If you're eating really good bread, you gotta have good butter to go with it!
Cultured butter (AKA, European butter) will change your butter game! It's SO rich and flavorful, requires only three ingredients, and if you're making it yourself, you can make it exactly how salty you like it!
Making butter is extremely easy (especially if you have a food processor!) and rewarding. If you've never tried making it, I highly recommend giving it a go!
I wouldn't make my own butter for say, all of my holiday baking, but for having something special to slather on a warm slice of sourdough, this is worth the effort!
And do you ever buy a container of cream for a recipe and then have a random amount left that you struggle to use before it needs to be thrown out? Me too! But here's the perfect thing to do with it. You'll get butter AND buttermilk for your efforts.
What is cultured butter?
You may have heard it called "European butter", and if you've been to Europe and eaten their butter, you may have noticed that it is SUPERIOR to American butter. That's because it's cultured! (Not in the speaks-lots-of-languages, likes-classical-music way.)
Cultured butter is made in the same way as American (or sweet cream) butter, with the vital step of adding bacterial cultures to the cream and allowing it to ferment and thicken before churning.
At home, bacteria is added using yogurt. You can use any kind you like, as long as it's plain and has the words "live active cultures" on the label. These are the bacteria you want!
Hellooooo, bacteria, welcome to the butter party.
I think the flavor and texture difference here is really noticeable, and I am pretty committed to regularly making butter at home because of it.
If you love good cheese, and good butter (think: Irish butter), you will be into this!
Making butter
Okay, making butter is one of my favorite things to do because it is so quick and almost magically transformative. (Plus, you get butter out of it!!)
Churning Butter
This butter is churned in the food processor, which means you dump the mixture in, turn the machine on, and wait for it to happen.
See how thick the cream has become after sitting mixed with yogurt? Culture!
What you're looking for is the butter solids to separate from the buttermilk. The telltale sign of this is seeing thin liquid splatter around the inside of your food processor. Once it happens, you won't be able to miss it!
At first, the mixture will get thick and creamy. Keep going. It will start to break up and shift around. Keep going. Then, it will separate and you'll see buttermilk splatter on the lid. You're done! Thank you, food processor, for turning a previously laborious endeavor into a 3-4 minute-long show.
Don't have a food processor? Not to worry, you can do this step in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer. Remember when you were whipping cream as a kid and your mom would always warn you not to whip it too long or it would cross the line between whipped cream and butter and you could NEVER go back? (No? Just me?) Anyway, here you want to cross that line! Keep whipping and whipping until the butter solids and buttermilk separate. Just be careful because without a lid, the buttermilk will splatter if your mixer is on too high!
Rinsing butter
Next, you'll remove the solids to a bowl. The liquid that's left is buttermilk - I highly recommend keeping it and using it for things like biscuits, scones, and/or pancakes!
But, back to the solids. Your goal is to remove all of the buttermilk and as much liquid as humanly possible. I think the biggest potential hang up of homemade butter is the texture being "off", and it all comes down to this step.
I like to gather my butter into a ball and hold it under the faucet with cold water running to rinse it off, then squeeze out as much as I can. Repeat until very little water comes out of the butter when squeezed, and the water that does come out is clear (aka, not buttermilk).
IF at any point your butter gets too warm, dunk it in a bowl of ice water.
Once you've squeezed and rinsed and contemplated life to your heart's content, pat your butter dry with a paper towel, and mix in any salt if you're using it.
Shaping butter
One of the best things about homemade butter is you can shape it however you want!
The easiest and most forgiving method is to squeeze it all into a jar. I'm partial to this method because it requires no extra tools and you have an airtight storage container that can live on your counter for spreadable butter any time.
But also this is the perfect opportunity to make something fun, festive, dare I say: whimsical.
See: this gingerbread man made of butter. Clearly there is a trick to shoving butter into all the mold's nooks and crannies that I have yet to master, but kids thought it was fun and I got to listen to lots of discussion about which of his limbs to eat first.
If you are like, a professional butter maker, you can buy a butter press or use silicone chocolate molds for individual butter.
This is maybe the most extra thing about me but I have definitely considered buying a personalized butter mold.
Storage
Let's get into the controversial territory of refrigerating/not refrigerating butter. What team are you on??
Our current "spread stick" I keep room temperature so it's always - ahem - spreadable. Backups I keep in the fridge.
OBVIOUS CAVEAT that I am not a medical professional/food scientist/person with any sort of advanced bacterial knowledge. Please realize this advice comes from a butter enthusiast only.
The idea I've heard thrown around is that butter is too high in fat to spoil quickly at room temperature. If you see any mold, or it starts to smell unpleasant, it's gone too far. (These have never happened to me! If they happen to you, I think it's a sure sign that you either need to put less out at a time, or increase your butter consumption.)
Cultured butter can be stored at room temperature, or refrigerated. The fermentation will continue, and will happen more quickly at room temperature, so be aware that if it's at room temp for an extended period, it might start to take on a cheese-like flavor.
Cultured Butter
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons plain yogurt (any style, but make sure the label says "live active cultures"
- ¾ teaspoon table salt
Directions
- Whisk together the cream and yogurt until smooth in a medium bowl. Cover loosely with plastic wrap, and leave at room temperature for 18-24 hours, until the cream has thickened slightly and it all smells kind of yogurty.Transfer to a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Process for 3-4 minutes, until the buttermilk separates from the butter. You will be able to tell it's happened when thin liquid starts to splatter around in your food processor! Remove the solids to a bowl and form into a ball. (The remaining liquid is buttermilk and you should definitely keep it to use in other baking!) The goal now is to squeeze as much liquid out of the butter as possible and rinse it until no liquid remains. I do this by running it under cold water from the faucet, squeezing it out, and repeating until the water is clear. If at any point the butter is too warm, plunge it into a bowl of ice water.Pat the butter dry with paper towels and place in a large bowl. Stir in the salt. Transfer to a jar, roll into a log using parchment paper, or press into molds and refrigerate until ready to use.I store mine at room temperature for optimal spreadability. It has not lasted us more than a week! You can also store it in the refrigerator if you prefer.
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