I made butter. At home. In my apartment. Are you thinking I’m crazy? Are you thinking that I could easily buy butter from the store like a normal modern human being? You’re right, I could do that. And usually I do, but recently I made butter at home. It was awesome. I got the idea from Great British Food Magazine. It seemed fun to try and different. Lots of time cooking is functional. I make something for dinner. Or I make something for a party. Sometimes I want to cook just because I want to. Sometimes I like making something just because I’m curious and because I want to experiment with something new. So I made homemade butter. 

When I think about making butter I think about places like Colonial Willamsburg where people in period costume demonstrate how things used to work. I picture a woman in a bonnet and plaid gown sitting on a front porch churning butter in a wooden churn. I’m not sure that’s even a realistic image but that’s the one I have. I also think that nowadays butter is like a base ingredient. It’s the thing you buy not a thing you make. As a result the process of making butter seems like something of a difficult mystery.

The truth is, making butter is pretty easy. Obviously professional artisan butter makers have more knowledge, experience and technique when it comes to making butter. I’m not suggesting making butter is not a skill. We’ve all had great butter, and bland butter, and fake butter. But making butter at home does not have to be difficult or strenuous. All you need is heavy cream (double cream in the UK), a food processor, and a sieve. Use the food processor to mix the heavy cream into a frenzy, wait until it splits, and then sieve out the buttermilk from the fat. You can add salt, or herbs or whatever you like. From one liter of heavy cream I made 265 grams of butter, which equals about 18 tablespoons – or about 2 1/4 sticks of butter.

The end result was delicious. Ryan said it was smooth and creamy. I’ll add that it’s rich and tasty. I will somewhat sheepishly admit that I did lick some of it directly off my fingers while I was making it, and I found it some of the most lovely tasting butter I’ve ever had. I think because it’s homemade it doesn’t have any stabilizers in it, so it warms and softens quickly therefore it’s easier to taste th flavor. I used regular store brand heavy cream but I bet buying a nice direct-from-the-farmer cream would make an even better butter.

So far I’ve only had it on toast and straight off my fingers, but I’m looking forward to baking and sauteing with it to see how it holds up. I’ll be sure to let you know. 

Adapted from Great British Food Magazine, September 2015

Messy level: You will have to get your hands dirty with this recipe. Once you sieve the buttermilk from the fat, you have to get in their and knead out any excess liquid. It’s greasy and goopey so be careful what you touch and wash you hands with lots of soap afterward.

Homemade Butter

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

8 mins

Total time

18 mins

 

Serves: over 200 grams

Ingredients

• 1 liter/4¼ cups heavy cream [Note: you can use any amount as long as it fits in your food processor]
• cold water
• salt (optional)

Instructions

1. Pour the heavy cream into a food processor.
2. Turn the food processor to medium and beat the cream for about 5-8 minutes. Let it beat past the point of making whipped cream and until it starts to separate into buttermilk and butter fat. Listen to the food processor, it will start to sound different as it gets to this stage.
3. Using a sieve, drain out the buttermilk from the fat. You can keep the buttermilk for something else if you want to.
4. Dunk the butter into cold water. Knead the butter together and press out any left over buttermilk.
5. Repeat this process of submerging the butter in cold water and pressing out the buttermilk. I did this about 5 times. Once the water is clear you're done.
6. Add in some salt if you'd like. I added ¼ teaspoon or coarse sea salt.
7. Gather up the butter into a ball or sticks - whatever shape you like. Wrap in parchment paper and store in the fridge to firm up a bit.
8. Serve and use as you would regular butter.

3.3.3077

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This past Saturday Ryan and I had my friend Sarah and her boyfriend Ben over for dinner. Since moving here, it was only the second time we’d had people over for dinner, so I was a little nervous. I cleaned the whole flat and planned a menu that I knew how to make. And this is an important tip: you’ll be a better dinner party host if you make dishes you’ve made before. Seriously, don’t make something for the first time when you’re having people over. If you know what you’re doing, you’ll be more confident, less stressed, and you’ll know your guests will like the food. I decided to serve a salad, steamed broccoli, and baked rigatoni. Not fancy, but tasty and allows for big portions.

Since such a big pasta bake can be really heavy, I decided I wanted dessert to be a fruit tart. I decided to try out passion fruit because it would be silky and light. I’ve also never made anything with passion fruit before, so I was curious about using it. And, I was good and did take my own advice. A few days before my dinner party I decided to do a dry run and make a practice passion fruit tart. 

I went to the store and bought a dozen passion fruits. They are such a gorgeous fruit! A beautiful deep purple on the outside, a slight hint of magenta on the outer edge, and vibrant marigold flesh. The problem though with passion fruits, is they are kind of small and have lots of seeds. If you were having a passion fruit straight you can eat the seeds, but for a tart I wanted a clean puree.

So I scooped out the flesh and did my best to strain, press, and pick out all of the seeds. It was exhausting work and took me close to an hour, and still a few seeds got into the tart. It was also really messy and my hands and counter were all sticky. This leads me to my my second piece of advice: buy passion fruit puree from the store. It has got to be less expensive and will be way easier. Save yourself the headache.

This tart is absolutely delicious. It’s tart and juicy, with just a whisper of creaminess. The texture is smooth and luscious. My favorite part though might have been the pastry crust. I’m not usually that into crust, but this pastry was sweet, crumbly, and buttery. Overall, it felt a little decadent without being heavy.

But, if I’m being honest, I have to tell you the rest of the story. It took so much work to create my own passion fruit puree that I was put off from making this recipe again. I didn’t have the time to go to the store to buy puree, so I decided on the day of the party to make a lemon tart instead. I made the same pastry for my lemon tart and that came out perfectly. But I curdled the lemon curd and for some reason I decided maybe baking it would help heal my ruined tart. It didn’t help at all. The tart came out looking really gross and unappetizing. I ended up sending Ryan, one hour before our friends arrived, to the store one hour to buy something for dessert. So you see? My advice is important. Don’t make something new the day of a dinner party. Practice is really important! It helps you know how much work is ahead of you and it will give you confidence. Most importantly, you won’t have to run to the shop.

Adapted from Butter Baking.

Messy level: If you make the passion fruit puree, this is a super messy recipe. But, if you buy the puree it’s not so bad. The pastry has a lot of butter, which means it will stick to your counter a bit as you roll it out and it can be a bit crumbly – but it’s nothing to really worry about. You might end up with crumbs and bits of sugar on your counter, but it’s truly an easy clean up.

Passion Fruit Tart

 

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Cook time

25 mins

Total time

25 mins

 

Original recipe was written in grams. I've done my best to convert the measurements to cups, but they might not be perfect translations.

Author: Butter Baking

Serves: 8

Ingredients

pastry

• 175g/12½ tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 100g/1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted
• pinch salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 250g/ 2½ cups plain flour

Passion fruit filling:

• 150ml/ ½ cup heavy cream
• 105g/ ½ cup caster (superfine) sugar
• 5 eggs
• 165g/ slightly more than ¾ cup passion fruit puree

Instructions

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter, confectioner's sugar and salt with an electric mixer. Mix until light and free of lumps. It is imperative that you sift the confectioner's sugar. I know it's annoying, but this will help make sure everything is smooth.
2. Add the egg to the butter and sugar mixture. Beat until combined. Scrape down the sides as necessary.
3. Add in the flour and mix until just incorporated.
4. Once everything is mixed, use your hands to gather the dough together. When it's in the bowl, it might look a little crumbly, but it will press together. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, and refrigerate 2 - 3 hours.
5. Once the pastry has rested, remove it from the fridge and well grease a 10 inch tart tin with butter.
6. Put the pastry in between two sheets of parchment paper. Using a rolling pen, roll out the pastry until it is thin, or about 1/16" thick. (You can do this straight on the counter, but using the parchment means you help prevent sticking)
7. Remove one piece of parchment paper. Flip your rolled out dough over and place it dough-side down on the tart tin. Remove the other piece of parchment paper. Press the dough it into the sides and crevices of the case. It's ok if you leave some over hang at this stage.
8. Place the tart shell in the fridge for 20 minutes and preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C.
9. Once it has rested again, line your tart shell with baking paper and fill with pie weights, dry beans, or rice. This is done so when you pre-bake it, the tart won't puff up too much.
10. Place the tart tin on a cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Then remove the weights/beans/rice and cook for another 5 minutes.
11. As the pastry is baking, make your filling. In a large bowl, whisk together the cream, sugar, eggs and passion fruit puree.
12. Once the pastry is done blind baking, slide the tray out slightly, but not all the way, from the oven. While it's all still in the oven, pour the passion fruit mixture into the pastry, filling it right up to the top. You're doing this while it's in the oven so that you don't spill!
13. Bake for 20- 25 minutes, until just set in the center.
14. Allow to cool slightly. Cut off any excess pastry that might be hanging off the edges. This will give you a clean look. Then put the tart in the fridge to cool completely. It tastes best when it's cold!

3.2.2925

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I bought the corn when I made barley succotash and I’ve had the leftover bag ever since. When I need to add a vegetable for dinner, I often tell myself I’ll just heat up the corn, but I never do. I like corn on the cob, corn bread, and corn in things. But plain corn on the side isn’t very interesting to me and so the bag languished in the freezer. 

Then I saw a fairly recent post from Amateur Gourmet for corn chowder. I thought this would be perfect, but then he said it wasn’t worth doing with frozen corn. Sigh. It’s the end of the summer and corn season is over so I moved on.

Until it was Monday. On Monday nights I like to go to Zumba. I like to eat before Zumba so I don’t feel faint and famished but I can’t eat too much or I’ll feel sick. But, I also need to make something hearty enough so Ryan has a real dinner and not rabbit food. So I thought back to corn chowder, and advice be dammed, I was going to try it with frozen corn!

I’m so glad I did because this soup is freaking delicious! The soup is wonderfully flavorful. This is one of the best soups I have ever had. The corn gives it sweetness and the cayenne pepper (which is my personal addition) gives just the whisper of heat. And the cream makes it feel so rich, but with only one cup in the whole pot you don’t have to feel too guilty. It is hearty but not heavy (seriously, I went to Zumba and felt fine and thought about the soup the whole time). Ryan gave it a 9 out of 10. I kept loudly saying, “this soup is so good!” I was mad when I had to leave for class and couldn’t have a second bowl. Try it, this is a wonderful soup.

Adapted from Amateur Gourmet who adapted it from Jasper White.

Messy level: There is a lot of cutting prep work for this recipe, that’s the only reason I will give it a 2 spoon rating. Otherwise, it’s just dump it all in the pot and wait for it to get delicious.

Amazing Corn Chowder

 

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Ingredients

• 3-4 cups of frozen corn
• 4 oz of slab bacon, cut into ⅓" dice
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 5 sprigs thyme, leaves removed and chopped
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• ⅛ tsp turmeric
• ¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper
• 1 lb Yukon gold potatoes peeled, and cut into ½" cubes
• about 5-6 cups of chicken stock (enough to cover everything)
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 2 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 tbsp cold water
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp minced chives

Instructions

1. In a large heavy pot, cook the bacon over medium heat. Cook until the bacon is crisp. Spoon out all but a tablespoon of the bacon fat.
2. Add the butter, onion, bell pepper, thyme, cumin, cayenne pepper, and turmeric. Look at the pretty spices! They will make the soup pretty too. Add a pinch of salt. Cook for 8 minutes, stirring every so often.
3. Add the corn, potatoes, and stock. Turn the heat to high and bring to a vigorous boil. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Using a wood spoon, smash some of the corn and potatoes against the side of the pot. This will help thicken the chowder. Reduce the heat to medium and taste for salt and pepper.
5. Stir in the corn starch mixture.
6. Bring the soup back to a boil and stir until the chowder has thickened to your liking.
7. Turn off the heat and add the cream. Adjust for salt if you need to.
8. Serve and top with chopped chives.

3.2.2802

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Photo from Bullycomics

Have you ever seen Love Actually? I have. Many times.

Do you know that scene when Juliet (Kiera Knightley) goes to Mark’s (Andrew Lincoln) apartment? She goes there looking to see if he has good video footage of her wedding. When Mark opens the door, she offers him banoffee pie. “What the heck is that?” I’ve thought to myself. So I googled it, and I immediately wanted to have some. And simple as that, I decided to make this pie for myself.

Banoffee pie is banana and toffee pie. Get it? Banana+toffee=banoffe. Doesn’t that sound delicious!?! I really liked this pie. The texture is creamy and silky. It’s cool, delicious, and both indulgent and refreshing.

Also, the technique for this recipe is simple to handle – but what makes this awesome is the transformation some of the ingredients go through. That might sound stupid because all cooking is about transformation. But, I was really blown away how simple things can change. With some heavy beating, cream transforms from a liquid to a semi-solid. I knew whipped cream was cream that was whipped, but I had never made it myself before. But the best transformation was the condensed milk! With heat, it becomes something completely different. It becomes toffee! Look at the pictures below and be impressed.

This recipe is a mix from Nigella Lawson, Brooklyn Limestone, and a graham cracker crust recipe I’ve used before.

Ingredients:

Crust-

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 10 full cracker strips)

3 tbsp sugar

4 tbsp unsalted butter (plus more if needed)

Filing-

3 large bananas

1 14oz can of condensed milk

2 cups whipped cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

chocolate shavings (or chocolate bar)

Directions:

1. Remove the label from the can of condensed milk. Place the can in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Boil for 2-2.5 hours. Make sure that the can is submerged for the entire time! If you let the water level drop your can will explode and your kitchen will be a scary mess.

2. Once the allotted time has passed, take the pot off the stove. Let the can cool. You’ve just made toffee. How easy, yet impressive, is that?!

2. Preheat oven to 350°.

3. In a food processor, blend the graham crackers until you have fine crumbs.

4. In a medium bowl mix the graham crackers and sugar.

5. Melt the butter in the microwave, then add it to the graham cracker and sugar. Mix until the graham cracker crumbs are all moistened. You want a consistency of slightly wet sand – sand that’s been wet but is drying out. If you need to, you can add more than 4 tbsp of butter.

6. Press the graham cracker crust into your pie plate – bottom, sides and edges. If you want a thick crust use all the mix. I used about 3/4 of the mixture. If you’re not using all of it, set the remainder aside in case you need to do any patchwork later.

7. Put the crust in the oven and bake until it just begins to brown, about 8 minutes.

8. Cut the bananas in slices and layer them on the bottom of the crust.

9. Open the can of toffee. Use a knife to stir the toffee until it is smooth.

10. Pour the toffee over the bananas. If need be, use the knife to smooth any uneven spots.

11. Using an electric mixer beat the whipped cream, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. Beat until the texture is thick and whipped.

12. Spread the whipped cream on top of the toffee. Sprinkle chocolate shavings over the top.

13. Put in the fridge and let set for 2 hours.

14. Slice and serve!

Messy level: For a pie, this is actually a really easy and low-mess recipe. The only part that is messy is the graham cracker crust because crumbs get everywhere during assembly. Everything else is really straightforward and there is so little baking to make such a great pie.

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