Homemade Butter

So when I started making bread I decided I wanted to try making butter too; just sounded like it would go nice on a warm homemade roll. A couple of friends commented on that blog about how they had made butter when they were kids and how much fun it was, so I decided to get the kids involved (they love to help out in the kitchen).  You can also make butter in a stand mixer, which I will probably be doing the next time I make it, but this was a fun way for the kids to see how it's done.

First you will need heavy whipping cream (I wanted organic, but the store was out) and if you're letting kids help out, you'll need jars. I used some leftover baby food jars which are a nice size for young children.

Then just fill the jars with the cream

And shake, shake, shake.

After about 5 minutes it will start to thicken and look like this

Keep shakin

It will start to look like whipped cream. Try not to stop at this step and eat it.

Your kids will become tired of shaking at this point

Don't worry, you're almost there when it looks like this.

You'll know it's done when it forms into a ball and it sort of floats in the milk (which is buttermilk by the way. Didn't know you'd be making two things at once huh?) Once that is done you'll want to pour it over a strainer to separate butter from buttermilk.

Then scoop out the butter and put it into ice water to rinse it. This step will help your butter last longer.

I repeated this step once to make sure
it was rinsed well.

Then put the butter on some wax paper

 Wrap it up and stick it in the fridge :)

Oh, and don't forget about the buttermilk you made. I just put mine back into the baby food jar and will use it later... maybe I'll make some homemade salad dressing?