Mom's Homemade Butter & Buttermilk

Mom taught me how to make butter this week. I am surprised by how easy it is to make. I can't imagine buying butter in the market anymore. I think it took about 10 minutes to make and it tastes divine. Mom used Farmland brand Heavy Cream from Costco. It is free of hormones and antibiotics. My sister used Hatcher Family Dairy's Whole Cream. They both worked well.

What you will need on hand:

Mixer

Dish Towel

Pint Container (to store the remaining buttermilk)

Seran Wrap

Bowl or mold (to mold the butter)

Ingredients:

1 Quart Heavy Cream

1 tsp Salt

First, pour the entire quart of cream into the mixing bowl.

Cover the mixer with a dish towel because there will be lots of splatters!

Mix on high for several minutes.

You will notice the cream begin to thicken into whipped cream.

In a minute or 2 more, it will begin to get chunky.

This is when you will add the salt.

Once you've added the salt, cover the mixer again.

Continue mixing on high speed.

After another minute, you will begin to hear liquid sloshing around.

The cream is separating from the liquid.

Soon, the butter will be clumping up on the mixer's whisk.

Turn the mixer off. Lift the whisk.

Allow the liquid to drip off of the butter for a few minutes.

Catch any remaining clumps of butter in the liquid.

Smoosh them into the big ball of butter on the whisk.

Prepare your mold by placing a layer of seran wrap into the mold.

Scrape the butter off of the whisk and form into a big ball.

Next, smoosh the ball of butter into the mold. Press out any air bubbles.

Remove from mold, wrap up completely with seran wrap.

Place into refrigerator until ready to use.

Of course, I always leave a big blob of butter out at room temperature for toast.

Lastly, you will pour the remaining liquid in to a pint jar. You can leave this out for 24-36 hours at room temperature. Then, refrigerate. Somehow, this turns into buttermilk!

So, for less than $3 you can make almost a pound of butter and a pint of buttermilk. Lovely.

I have a feeling that my next recipe post may include Darryl making Irish Soda Bread with our buttermilk.

Let me know how it works out for you.

Enjoy!

My Darling Liam

Liam Padraic McCreary. What a special boy. Today he is 8 years old.

Liam is lucky. Good things happen for him. He can look in a pile of weeds and spot the 4 leaf clover. He wins contests. He finds meteorites that have fallen from the sky (at least, he says it's a meteorite).

If you are ever fortunate enough to meet him, it will be impossible for you to not fall in love with him. I know I am his mom and all, but really, he is an extraordinary boy.

He wants to do everything his dad does so he eats 2 sunny side up eggs in the morning and dips his toast in the yellow runny part, just like his dad.

I think his favorite person on the planet (other than his dad) is his Uncle Wes. He lets him do wild things that I won't let him do. Like go shark hunting, watch scary movies and say naughty words. I put my foot down when he asked to get a mohawk and a pierced ear.

Liam loves all things dangerous. Slinging rusted machetes, playing with chain saws, breaking bottles with BB guns, and driving the zero-turn lawn mower.

His Aunt Jenn bought him some black leather cowboy boots a few weeks ago. He wants to wear them everywhere, even with shorts. They give him blisters, but he doesn't care. He loves them.

I love that he loves them.

He is his own unique, quirky little person. I couldn't be more proud to be his Momma.