Make Butter

Making homemade butter is surprisingly simple - even if you're name's not Heidi and you have no milkmaid experience! All you need is some heavy whipping cream, a few tools, and some elbow grease!

• one pint of heavy whipping cream
• one 2 cup / 500 ml wide mouth mason jar with lid
• pinch of salt
• small sieve
• glass measuring cup

Fill the mason jar half way with heavy whipping cream.

Add a pinch of salt, if desired. The salt isn't necessary for the process, so feel free to leave it out if you prefer. You can also add other spices if you'd like to get fancy. I've tried dill and it was delicious!

Place the lid on the jar and screw it on tightly.

Now comes the magic....

All you have to do to make the butter is shake the jar for approximately 10 minutes. That's really it. If you have kids, this is a great thing to do with them as it really is kind of magic AND their excitement and stamina will save your arms from all the shaking. : ) It's also a big hit at a party.

But even if you're doing this project solo, the time passes quickly and you get a little arm work out to boot.

You'll be able to see when the butter is starting to form and separate from the buttermilk. It will go through a creamy phase - you can stop here and use it as whipped cream (adding sugar at the beginning makes this extra delicious) - or you can go for the gold and keep going until you achieve separation. (see last photo of this step)

Place a small sieve over a spouted vessel of some kind and pour off the buttermilk*. What remains is the magic - smooth, creamy, and DELICIOUS butter. I think that the effort of making it yourself makes it taste even better!

I recommend using your butter within one to two days as this process doesn't remove all the buttermilk, which can go sour if left for much longer.

*Store the buttermilk in a sealed container in the fridge for use in pancakes or biscuits.

I might just be lightheaded after all the shaking, but I really think that my butter tastes better than the store bought kind.

Having said that, I really only make it for a special occasions, when there's at least one shaken butter newbie. Store bought butter is so cheap that it's hard to justify the time of making it for regular use butter.

But when in need of crowd pleasing magic, it's a winner!