We had an unexpected find while shopping .. we found whipping cream for 1.99 a quart !
Whipping cream as you all know is close to 5.00 on average. We snagged 9 quarts !
So today i started making butter! Super fun and easy. As you may be aware, butter runs anywhere from 3.99 a pound to 5.00 a pound, and all you need is whipping cream – even the salt is optional! The added benefit is not only did I make butter, but i also made buttermilk! 2 items for the price and effort of 1- in my book that is a WIN. Total time per batch is about 30 minutes including packaging.
I processed 7 quarts today into butter and my net yield for Butter is 6.03 lbs and Buttermilk is 8 and 1/2 pints.
If you have never tried making butter it is super easy. Pour the whipping cream in a stand mixer with the regular beater, and turn it on … I start at low while the whipping cream is still liquid to reduce sploshing then as it firms up into “whipped cream” i turn it up to medium high and just watch the magic begin.
First it becomes whipped cream, then it starts to separate from the whey and looks somewhat like pie dough in the crumble phase, then it starts to solidify as butter as it separates from the whey. At this stage you can feel the buttermilk splattering on your face, time to turn the speed down to medium low, as the butter gets more solid you will reduce speed again, otherwise you will have puddles of buttermilk all over the surrounding area! Eventually you have a chunk of butter stuck to your beater and buttermilk on the bottom of the bowl. Unhook the beater and pull the bowl out of the mixer. Take the beater with the butter stuck to it and place it in a smaller bowl to drain a bit more, then pour the butter milk into a jar. Now we need to squeeze as much liquid out of the butter as possible … it seems to work best for me by just kneading in a bowl and pouring the liquid into the buttermilk jar as it comes out of the butter. I have used the ice bath method, but it seems to me that i am just adding liquid back in … and i end up kneading it again to remove the excess liquid. You can add salt at the kneading stage if you like. I love the flavor with the salt and the salt helps to dehydrate excess liquid so .. win, win.
Package it … I use parchment paper and shape the butter into a rectangle, then i put the wrapped butter into a gallon size baggie and freeze it. I use the gallon size baggie because i can store several bricks of parchment wrapped butter in one baggie. I write the date and butter on the baggie and mark each individual parchment with the actual weight (since it isn’t a full pound at a time).