My boyfriend has recently gifted me a beautiful 6qt professional KitchenAid mixer. As soon as I opened the box my little heart lunged out, at the machine, and begged me for two things: whip eggs to stiff peaks and make whipped cream. Naturally these were the first two things that I did. First morning of owning my mixer was to make a waffles, to continue to thank my boyfriend. I found a recipe that used egg whites whipped to stiff peaks and funny enough no buttermilk (I couldn’t justify going to the store for it). Found a recipe from serious eats, and they turned out crunchy, yet moist and pretty delicious.
The second hearts desire was to make whipped cream, which I technically I did do, but I choose not to stop there. I admit this project was the day after making a carrot cake (possibly my thirds heart desire) so my sweet tooth had being satisfied with a cake on the counter. So butter it was. The process is simple. Poured cream a my mixers bowl and let it sit out for 12 hours, I will explain that later, and whipped it on medium to high for about 5 minutes to get butter and buttermilk out of it. Then you essentially wash out the milk solids of butter, which will turn rancid over time if left in. Involving first collecting the buttermilk and then pouring ice water over your butter. Mixing, dumping the water and repeating until the water runs clear.
Watching a liquid change its viscosity is really a pleasure to watch. A delicious pleasure to watch. But what is going on is that cream, the fattiest part skimmed from milk, is made up of basically fat and water. Fats and water don’t mix completely, imagine oil in water, so the fat particles get to be suspended in its really thick liquid. When agitated the fats glob up, and begin to make larger particles making the liquid thicker. Whipping cream. When you continue this process the fats reach a size that they can no longer be suspended in a liquid and form large pieces and break a way from the liquid. Butter and Buttermilk.
Traditionally, you let the milk sit out for an extended period of time before all the butterfats rise up to be able to skim off for cream. During this process a mild fermentation occurs which sourers the buttermilk, now a days most cream is separated with a centrifuge there is no lactic acid from fermentation in it. Since I wanted the complexities and benefits of cultured butter and of buttermilk I let it sit out for 12 hours. I even cheated and introduced a spoonful of yogurt with live cultures in it, it is cold outside cultures need all the help they can get.
Was it worth it? To tell you the truth, yes it was. I recommend you doing it, just for the simple pleasure of eating fresh butter that you made. But in reality it costs about the same amount to buy the equivalent quality of butter than it is to make it. The nicer the cream that you acquire, the nicer the butter you will make. One quart cream, 23 minutes (including clean up) produced me 16 oz of butter and 17 ounces of buttermilk. Meaning that I payed myself out a little cheaply, 17 ounces of buttermilk but thoroughly enjoyed my time.