Homemade Sweet Cream Lemon Basil Butter
1 pint (2 cups) heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
lemon zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
3-4 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (our grocery store sells small packages of organic basil and other herbs - about .6 ounces each - I used the whole package)
Pour the cream into the mixing bowl of your stand mixer. Add the powdered sugar. Using the whisk attachment, beat on medium speed. After 4-5 minutes, it should become whipped cream, and you will see soft peaks. Keep on going! The cream will become more and more thick. Scrape down the sides of the bowl every few minutes. Finally, it will become very clumpy, and suddenly, it will separate into solid clumps and a liquid. When it reaches this point, you can turn off the mixer. (It took mine about 10-12 minutes to separate.)
Secure a piece of cheesecloth over a strainer and pour the mixture through the cheesecloth to strain the liquid. Squeeze the excess liquid from the butter. What you have now is homemade sweet cream butter, and the liquid below is slightly sweetened buttermilk, which you can use in any recipe which calls for milk or buttermilk (I used ours in the Strawberry Breakfast Bread Pudding I made for breakfast the next morning - delicious!).
The butter is surprisingly firm, even at room temperature, so you will need to use a little muscle to stir in the lemon and basil, or just return it to the mixing bowl to finish the job. Add the lemon zest, lemon juice and basil to the butter and stir until smooth. You can add a little salt, too, if you like your butter on the salty side. It's ready to eat! This was fantastic on our fish, would be great on a bagel, spread on biscuits or corn muffins, or added here and there to vegetables for some extra flavor and richness.
I think the next time I do this, I will add some honey to the plain butter to make a sweet honey butter.
Original Blog Post: Homemade Sweet Cream Lemon Basil Butter and Cedar Plank Salmon