I have just made butter...

[CurlewKate]

...and yesterday I made vanilla extract. I have never felt more like a parody of myself.

@Sourcherriesarebest

BigBundleOfFluff
Can I join please?
I was so annoyed that my local Waitrose stopped selling my tortoises favourite salad mix that I now carefully cultivate my own, under grow lamps, all year round.

But which grow lamp do you use?

I tell you this thread is a MINE of information.

I wanted to use the fancy all in one solutions you can buy but it was too expensive. I use a cheap Amazon grow light with a (new) basic cat litter tray, small layer of (home) compost in it and poncy seed mix. Typing this out had made me realise that using a cheaper alternative means my wankery levels are just not good enough for this thread. I'll try harder next time.

You're kidding right? Crafting your own bespoke rig out of repurposed materials curated from a variety of sources and using HOMEMADE COMPOST definitely tops mass-market premade setup on the wankery front.

I used to strain yogurt but then realised adding dried milk power to the uht would get the thickness I wanted without losing volume.

Tbh I am not sure about the cost difference. Because I strain mine I get about a third of a pint of yoghurt for every pint of milk but if I didn't strain it I would get a equal volume.
Because you only need to buy a small pot if yoghurt the fist time you make it , after that just save a bit of the one you have made to start the next one it's been ages since I have bought any.

Inspired by @CurlewKate I am now the proud owner of my own home made butter. I used 2x 600ml of double cream and got 1lb 7oz of butter.
I have split into 3 portions , one black pepper , one with a tiny bit of salt and the other with some weird flavored salt I have had for ages.

I am also in the process of making a batch of pickles, they will sit in the salt for a day or two the go into some spiced malt vinegar

Is anyone else thinking that when the zombie apocalypse finaly happens MNers will be bartering wanky foods and recipes.

We'll be just fine.

@HarpieDuJour I assume your nephew owns a pig, he isn't just going to break in to a random farm.

ANd your cauliflower - you must pickle some of it.

I tried that once and it didn't work -how much do you put in?

Right. My family are now home. I've put my home made butter in the butter dish and am waiting for toast making to begin. What are the odds on them noticing?

@CurlewKate the more important question is what steps will you take if they don't notice?

Well done you 👍🏻😁

Not in the same league but I made flavoured butter recently for steak and was so pleased with myself 😂

I love chicken liver pate. actually stores best, if you melt more butter and put a layer of butter on top. I also add sage to mine but take out before blending.

Sorry, not keeping up with the thread. I made butter yesterday in a jar with the kids (definitely usi by a blender next time!)

300ml of cream from Aldi was£ 1:15. 600ml from Asda was £2:30 so possibly still cheaper, but not as cheap as @CurlewKate
i think with the extra effort unless I can get very cheap cream, not sure it’s worth it, but it was fun and easy.

Inspired by this thread - I am making focaccia. I am craft-impaired so this is a big deal to me

I've got a Cuisinart ICE100BCU. But I got it cheap off FB marketplace.

It's amazing! I LOVE IT!

thanks @TragicMuse ! that's the one I have been thinking of as well. maybe I'll just go for it....

I have a fail safe, super quick, no churn ice cream recipe that is my saviour!

600ml double cream, half a tin condensed milk, so 200g( make sure it's condensed sweetened milk and NOT evaporated milk!) 1tsp vanilla extract.

Whisk cream to consistency of clotted cream, add condensed milk and vanilla. Whisk to incorporate.

You can either leave it as vanilla, or add choc chips or crumbled cookies or chopped crunchy bars or whatever you fancy.

I have made a lot of strawberry ice cream this summer; simmer all your squishy strawberries with a couple of spoonfuls of sugar until thickened, allow to cook and then stir through the base recipe. It is absolutely bloody delicious and the best strawberry ice cream I've ever eaten by far!

The only thing is you need to take out 20min or so before serving in order to soften slightly. But the actual making takes about 5min.

I'm planning on using up some sad blueberries tomorrow to have a go at blueberry ice cream...

It had a really good Which? Rating which attracted me! And it is truly wondrous!

@HoliHormonalTigerLillyTheSecond that's a fab recipe! The only downside is that it doesn't keep in good condition in the freezer very long- that's sad, of course...

OK I need instructions.

I have cream, I have a food processor.

Now my food processor has a disk for whipping cream, I assume I don't use that, do I use the blade, or the dough thingy?

It's not this one but it has the same disks and blades.
disks / blades

Hi @sashh 🖐

I used a ( ancient) electric hand held whisk and a deep jug ( see photo up thread ) .
It is surprising easy , before you start make sure you have lots of ice clod water then just beat the cream until it splits it took me about 5/7 mins to beat 1200ml . This gave me just over 1lb of butter
Scoop out the solid part , give Florence the liquid bit ( butter milk ) to make pancakes.
Then break the solid bit into manageable chunks and dip into the ice water to rinse of the butter milk. Sort of knead it between your fingers under water to rinse all the milk off/out.
Then kneed it again out of the water to remove as much water / milk as you can.
Presto you have butter !
You can add any flavor you want at this stage , I split mine into 3 , salt , flavored salt and pepper.
I plan on making garlic and mushroom this weekend.

Use the whisk thing on your mixer not the dough hook

this is very similar to mine

www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/312010690

Oh I just remembered I made my own sea salt from local seawater and made sea-salt ice cream. I think that should qualify me for wanky status quite nicely!

To be fair it was bloody lovely.

I think you win the thread @Turfwars !
I never use salt ( had to go and buy some just to make butter and pickles! ) but even if I did my nearest coast is Blackpool, I certainly wouldn't fancy the salt out of that sea !

I made DB get 5l of water when he was well out in the bay fishing. That got me 200g salt

So double wanky for using a boat??😀