a little bread and butter

Is there anything more delicious than fresh homemade bread right out of the oven with a dollup of butter on it?

Once a week, mabybe twice, we make our own bread.  It is always an exciting day with many helping hands eager to help.  Before we went gluten-free in the fall, the process was longer and more detailed.  While I see the improvements in all our health going glute-free, I do sincerely miss kneading the dough.  I liked rolling up my sleeves and getting into a rhythm, watching the dough transform under my very own hands.

We are also fortunate enough to get milk fresh from the farm, twice a week.  My husband uses cow milk in his coffeee while the rest of us love goat milk.  The other day, we were reading a Snipp, Snapp, Snurr book about making butter, and I happened to look in our fridge and see the lovely fresh cow milk had already separated, ready for us to make our own butter.  I had never done this before, and I was delighted by how easy we were able to make our very own butter for some homemade bread.

I skimmed off the cream which didn't amount to much it seemed, though the butter will double this amount in the end.

After putting a lid on the mason jar, I slipped a yogurt-making sleeve over it so that all the rolling that was about to happen wouldn't crack the jar.  I also laid down our picnic blanket from the summer to soften the rolling on the floor.

Depending on the warmth of the room and the cream, the butter will develop from the cream anywhere from 15 to 50 minutes.  I highly recommend agitating it more than you think, as this gentle rolling here, while fun, was not enough.  Mama ended up taking over when the littles moved on after 25 minutes.

When we peeled off the sweater sleeve, we were happily surprised to see chunks of butter floating amongst a little cream.  We drained the liquid and scooped out the butter, adding just a smidgen of salt for flavour.  And that was it!

Of course, I also made a loaf of fresh bread, just for tasting the butter, of course.

Maybe many of you already make your own butter, but this was my first time and I'm eagerly awaiting more cow and goat milk!  Fresh, whipped, creamy butter is truly a treat!

Delicious!

Comments

[angie]

Yummy! My kids love making butter! And drinking the resulting buttermilk right from the jar! Haven't done it in a while, maybe today is the day:)

[angie]

Just had to comment on the yogurt sleeve, what a fantastic idea! I wrap mine in a towel and put it on the mantel above the woodstove, the sweater sleeve is so great!.

[~ joey ~]

What a fun thing to do with the kids! I bet it is like magic to them!
I'm interested in your bread, which grain are you using? It looks like it holds together well? I would love to be able to switch from the Irene's Nothing Else bread, it's better than nothing but it's very.....um....what is the word for it?!?! ;o)
My husband wants to buy a yogurt maker to make yogurt with soy or coconut milk. Do you (or any of your readers) have any advice for us?!
xoxo
~ joey ~

[Laura]

wow this is lovely and looks so tastey :-)

[Jenny]

I'd love to know which recipes you love for gluten free bread. I just went gluten free b/c of a thyroid dissease I have, and oh, I am missing bread!!! I hate the already made gluten free bread, and I've tried making my own and all tasted too salty and like raw dough, for lack of better words. And the consistency was chalky. I've not had much luck.

[Kristin]

love homemade butter! growing up i was a "country kid" and sometimes used it to my advantage - i made homemade butter for my 3rd grade science project. my classmates all loved it. and if i remember correctly, i got a good grade too! ;) yum.

[Anna Jordan]

Hello! I am a new reader to your lovely blog and thoroughly enjoying reading through your archives:) Your bread looks so tasty, and I will echo previous commenters and say that I would love the recipe.
Have a great day!
Anna

[Christy]

How fun--I often make butter with little ones at my job. I've found that that the quickest way for them to do it is to put the cold cream in a half pint jar and have them shake it--jumping encouraged! You will have butter in 5-10 mins. this way. The longer it takes, the harder it will be to get the 'butterball' because it will get warm. Also, if you plan on keeping the butter for more than a day or so you have to 'wash' it in cold water or any little bit of buttermilk will sour it.