Homemade Butter

It's Pioneer Week!  Those of us in Utah know what I'm talking about.  On the 24th of July, many Utahns will celebrate that day that Brigham Young, along with many other Mormon Pioneers, made it the Salt Lake Valley and declared, "This is the place..." in 1847.  It's a day of fun, history and fireworks!

This year, I wanted to make it special for my kids.  Help them to really get into the spirit of it all and learn some of the struggles and hardships some of our ancestors had to endure to make it possible for the Church to be a part of our lives today.

No, I'm not going to take them out and make them pull handcarts up the mountain or endure freezing temperatures with no coat or shelter.  I just want to talk to them about the struggles the pioneers had and maybe have a little fun while we learn.

So, this week, Anthony and I are doing some fun activities with the kids that the pioneers may have done themselves.  I'll be snapping pics and sharing recipes and ideas along the way so be sure to come back.

For today, I have a fun idea for making homemade butter.  Ok, so I don't know how the pioneers did it.  Probably with a churn but for our version, we're just using a jar.  It works...

Allow me to demonstrate... actually, my girls are going to demonstrate.

Here's what you'll need:

 

A clean, empty jar with a lid...



Some marbles (just two will do just fine)...



And some heavy whipping cream.



Place the marbles into the jar...



Pour the cream into the jar...



Put the lid on.  Now shake it...



and shake it some more...



and even more....



Keep shaking for several minutes (this is fun for the kids)...

When you don't hear the marbles shaking around anymore, you've got whipped cream!



Still not butter so...... KEEP SHAKING!!

You're SOOOOO close!  Keep shaking!!



THERE!  Once it separates, you've got BUTTER!!





What's that milky looking stuff, you ask?  Take a wild guess... it's BUTTERMILK!!



I got almost a full cup of buttermilk after doing two cartons of whipping cream (one at a time).  In fact, I think it would have been a full cup if I hadn't spilled some.  Whoops!

Now you've got butter...



...and buttermilk!  Hooray!  Make some buttermilk pancakes in the morning and butter them with your homemade butter.  It's the best butter you've ever tasted, promise.  If you like salted butter, you can add 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt before shaking.

This whole process takes about 5-10 minutes, total.  You can even do this without the marbles if you don't have them.  Just remember the process takes a bit longer without them.  But it will work!  The butter tastes delicious on bread!  I may have to go get me some right now...

Come back tomorrow for another fun Pioneer Day Activity!