Old-fashioned cultured butter is easier to make at home than you think. Ours comes in three fabulous, all-natural flavours: garlic & herb, vanilla bean and cafe de Paris.
By Martyna Candrick
What is Cultured Butter?
Cultured butter is made using creme fraiche, which is fresh cream fermented with cultures – in a similar way to yoghurt. It lends the butter a slight tang. You can use fresh cream just as well, but in that case the butter will have a more sweet, creamy flavour. Both are prepared the same way.
Garlic and Herb is one of our favourites to go on a toasted baguette. I’ve found the ingredient list on store-bought garlic butter spread filled with too many fake ingredients to bother. It’s also a simple pleasure under some jam. Since trying Cafe deParis butter at Rockpool a while back, we have both fallen in love with the salty, curried concoction of flavours that goes fantastically well with beef. Although I think Vanilla Bean Butter might seem a little ususual, it is perfect, however, for drizzling over grilled prawns, scampi and lobster.
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Cultured Butter: Three Ways
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Yield: 100 grams butter 1x
Description
Cultured butter is made using creme fraiche, which is fresh cream fermented with cultures – in a similar way to yoghurt. It lends the butter a slight tang. You can use fresh cream just as well, but in that case the butter will have a more sweet, creamy flavour. Both are prepared the same way. Our metod: While we used a stick blender’s whisk attachment to churn our butter in minutes, my Mum mentioned the more traditional method of… shaking cream in a jar until there was a distinct “sloshing and thudding” sound — the point at which the fat solids had separated from the whey. Yield: 200ml creme fraiche makes around 100g cultured butter. Storage: wrap butter in cling film or wax paper and store in the fridge in accordance with your cream’s use by date. Otherwise, you can freeze the log and cut chunks off as needed.
Ingredients
For Cultured Butter:
- 200ml creme fraiche
For Vanilla Bean Butter:
- seeds from 1 vanilla stalk or ¼ teaspoon vanilla powder or vanilla bean paste
For Garlic and Herb Butter:
- 1 teaspoon freshly crushed garlic
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon fresh chives
- 4 basil leaves, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon Italian herb mix
For Cafe de Paris Butter
- 3 tsp light tasting olive oil
- ¼ small brown onion, finely diced
- 10g Indian style curry powder
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 small handful parsley leaves
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 3 anchovy fillets
- ½ tsp baby capers, rinsed
- ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 1 small handful basil leaves
- 1 small handful thyme sprigs, leaves only
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions
To make Cultured Butter:
- Place creme fraiche into a 2-cup capacity jug or bowl and whisk using an electric mixer or a stick blender with a whisk attachment for 2-3 minutes. As you’re processing, the cream will first resemble whipped cream in consistency. Continue whisking until you hear a “sloshing” sound and the fat solids begin to separate from the whey. Continue to work the butter for another minute.
- Transfer butter and whey into a cheesecloth-lined sieve placed over another bowl. Wrap into a ball and squeeze out the whey – you can use the whey to add to smoothies or use in baking. Add flavourings of choice and mix well.
- Wrap the butter tightly in a sheet of cling film or wax paper and store in the fridge or freezer.
To make Cafe de Paris Butter:
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and cook the onion and curry powder over low heat until soft and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
- Place cooled cooked onion and all remaining ingredients in a food processor or a chopping attachment of your sick blender and process until well combined and majority of the herbs have been blended into the butter. Adjust the seasoning if necessary.
- Roll Cafe de Paris Butter into a 2 inch diameter log, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Any unused butter can be frozen if it is not going to be used within a week or so.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Condiment
When do you add the garlic