Oh Butter…. Or as the people in Brooklyn would say “Buttah”.. 🙂 It is delicious on toast, makes cookies taste so rich, it’s just all around divine. Now, I’ve been eating and using butter for pretty much my whole life, but with this blog, I’m also learning about it instead of just eating it :P.
In this first edition of Baking 101, I am sharing with you what I’ve learned so far. It’s not going to be in-depth or even scientific, but it will give you some basic information on one of the little treasures in the baking world. Here are a few facts about butter:
- The most familiar kind of butter that we see is usually made from cows’ milk. But did you know that butter can also be made from other kind of milk, such as sheep, goats, buffalo and yak? I did not know that! But next time, I will try to make my own butter from other kinds of milk that I can get my hands on.
- Compound butter … Now compound butter is a fancy way of saying “Butter plus one”. It’s when you combine butter with really anything your heart desire. You can make it savory or sweet. After combining the butter with whatever you like, you can roll them up in a log, refrigerate and use them whenever you’re ready! Here is a 42 compound butter recipes ready for you to whip up. (See what I did there? :))
- If you want to go more advance with butter, there is also Ghee, clarified butter and brown butter. A Beautiful Plate’s website has a great explanation about it and this is going to be my next baking project!
Now, here’s something you fun that you can do with your kids. Did you know that you can make your own butter? It’s really easy! All you need is whipped cream, salt, a tight lid container (a really tight one. Trust me on this), and some upper body strength!
So you put one cup of whipping cream in a tight lid container. And then, you shake the living daylights out of it!! After about 4 minutes, it will look like whipped cream. Keep going! Don’t give up and shake, shake, shake, upside down all around (this is where the tight lid container is really important!) until… you get this…
Isn’t it beautiful? You can save the buttermilk (the liquid stuff) for later. So after you have this beautiful chunk of butter, you need to wash and knead the butter in ice water until the water is clear. Add a pinch of salt and voila! Butter! You will get about 1/4 cup of butter out of 1 cup of whipping cream.
After you make your very own homemade butter, why don’t you make .. what else, Butter Cookies! This cookies will really make the butter the star of the show.
To conclude this post, I would like to share with you a poem. I’d call it an ode to butter.
BUTTER
Oh butter my love,
how do I count the ways
I can use you in baking and cooking
I can use you for days
Everything that I make with you
goes from my lips to my hips
but you know what, it’s all good
because you make everything taste good
Happy Baking!!
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 15-17 minutes |
| Passive Time | 2 hours |
| Servings |
2 dozen
|
- 1 cup butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 cups flour + more for rolling out dough
- 10 oz dark melting wafer
Ingredients
|
|
- With your mixer, beat butter, sugar, salt and vanilla extract until smooth and creamy. Around 1 minutes. Scrape the sides.
- Add the egg yolk and mix. Scrape the sides again.
- Add flour and mix until it comes together.
- Coat the surface with flour. Put all the mixture onto the surface and knead with your hands until it's mixed together. You don't need to knead too much.
- Using a plastic wrap, divide the batter into two logs. If you are going to bake them that day, you can put it in the refrigerator for a few hours. If you are not going to bake them that day, you can put it in the freezer.
- To bake, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Lightly coat your surface and rolling pin with flour. With your hands, knead the log of dough so that it will be warm and easy to roll out. Dust top and bottom sided of dough with flour. After rolling out to the thickness of 1 cm, put your cookies on the lined baking sheet.
- Bake for 15-17 minutes.
- After the cookies are cooled, melt the chocolate wafer in the microwave. Using 30 seconds increments, melt the chocolate, and then stir. Put it in another 30 seconds and then stir again until smooth. Dip the cookies in the chocolate right away and cool on parchment.
Adapted from: Food.com
