Churning Butter

Butter is something that I really only use for baking and the occasional box of mac 'n' cheese for my kids, but it is a kitchen staple in most households. About 8 months ago I started making my own butter and will never again buy butter at the store. It is so easy and effortless to make, my 4 year could do it! Also have you every looked at exactly how many ingredients are in the butter that you buy at the store? By making my own butter I know exactly what goes into it, heavy whipping cream... that's it! 

Here's how I make butter:

Equipment:
A food processor or an electric whisk, when I'm only making a little I use the whisk, but when I want to make a larger quantity I use the food processor
a bowl
cheesecloth or other thin fabric, I use womens handkerchiefs that I buy at rummage sales
spatchula
2 container, one for the butter and one for the buttermilk

Ingredients:
2-8oz cartons of cold organic heavy whipping cream, I get raw milk from a farm and sometimes I skim the cream off of the top and use that as well

Pour the whipping cream into the food processor. Put the cover on and turn it on high.

While the food processor is "churning" the butter line a bowl with the cheesecloth.

As you watch the food processor you will notice that the cream goes through a few stages. First it is a liquid, then it will turn into a whipped cream(if you stopped here and added a little sugar you would have home made whipped cream, very yummy). Then finally it turns into butter. This takes 2-4 minutes. It is finished when it looks like this:

Now you have to separate the butter from the buttermilk. Scrape everything from the food processor into the cloth lined bowl.

Then take the edges of the cloth and bring them together and squeeze out the excess liquid. When you open up the cloth you will be left with a large ball of butter and a bowl of butter milk.

I then store my butter in a wide mouth glass masen jar and the buttermilk in a smaller glass jar.

Voila.... you have butter!
Store your butter in the fridge, it will be good until the date on the cream carton.
Oh I should mention that this recipe is for unsalted butter. I prefer it this way and if I'm making something that calls for salted butter I just add a little extra salt.

Enjoy your fresh butter!