We bought this huge container of Heavy Whipping Cream at Costco a few weeks ago for Ben's birthday cake (costs about $4.50 there). But, of course, we had a ton left over. So this last week, we made a bunch of butter. It is seriously the easiest thing ever, and it's a great science experiment for the kids (and grown ups). Making your own butter this way will actually yield two things: butter and buttermilk. We used our buttermilk to make buttermilk pancakes with a buttermilk syrup.
To start: All you need is heavy cream. Fill a jar half full with the cream. I gave each of my children their own jar. We used glass, but if you are worried about them dropping it, you may want to use a plastic jar instead. Tighten the lid on and then start shaking.
If your kids get tired of shaking, tell them to dance with their jar!
After a few minutes, you'll first notice that the cream is not longer making noise when you shake it. If you remove the lid to take a peek, you will notice that it looks like whipped cream (see above picture). Keep on shaking!
A few minutes later, you'll hear a light "thump" as the butter suddenly appears and is separated from the buttermilk (see above picture). How cool is that!?! Shake a little while longer. If you like your butter salted, add a little salt before your final shake. We use unsalted butter, so we didn't add anything.
Strain the buttermilk away from the butter and store into a separate jar in the fridge. SO easy, right? This butter tastes great! And with only 1 ingredient? I love it even more. My kids have asked to make butter a couple more times-they love it. I usually have to help them shake the jar a bit, especially once the cream turns thick and it's harder to shake it, but it only takes about 5 minutes to make. This would also be a great project to do when your kids are learning about cows, farm life, food, etc.
Have you ever made your own butter?
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