Pioneer Woman Butter

A friend of a friend has a family with 7 children, they live in the country, have cows, chickens, gardens, ect., and are very self-sufficient.  This past week, 3 of their oldest kids were gone and they had 8 gallons of milk they needed to give away because the cows were being milked again the next day. So, I got 2 gallons of fresh milk! I have never had fresh milk before, and I must say it tasted very good!  The heavy cream rises to the top and you have to scoop it off.  I saved it and decided to make butter!  This is what the milk came in.  

The heavy cream in the mixer. Just turn it on medium-high speed. (No I didn't get out a butter churn and do it by hand!)

After about 5 minutes it starts to look like whipped cream with stiff peaks

Then in an instant the milk separates and you've got butter! It probably took 10 minutes in the mixer. Super easy! 

Get a cheesecloth or paper towels and squeeze out the excess milk (the excess is buttermilk that you can use in something else. I am using it in my cornbread that I'm making for dinner tonight)

Then wrap it in parchment paper and form it however you want! It tastes so fresh and good! 

You can even buy heavy whipping cream at the store and do the same thing. You will love the way it tastes.  I always thought it would be difficult to make butter, but it's really very simple.  We're going to eat it on our cornbread tonight that we're having with spaghetti made from the sauce that I made earlier this summer from the great tomato sauce canning day! It's kind of fun to pull stuff out of my pantry that was made by my own hands and I know exactly what's in it. Pretty neat, huh!