Mason Jar Butter

I'm finally back home! After a week in San Francisco, it's nice to be home in good ol' Texas. 

One thing I love about San Francisco is how every food place seems to try their hardest to find good quality, fresh ingredients. It seems everything is fresh, organic, and homemade. 

While we were at one of the restaurants, my mom told me about how she used to help her grandmother make butter out of whipping cream. She said her grandmother would hand her grandchildren the mason jars to keep them busy and productive... for about 20 minutes or so. 

This was back in the day- my mom's in the back right. 

I didn't believe my mom that butter was just made of cream. Surely there was something else!

I was wrong. It really works! I did as my mother said (Surprise!) and filled a mason jar with cream. In 25 minutes I had butter! Weird!

The best part was I got a nice arm workout. 

Mason Jar Butter

1 mason jar

1 1/2 cups of heavy whipping cream (or however much fills your jar up 3/4 of the way)

1 tsp salt (optional- I didn't use this)

You can add cinnamon, sugar, honey, garlic powder, whatever you want, depending on what you're making it for! I personally just did the cream so I can add whatever I want serving by serving. 

1. Wash the mason jar to make sure it doesn't have anything dusty/weird smelling in it (mine had obviously had pickles in it before so this step was necessary).

2. Fill mason jar 3/4 of the way full with heavy whipping cream. Screw the lid on very tightly. 

3. Shake vigorously for 20 minutes. Work those arm muscles! 

4. Open and look. There should be a buttery-looking substance floating in milky stuff. The milky stuff is buttercream (I can hear the lightbulbs turning on). Pour the buttercream out as best you can into a separate container. 

5. Close the lid tightly and shake for 5 more minutes. Open and pour out some more buttercream. I actually spooned the butter out and stirred it a little to get the excess buttercream out. 

6. If the butter still isn't thick enough, you can shake it for a few more minutes. Work it! Here you can add whatever you want, salt, honey, sugar, etc. 

7. Store in the refrigerator if you like your butter cold. We actually keep our butter out for up to 5 days and it always stays fine and soft. 

Thank goodness for the second amendment. 

Are there any kitchen memories you have from your childhood? Anything mom would let the kids do?