Butter

Butter is very easy to make, and it is cheaper to make than to buy it.

 

I bought my whipping cream for a little bit less than you pay for a brick of butter in our area.   Of course I had a coupon though, which was additional savings for me, but that is not factoring into my assessment.  

One of the best things about making butter… you get butter milk as well, to make pancakes with! :)   That's where you're saving!

See that? 1 litre of whipping cream, you get 2 cups of butter and 2 cups of buttermilk!

The process is simple! There's so many ways to make it.

I make mine in the Vitamix (here are directions for this):

Vitamix

You can also make it in a food processor (there's many of these directions out there.. this is just one example):

Food Processor

You can also make it in your stand mixer:

Stand Mixer

Or you can just pour it in a mason jar and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE (if you need to keep your kids busy while you make dinner)!

You can also customize your butter with salt levels (we do unsalted), but also with different herbs, or other flavours!

Only takes a few minutes (well unless you do the shake method).

Even if you don't think it's something you want to do regularly, you should try making your own butter… just once!

Almond Milk Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

This may have been an experiment, but it was pretty tasty!!

We were a little eager to have dessert, so we didn't let it set up the full time in the freezer (plus it was hot out), so please excuse the photo.



Almond Milk Chocolate Banana Ice Cream

1.5 cups of Almond Milk
2 ripe bananas
2-3 Tbsp of cocoa
2 Tbsp of sugar (this probably could be omitted, it was plenty sweet from the bananas and almond milk)

Heat up the almond milk with cocoa and sugar to get it all mixed together nicely (either microwave or stovetop). Don't make it hot, but just warm enough for the ingredients to blend nicely. Once it's mixed evenly, pour into a blender with the bananas, and blend til smooth.

Pour into your ice cream maker and run it for about 20 minutes. Pour in freezer safe bowl to set up for about an hour (or if you're like us, you'll pull it out after about 20 minutes, cause you just can't wait).

*in thinking now... if you cooled the whole thing after blending, in the fridge... it might set up enough to be ready to eat right from the ice cream maker.

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This is super tasty. I will probably omit the sugar next time, but best way to test is to take a little spoonful taste test before pouring it in the ice cream maker.

You can tell from the picture it is quite soft, but if you leave it the full hour in the freezer, it should set up nicely.

I might also experiment with different flavours.. I love the nutty taste of the almond milk, plus it gives more dairy-free options.

I see a host of experiments coming from this one.... using both the ice cream maker (mine is an attachment for my KitchenAid Mixer), and using the Vitamix.

If you experiment with this recipe, let me know!! :) We started with chocolate.. since we're chocolate fiends... but I think I may give strawberry a go very soon!