Sweet. Cream. Butter. These are three words that go ridiculously well together on paper and spoken out loud. I smelled real sweet cream butter tonight, and I think I actually swooned. The best part is that it was in my own kitchen. I made my very first batch of real butter.
This week, I received my first Saveur magazine (my favourite cooking magazine) in the mail and, of all things, they are featuring butter. You've got to check out the articles on butter, written by some great cookbook authors, Naomi Duguid ("Flavours & Flatbreads" plus many more) and Nick Malgieri (author of many great baking books), just to name a couple. They also show "30 Great Butters" from around the world, of which two are made in Ontario and two are made in Quebec.
There is also a recipe for "homemade butter" with comprehensive pictures beside it. I read through the steps and there is nothing complicated about it. I think that organic cream is key to the best butter you can make. I have been asking myself lately, why I only buy organic milk, and then turn around and use any old butter. The Harmony cream that I bought to make the butter had two ingredients; cream & milk. Have you checked out the ingredients on regular creams lately? Depending on the brand, there can be several extra ingredients included in the carton, most of them probably extending an otherwise short shelf-life.
At this point, I haven't had any of my butter on toast. I did lick my fingers a couple of times and the sweet and salty were fabulous. Technically, this butter isn't sweet because of the addition of the salt. However, the fleur de sel, being the creme de la creme of all salts, doesn't add a salty taste exactly. It makes the butter flavourful; alive on your taste buds. And the aroma from the butter is exactly what sweet cream butter smells like. I'm shaking my head right now; it is that unbelievable.
Sunday Morning
I found a butter glossary online and it said that "sweet cream butter" is lightly salted. "Sweet butter" is unsalted. Thank goodness, because I don't think I could have changed the name of this recipe; I want, no, I need to see "Sweet Cream Butter" on this blog.
I pulled the butter out of the fridge this morning and let it warm up (slightly). First, I pulled out the last of a package of Saltines. I proceeded to butter each one of the crackers. This was a favourite snack at our house when I was growing up and this homemade butter just took it over the moon! Next, I toasted a sesame bagel and applied the fresh butter. I took a couple bites and I couldn't stop myself from adding more butter to each piece before I popped them in my mouth. Then there was the issue of the kids wanting some bagel. This butter is not the kind of thing that should be given to people who will not appreciate it thoroughly. Sorry kids, I think this butter is for adults only!
Later in the day, my father-in-law came over for lunch. I quietly made him a little piece of toast and buttered it well. I passed it to him and Alan explained that I had made butter. He ate it and then he said, "It's better than any butter you can buy in the stores nowadays." So, there you have it. A glowing endorsement from one of my toughest critics.Now, here's a thought - instead of making Christmas cookies this year or buying birthday gifts, make them some sweet cream butter. Who wouldn't love that??? And if they don't, well, don't feel bad about sneaking it out in your purse!
Sweet Cream Butter
1. Start with a half litre (500 ml) of the best quality organic whipping cream you can find. Pour it into bowl from your KitchenAid mixer*, cover with plastic wrap, and leave on the counter for 6 hours. The cream will begin to sour slightly, making for tastier butter. Before starting to make your butter, line a colander/strainer with cheesecloth and set it inside another clean bowl.
2. Using the whisk attachment, start stirring the cream on the slowest speed of your mixer. As the cream reaches soft peaks, speed up the whisking a notch or two. Very quickly, the butter & milk will separate. Stop whisking when the butterfat granules are around the size of peas.
3. Pour the entire contents of the bowl into the cheesecloth-lined strainer and let the mixture drain for several minutes.
4. Gather the ends of the cheesecloth together and squeeze, pushing downward to extract as much liquid as possible. Unwrap the butter solids but leave them on the cheesecloth. (The author suggests saving the buttermilk and using it in something like biscuits).
5. Pour cool water over the butter and rinse, carefully squeezing and folding the mass in on itself, until the water runs clear. Put the butter into a bowl and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of fleur de sel or kosher salt.
6. Using a wooden spoon, smear the butter repeatedly against the side of the bowl to aerate it and thoroughly incorporate the salt. Pour off any additional liquid the butter might release.
7. Transfer the butter to a piece of waxed paper and roll it into a log or form it into a brick. Wrap the butter tightly in the wax paper and refrigerate it overnight before you use it, to allow its flavour to develop. Keeps for about 3 weeks. A half litre of cream yielded somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 lb. of butter.
*The recipe in Saveur called for the cream to be whipped by hand. I started off doing this and quickly realized I didn't have enough time to finish the job before the kids needed to go to bed. The mixer made quick work of it and the butter looked great to me.
*I'm really going to have to dig deeper into the world of butter. There is so much to learn!
