Thermomix Butter - photos

[tarasis]

Well Kim, the cream worked and had turned to the right consistency (based on the photos) in only a minute & ten seconds. Went through the rest of the stages okay, I tried it without adding anything and it was I thought overly bland. I tried adding salt, but managed to add a little too much I think (ended up more like 2/3 tsp than 1/2 or 1/3).

I've kept some out and frozen the rest but if it. Really is too salty then I'll bin it or find a recipe that asks for salt and ~130g of butter and just use it for that. Will try again I think but need to work out the right ratio of salt per batch (someone mentioned a 1/2 tsp per 500g) and also grind some garlic and make garlic butter (or herb & garlic)

Will add a photo shortly once I swap to the Mac.

[andiesenji]

You can simply freeze it then when you make another batch, defrost it and add more of the new, unsalted butter until you have the taste that you want.

In the future the best way is to spread it fairly thin on the drain board, remove half  and salt the remainder, a little at a time.
I have found that some batches take less butter and some take more - I don't know why but it is so.

Then, if the first half is a bit too salty, you can add some of the plain back into it.   

I always keep some unsalted as I have some recipes that require unsalted butter. 

Here is a link to some "composed butters"  that are excellent.   I don't care for anchovies but I like anchovy butter...

[tarasis]

You can simply freeze it then when you make another batch, defrost it and add more of the new, unsalted butter until you have the taste that you want.

In the future the best way is to spread it fairly thin on the drain board, remove half  and salt the remainder, a little at a time.
I have found that some batches take less butter and some take more - I don't know why but it is so.

Then, if the first half is a bit too salty, you can add some of the plain back into it.   

I always keep some unsalted as I have some recipes that require unsalted butter. 

Here is a link to some "composed butters"  that are excellent.   I don't care for anchovies but I like anchovy butter...

Thanks for those tips andiesenji, that's a great idea (though makes it harder to guess when it comes time to start over again) and some of those composed butters sound lovely, as do some of the other bits and pieces on that page.

pity you dont have access to a french supermarket as there is heaps of salted butter here...thankyoiu brittany and normandy...the best butter i have ever tasted was from bretagne (or brittany) from a local farm and it was divine salted homemade butter ...mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

I am indeed very jealous of that. I will try and get this to work though, even if my wife thinks its a bad idea (namely do I want her eating butter again ) and even at 1.99 a batch, for garlic butter it will work out quite cheaply and I control what goes in it which is cool.

Have you tried the Butter Chicken recipe in the Indian Cookbook yet?  It is to-die-for  Much better than the version in the EDC.
Happy cooking,
Miss G.

Not yet, planning on it for this weekend after I get the required ingredients; particularly for making the Tikka Paste.

[andiesenji]

I also make a cultured butter - very similar to the French  Isigny butter - however it is somewhat tricky and not for the novice butter maker.

The cream has to be "clabbered" or soured just as it was years ago, then chilled before churning and I have found that the TMX method doesn't work as well as in a conventional churn.  (I have electrics.) 
I plan on doing more experimenting to see if I can get it to work in the TMX but so far my results have been less that stellar - the butter simply won't separate out the way it should.

I much prefer the flavor of cultured butter but not everyone does.  Most people have not developed a taste for it because it is rarely available.  It has a faintly "cheesy" flavor but to me it only tastes like the real butter from my childhood. 
Supermarket butter has no flavor as far as I am concerned.  It's okay for cooking and baking, unless butter is an important flavor in the product but for eating - I prefer my homemade stuff.

[Vivaroo]

Hey Frozzie, if I  were going to add some nice sea salt to my homemade butter what do you think is a reasonable quantity?  I'm never used to adding salt to things and I always buy unsalted butter, maybe 1tbsp would be too much?  Most baking requires unsalted is that right?  I'm thinking salted will go nice on my perfect homemade bread that I'm visualizing 

[Frozzie]

i usually go by taste but start with a teaspoon and go from there...i use a rough salt not rock salt but more like grey salt (sel grise) ...not fine but not big either but anything would work and yes most cooking dishes call for unsalted butter but i still use salted butter in savoury dishes as I love salted butter...when i make butter which isnt that often of late I make one batch salted and another unsalted and I have a butter mould to form them into pretty shape...for the salt i mix it through until i get it how i like it...but start with a small amount...hope it helps and sorry but its never exact...i go by taste..

[Bedlam]

vivaroo, Go easy on the salt, i ruined my first salted butter by adding way too much. As is always said you can always add but its hard to take it away.  I'm afraid mine ended up being thrown out as I added more and it still wasn't good. I didn't think i was adding that much. These days I prefer unsalted.

[Frozzie]

thats another reason im not a fan of fine salt....makes everything salt where as the sllightly bigger salt cristals or flakes give a nice balance of salt and unsalted if you get my meaning but yes better to add a little and taste then too much and it not good although bedlam if you do that you could always make a second batch of unsalted and mix it with the too salty batch to not waste it..for another time maybe 

[JuliaBalbilla]

thats another reason im not a fan of fine salt....makes everything salt where as the sllightly bigger salt cristals or flakes give a nice balance of salt and unsalted

I agree Frozzie.  I love the bigger salt crystals in butter (DH hates them so we have separate butter dishes!) and will certainly make some TM butter soon.  Have you ever tried making it with Himalayan crystal pink rock salt?  I think the odd speck of pink in the butter would make it pretty and it is supposed to be quite a healthy salt as well.

JB

[Frozzie]

not yet julia although i did buy some himilayan salt the other day as aileen from rainbow recipes told me that it was unprocessed natural salt like sel grise (grey salt) and yes it would be an interesting look with the pink specks..

yes over here they have a butter called la motte andit is just that salted butter with larger crystals...yummmm  I havent yet found a cream over here that im truly happy with though...still havent had time to source some natural cream from local farms..you can buy it at the markets insmaller amounts but its very pricey for the size...DH doesnt mind salted butter as he is half breton/half normande lol 

[Vivaroo]

Thanks Frozzie, 1 tsp is a good guide to start.  I have the moist sea salt crystals (Portugal).  

Off topic but salt and chocolate YUM.  I have a chunk of organic dark chocolate and might try something like Vosges chocolat  I was lucky enough to try their himalayan salt and goji berry chocolate. 

[JuliaBalbilla]

yes over here they have a butter called la motte andit is just that salted butter with larger crystals...yummmm 

In the UK we can buy Breton butter with sea salt crystals but packaged under various supermarkets own brand labels and I assume it would be similar to La Motte.  Do you know how much butter you would get from say 900ml of cream?

Vivaroo, having just looked at the various packets of butter in the fridge, it seems that for slightly salted it is 1.2% and for salted 1.7-2.0%.  I imagine that once you have washed your butter, you weigh it and add salt percentage according to butter weight.  You will need some micro scales for accurate measuring though.

JB

[Frozzie]

viv sounds delish (need licking smiley)

julia if i remember the ratio is around half so 1litre of cream makes a half litre or 500g of butter roughly but guess would vary slightly depending on the type of cream used..

[johnro]

Here we go Frozzie and Viv as it certainly sounds     

[Frozzie]