Bóymoder Butter Basics
Room Temperature
Room temperature butter is butter that has been warmed up to "room temperature", it means you can press into it with your finger without much force
So as it turns out, "room temperature" means different things for different places and times of the year, if you're kitchen is at 25C or greater, you can leave the butter on the counter for a couple of hours and it'll soften, if it's cold, you'll need to warm it up somehow (i'll write about this eventually)
Creaming
Creaming the butter means beating it until it's.. creamy, the color will lighten a little bit and it'll be a less solid
Fluffing
Fluffing the butter means beating the butter with sugar and until it's very light in color
The sugar crystals beat into the butter creating little air bubbles meaning the butter sugar will be very aerated
Frying
Frying in butter is pretty hard for 2 reasons: it has a very low smoking point and contains milk solids that can burn
Normal butter starts to smoke at about 150C (300F), make sure to turn the heat down if it starts smoking too much
Move the pan or butter around often, otherwise the milk solids will sink to the bottom and burn
You can use clarified butter to make things easier :3
Clarified Butter
Clarified butter is pure butter fat, no water or milk solids
It has a much higher smoking point at 250C (480F) so it's a lot easier to fry with
You can buy clarified butter but it's not too hard to make at home
- At medium low heat, melt the butter you want to clarify
- While moving the pan or butter around often so it doesn't burn, let it boil for 10-15 minutes to boil all the water
- Pour into a bowl and let it sit around, the whey will float to the top and milk solids will sink to the bottom
- Use a ladle or spoon to remove the whey from the top
- Prepare another bowl with a sieve and cheese cloth/tea towel on the sieve
- Slowly pour the butter through the towel and sieve, the less milk solids falling onto the towel the better
- Enjoy your clarified butter :3
The separation of the whey and milk solids may take over an hour, do this somewhere warm to prevent the butter from solidifying