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Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Shake it, baby, shake it!

We made blueberry pancakes for dinner and to go with those pancakes we made...butter! I thought the kids would be more excited it about it than they were. To Rachel's credit, she was excited and she did the majority of the churning, but Miriam, well, Miriam shook the jar approximately two times before claiming she was "exhausted."




The whipping cream was left over from the ganache I made for Benjamin's birthday. We put it in a jar and shook and shook and shook that jar until it turned into whipped cream.



Then we put the lid back on and shook and shook and shook that jar until it formed a ball of butter, leaving some lovely buttermilk behind.



Grandma helped Rachel finish the shaking when she got up from her nap—because Rachel really was exhausted!

I used the buttermilk in the pancake recipe and we used the butter on top of the pancakes. I'm not sure we shook it quite enough; our butter was super soft and creamy and, frankly, delicious.


We will definitely be doing this again...if I can convince my children that shaking a jar is fun.

Come on, kids! Shaking a jar is fun!

I remember making butter in elementary school (and I think most of my siblings remember doing the same). It was just something we seemed to do no matter what elementary school we were at (my siblings and I attended at least eight different elementary schools (between us all)). I think the only one who missed out on the butter-churning "unit" was Josie because she did most of her schooling in the states and it doesn't seem to be a thing here. Maybe?

I don't know. All I know is that I made butter at school and I thought it was so cool! Anyone else?

Of course, I also had about twenty other children to help shake the jar while Rachel was working pretty much on her own. Maybe that's what made it seem so chore-like.

The funniest part of the experience was when we skyped with Andrew and Miriam blurted out all excited, "Guess what! I made butter!" (emphasis on the "I").

Rachel was like, "You made butter? I made butter!"

"We made butter," I said. "Grandma helped and I helped and Rachel helped..."

"And I helped!" said Miriam.

"Yes, Miriam shook the jar...twice," I said.

She felt rather sheepish, but she should have just helped if she wanted the bragging rights that badly (and because shaking a jar is fun).

4 comments:

  1. I make j shake the jar when we make whipped topping...because it goes so much faster when he does it. Maybe when Andrew is home he can give it a few good shakes :)

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  2. Surprise! Josie did this in science class at Oak Canyon! So...part of her US education! Who knew?

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  3. YUM! If you just want the butter without the all the shaking, the blender does a fine job. :-) But don't forget to squeeze the excess buttermilk out of the butter. (Which isn't really the acidified product we buy in the store, but is just skim milk left over after the milkfat is used up) Also, cream freezes well, to use in soups and baked goods later, but you can't make whipped cream after you freeze it.

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  4. We just made butter at our house too! Ember found the recipe in a Friend magazine and had to try it out. She did the majority f the shaking and thoroughly enjoyed the finished product too. So fun!
    And I think you're handling number four amazingly well, especially without a husband for two weeks!

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