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From Scotland on Sunday July 20th
Cooking with kids

IN THE summer, I buy cream to eat with Scottish berries. But sometimes my children eat the berries before they reach the table, so I find that we have lots of cream left in the fridge.

This is an ideal time to make your own butter. It is fun and easier than you think, and tastes delicious – just make sure you use double cream that is at room temperature (it will be too cold if you use it straight out of the fridge).

We have to be careful about how much fat we eat so use soft butter, which you can spread more thinly on toast and in sandwiches – and then you will not eat too much. If you can see teeth marks in the butter when you bite, you have spread the butter too thickly.

HOMEMADE BUTTER

Double cream
Jam jar and lid

Half fill the jam jar with double cream and screw the top on tightly. Shake the jar. The cream will slosh from side to side, making a noise. When the sound of the splashing stops, you know you have made whipped cream.

But carry on shaking the jar and suddenly the sloshing noise will return. This can take ten to 15 minutes but it usually takes at least 30 minutes – that's a long time to keep on shaking.

Open the jar and drain off the buttermilk – and you will be left with butter. (The buttermilk makes the butter go sour.)

Fill the jar with cold water, replace the lid carefully and shake the jar again. Drain off the cloudy water and keep doing this until the water stays clear.

Squeeze the ball of butter through a sieve to remove any more buttermilk.

Add a little salt if you want to and then pat your butter into a block and put it into the fridge.

Time-saver: Make your butter in a food processor, but if you use an open-bowl model (for example, a Kenwood Chef), you will need a splatter guard.
Fi Bird
www.stirrinstuff.org