How to make butter

A few weeks ago I was baking and 4 steps into the 6 step process, I realized that I had run out of butter. Bummer, yes, but rather than toss what I already had, I started to look for alternatives. As I scanned my bare cupboards my resolve to forgo tossing my  mixture was fading quickly. I had all but given up hope when I closed my refrigerator. Then my brain processed what my weary eyes had just seen...a full bottle of heavy cream! Whoo hoo hope was alive again, and my baked good was saved, because inside that glass bottle was everything I needed to make fresh homemade butter!!! Whenever I make things like this I'm always reminded of how easy homemade things are to make. I think everyone should make butter at least once in their life. After you make this you'll probably wonder why you never tried to make it before now. It's that easy!

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Total time : 15 minutes

Ingredients:
2cups heavy whipping cream
Sea salt to taste (optional)

Equipment needed: blender

Directions:
Pour the cream into the blender:

Blend on high until the liquid in the cream separates from the butter. This took about 3 minutes with my Vitamix, but it takes longer in a regular blender. Here are some pictures of the process.

After the water separates and it looks like the below picture, place the butter in a fine mesh strainer and press out as much water as you can.

Once you've pressed out all the water, place it in a bowl and salt it if you care to:

 If not place it on parchment paper, roll it, or mold it however you'd like, place in an airtight container and refrigerate. Note some people rinse the butter with cold water to remove any remaining buttermilk. This helps to prevent the butter from going rancid too quickly. I didn't do it, but I used my butter immediately. Also if you'd like to make a compound butter, just add your ingredients in with the salt before storing. I made a garlic lemon butter the recipe is below


Ingredients for lemon garlic butter
3 Tablespoons of soften butter
1 clove of grated garlic
Zest of one lemon
2 teaspoons of fresh lemon juice
Sea salt to taste