There is something magical about turning ordinary cream into butter. Add a few drops of food coloring to color the butter and kids find it even more amazing.  It is so simple to make.

Fill a jar about half way up with cream, add a pinch of salt and a little food coloring, if desired, tighten the lid and start shaking.  It takes a while.  Turn on some music and have a dance party while the kids shake.  Miss M, my 7-year-old, was determined to do it all by herself with out me helping her.  She made it a few minutes before she handed over her jar to give her arms a rest.  So keep dancing and keep shaking.  It will happen, I promise.  It will start to feel hopeless, like something has gone wrong and it isn’t going to work, but just about that time something will start changing.  You will notice clumps of butter and a more liquid sound shaking around the jar.  This is where the magic happens!!  Kids find the process fascinating.

My kids wanted to know what was happening inside their jars, so every few minutes we would take a peek inside them and talk about what was happening.  For a while the cream was getting thicker, but still homogeneous.  My kids thought it was harder to shake because the jar seemed to feel heavier to them.  Eventually we started to notice the cream was separating.  The fats were starting to stick together and form butter.  The jar felt lighter and they noticed it sounded like there was more liquid shaking in the jar.  And then after pouring off the buttermilk, and shaking a little more we tasted the results. 

Each of my kids had a different color butter to try.  And the verdict….”It is way good” This is quoted by Mr. C who doesn’t ever want to eat butter on his toast, baked potato or anything.  So get your kids in the kitchen and learn a little something while having fun too!!

Jar Butter

Ingredients:

Heavy Whipping Cream
A pinch of Salt
Food Coloring, optional
A jar with a tight-fitting lid

Directions:

Fill half the jar with the cream and add a pinch of salt. If you are adding food coloring, add a few drops. Tighten up the lid and start shaking. Keep shaking and shaking. It will take a good 15-20 minutes before change happens. Once the cream separates into butter and buttermilk (yes, this is the liquid that has separated out.) pour off the liquid and shake just a couple of minutes more. Pour off any remaining buttermilk and stir the butter. Serve! Store butter in the refrigerator.