Turn leftover cream into butter!

So as part of my new Turquoise Lemons No Waste Food Challenge I want to try and reduce the amount of food I waste. I had some leftover cream that I don't really want to pout over puds as I am trying to avoid the extra post Christmas calories. I keep complaining about how much butter costs at the moment and so inspired by the Fabulous Baker Boys on tv and my trusty Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall Family Cookbook I decided to try and make butter with my leftover cream. It worked like a dream!

Maybe it is the kid in me but I love watching something turn into something else. As well as creating butter you also end up with buttermilk which always seems to be asked for in numerous baking recipes. I also often see cheap pots of cream in the supermarket which I will now be buying to make budget homemade butter. 

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Method

1. Make sure the cream is at room temperature. It helps if the cream is near its sell by date.
2. Take a hand whisk or mixer and beat the cream. You will see it whip up and become thick. Once it thickens slow down the mixer. As soon as the cream separates it happens very quickly and it can become very messy.
3. You will now have lumps of butter and a thin watery milk called buttermilk.
4. Fill another bowl with cold water and place the butter lumps in here.
5. Store the buttermilk in the fridge or freezer for use in other recipes.
6. Swirl the butter lumps in the water.
7. Using your hand form the butter lumps into a big ball squeezing out the buttermilk all the time.
8. Change the water and wash the butter lump continu.
9. Repeat this until the water runs clear. This is important as it gets rid of any residual buttermilk with can turn the butter rancid.
10. Take the butter lump and press it firmly on a surface squeezing out any leftover buttermilk.
11. Wash again and then wrap in greasproof paper and keep in the fridge.

If you have any inventive and unusual ways of using up leftover cream why not enter the challenge.