!) Let me know what you try - leave it in the comments below so others can try it too! Feel free to add some food coloring on special occasions - make it fun! Thanks as always for reading...kg