I Want You, I Knead You: Butter

I made my own butter about a year ago.  I had read about it somehow online, and decided to try it.  I made cookies with that butter, and while I couldn't taste any real difference in home-made butter cookies and store-bought butter cookies, I was happy to have tried it.

Who you callin' "Butter Ball," bub? Oh me, right.

I got the itch to make butter again the other day, as I had a ton of leftover heavy cream from an ice cream recipe.  I make mine in a food processor, but one could make it in a mason jar or with a whisk, or even an electric mixer--The point is to agitate the cream until it separates into butter and buttermilk.

Once you are done, you simply have to squeeze the remaining buttermilk from the butter, and save both in the fridge (a cheesecloth comes in handy for the squeezing).  But what to do with both butter and buttermilk?

The only logical conclusion: biscuits.

Biscuits are simple--the right amounts of salt, flour, baking soda, butter, and milk/cream.  I decided to freehand the recipe this time, as I wanted to challenge myself.  The results?  I wish I had used more salt.  They were a little bland, but not bad.

Anyway, here's what I did.  I put 2 cups flour, one tbs of salt, and 1/2 tsp baking soda (the dry ingredients) into a mixing bowl.  With the mixer on, I added cubed portions of butter (I can't tell you how much, as it was an approximation thing), until the flour mixture looked mostly mixed with butter.  Those who have made pie dough might find this step familiar.

This is flour.  Got too busy with making to stop and take photos of the flour/butter mixture.

With the mixer on, I then added the buttermilk slowly until it formed a dough and pulled away from the sides of the bowl. I used all of my buttermilk, but if there happens to be leftovers, save it for something else!

The final stage is to turn the dough out onto a floured surface, knead a few times, cut with a glass or round cookie cutter, and place on a pan.

Champions...

Fight!

Some people prefer a round cake pan so the biscuits touch, while others like to place on a baking sheet a la cookies. Either way, biscuits will be made.  Before going in the oven (high heat, about 375-400 degrees)  I washed the tops with butter, to help make them golden brown.  Apparently this was not to happen for me (can't win them all, next time I'll use an egg).

The results were decent.  My oven wasn't hot enough (so I baked them forever), and, as I stated before, more salt would have been nice and they never got golden-brown on top.  Challenge...won?

 

I am inclined to disagree.  However, they were edible in the end, and a good learning experience.  A little failure now and then is a good thing--it brings humility and the motivation to try better next time.  Life lesson in a biscuit, who knew?