Umm… baking day! This is quickly becoming our favorite day around here. It is laid back and quiet. Everyone has some time to do their own thing in the morning (I can actually get some laundry done) with me calling the troops into the kitchen every so often to help. Yummy smells and yummy treats.
To go along with our Week Two activities we made our own butter. Of course we started by getting a loaf of bread going in the bread machine (ohhh do we love our bread machine). Then it was an epic battle of man vs machine. We poured a little bit of heavy whipping cream into a mason jar, the rest went into the mixer bowl with a bit of salt. And they were off. Guess who won? The boy! I was actually amazed at how he never tired of shaking that jar (just shows the boundless energy of a 5 year old boy).
For those of you who try this, you know you have butter when the cream transforms first to thick whipping cream (forms peaks) and then to what I can best describe as scrambled eggs in milk. It will totally pull away from the sides forming solid clumps in the middle, in a pool of buttermilk.
After I strained the butter I couldn’t bring myself to just throw away the buttermilk so instead I googled ‘Buttermilk Recipes.” I found one for ButterMilk Sugar Cookies that I highly recommend. We didn’t make the glaze but the cookies were very yummy with a more cake like texture.