Back to Basics: Homemade Butter & Buttermilk

A lot of things have been happening here at Cooking Creation over the past several months.  I have been doing freelance food writing for food.com and have had to take a little hiatus from blogging while working on a big Thanksgiving project.  I'm very excited to share what I've been doing in the next month or so with you.  I will have lots of delicious holiday recipes and how-to posts to share with plenty of photos, so stay tuned!

Now that that project is over and my daughter is back to school, my schedule is a little lighter.  I decided that I wanted to start posting some back to basics recipes, starting with homemade butter.  Making your own butter is incredibly easy and requires only one ingredient.

Ingredients:
Yields 1 cup, or two sticks

• 2 cups heavy cream 
• Optional:  1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Pour the heavy cream into a blender. If you would like to salt your butter, add the optional teaspoon of salt to the heavy cream.  Turn the speed setting onto medium and beat the cream until it turns into whipped cream, about 1 to 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula.  

Increase the speed to medium-high and continue to beat the cream until the butter separates from the liquid and resembles scrambled eggs, about 8 to 9 minutes.  The liquid that separates from the butter is fresh buttermilk. 

Place a colander over a bowl to reserve the buttermilk.  Pour the contents of the blender into a colander.  Remove the bowl and chill the buttermilk covered in the refrigerator.

Gather the butter with your hands.  Under cold running water, squeeze out the remaining liquid from the butter with your hands.

Shape the butter as desired and set it in the refrigerator to cool. 

Enjoy!