Homemade Butter

Homemade Butter

 

You Will Need:

1 carton (any size) of heavy whipping cream

(photo shown below)

 

Pour carton of heavy cream into large mixing bowl

 

With a hand mixer (or stand mixer if you have one) begin to beat the cream on medium speed. After beating for approximately 6 or 8 minutes the cream will start to "separate". This is normal. (photo shown below, about halfway through the process)

 

Continue to beat until mixture has separated and the solid portion becomes thick. (This can get a little messy. It splatters once the liquid starts to accumulate.)

 

Once you finish beating, scoop out the solid portion and strain through a mesh strainer to insure you remove as much liquid as possible. The solid part is your pure, fresh homemade butter! You can season it any way you like such as salt. This is what your butter will look like.

 

Store your fresh butter in a container in the refrigerator.

The liquid portion that is leftover is fresh buttermilk! You can freeze the fresh buttermilk and use in numerous recipes such as biscuits or pancakes!

This is what your buttermilk will look like. If you are not planning to use it right away you can freeze it for later use.

 

And there you have it! Homemade fresh butter and buttermilk!

 

Enjoy!





Homemade Cream Cheese (made from homemade yogurt)

**Homemade Cream Cheese**

 

This is a homemade cream cheese recipe that is made from homemade yogurt. Don't be intimidated, it's super easy and most of the preparation time is just "waiting" for it to do its thing! My homemade yogurt recipe and full tutorial can be found here!

 

You will need:

approx. 2-3 cups of homemade yogurt (depending on how much cream cheese you want to make)

 

a clean hand towel or cheese cloth

 

a pot or bowl

 

a rubber band or string

 

a mesh strainer

 

What To Do:

 

First, put your mesh strainer over your pot, then lay the hand towel over the strainer

 

 Then pour your yogurt into the hand towel (leave enough room to pull up your towel and wrap the rubber band around it)

 Next, bring up all sides of the towel (rather tightly) and wrap your rubber band or tie around the towel. You will immediately start to see liquid draining from your yogurt!!

 Then, place pot, strainer and everything into the refrigerator and let drain over night.

 This is what your cream cheese will look like!!  This is just straight up plain cream cheese. You can use in recipes or you can flavor it any way you like and use as a spread on bagels or other breads or crackers!

Above is a photo of the liquid that is drained from the yogurt. This is called the "whey" and DON'T DISCARD IT! It's packed with nutrients and can be used for several things! I will post a list of all sorts of things you can do with your whey!  

 

 

**ENJOY!**

 

 

Please feel free to leave feedback, comments, or questions! I'd love to see how YOUR'S turns out! 



Super Delish 4 Ingredient Smoothie

Super Delish 4 Ingredient Smoothie:

 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice (or store bought is fine, I just happened to have some fresh orange juice on hand)

 

1 cup fresh strawberries

 

1 whole ripe banana (when it's really ripe, it blends much easier)

 

8-10 cubes of ice (I added a little more ice, I like extra ice!)

 

*optional fifth ingredient: a few TBS heavy cream (this turns it into an Orange,Banana, Strawberries and cream smoothie)

 

Directions:

Put all ingredients into blender and mix until all ingredents are well blended.

 

Pour into glass and enjoy!

 

 

*** Note from The Happy Homemaker: Please feel free to leave comments or questions. I would love to hear your feedback and any requests you may have! *** 

Homemade Yogurt

Homemade Yogurt:

 

I know what you are thinking!  Homemade YOGURT??!! Yeah right!  I promise once you've tried it, you will master it and wonder why you haven't been doing this already, so here goes!

 

 

What You Will Need:

 

 

 

 

Slow Cooker

 

Half Gallon Whole Milk

 

One Cup Plain Yogurt with Live Active Cultures (this will be your starter, you will learn about this later)

 

 

Seems simple enough right??  So let's get started.

 

Just pour your milk into the slow cooker and put the lid on and cook on low for 2 hours and 45 minutes.  You may want to set your alarm or timer so you don't forget, timing is everything with homemade yogurt.

and that's it for now!

 

After 2 hours and 45 minutes have passed TURN OFF your slow cooker and let it sit for 3 HOURS be sure the cooker is OFF.

 

Next, once it has sat for 3 hours spoon a small amount of the milk into a bowl and whisk in the store bought yogurt.  (I don't have a photo for this, it was 7 a.m. and I'm not a morning person..LOL)

 

Once you have added the milk to the yogurt and whisked together, add this mixture back into the slow cooker and mix around.

 

The next step is crazy but crucial, leave the slow cooker OFF and UNPLUGGED and cover it with a heavy beach towel or blanket. This allows the yogurt to cool more slowly and thicken properly.

 

(You'll get to know me, and you'll learn that I have EVERYTHING in pink! LOL)

 

Let your slow cooker sit covered this way for 8-12 hours(or overnight) this will allow it to cool and thicken.  For me, I do 12 hours but that's just me.  You'll develop your own way too.

 

Next you get to uncover your slow cooker and see your creation!

 

Just remember, it will not be as thick as the kind you buy in the grocery store due to the additives and gelatin and such but you can actually strain it and make it thicker like Greek Yogurt if you prefer.

 

Also, remember to spoon out one cup and put aside to use as your starter for next time.

 

 

And there you have it!  One half gallon of home made yogurt to flavor any way you like.  The smaller jar is my starter for next time.  This will keep for a few weeks, and I will post more tutorials to show you lots of things you can do with your homemade yogurt!