I Can't Believe I Made Butter

About a month or two ago the Star Tribune (a Minneapolis newspaper) wrote an article about making butter at home. As a cook, I already knew about the technique to make butter at home, but had never done it. So, as you can guess, after reading the article I set out to make my own butter.

For all of you that have never made butter, I will assure you that it will be one of the easiest and best tasting thing you will ever make at home. All you need is heavy cream (preferably organic) and an electric mixer (handheld or standing). You just beat the cream with the mixer until the fat (a.k.a. butter) separates from the liquid (a.k.a. buttermilk). At that point, you can add a little salt if you want your butter a little salty. You then strain the butter from the buttermilk and put it into a bowl. You can drink the buttermilk, but I like to take the buttermilk and make buttermilk pancakes.

The fresh butter will be very soft and perfect for slathering on a warm baguette. I find it interesting that the butter has a very natural look and doesn't have a weird yellow coloring. The butter’s texture is so creamy, smooth, and even silky. It sounds cliché, but the taste is so “buttery.” Just imagine the taste of the national brand name “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” without the preservatives, with a fresh milky taste, and made from 100% cream.

Hopefully, I'm not going to be the only one I know that makes butter at home.