fresh shaken

I've been making my own whipped cream for a while because it tastes so much better than what ya buy at the store, but I would end up with leftover heavy cream that would just spoil in the fridge if I forgot to use it all up before we ate all our dessert.  felt like such a waste.  even more so when I found out I could make butter from soured heavy cream...  gah!  who knows how much potential butter I've tossed throughout the holidays :(

anyway, so I tried it on half of a quart of cream that got lost in the back of the fridge and was about a month out of date... it was the best butter I've ever had!  also, the best arm workout.  win win win :)

I used the mixer the first time which gets the job done much faster, but I think if I'm going to be eating more butter I should get a good work out first and just shake it in a jar ;)

I got 2 cups of butter from 1 quart of heavy whipping cream, with about 2 cups whey leftover, which is apparently what "traditional" buttermilk is. makes me think I could use the whey in place of water with powdered buttermilk for a richer buttermilk pie.  I'm so excited for holiday baking!

"traditional" buttermilk

my arms are incredibly sore after an hour+ of shaking, and it's not really cheaper for me to make the butter and buttermilk (unless I get a good deal on cream), but it's so much better when it's homemade so I'll be making it for the holidays and special stuff... or maybe when I need a good workout :)

crustless

we did some baking on vacation and made a pumpkin pie and a buttermilk pie.  when we got home to the chilly weather I was geared up to bake some more pies!  I didn't feel like making a crust so I searched for a  crustless buttermilk pie recipe that doesn't use Bisquick, as I generally don't have that on hand.  this one was super easy to put together and I didn't really need any "special" ingredients.  I have powdered buttermilk and it works just fine.

 

this pie doesn't have a buttermilk pie look to it at all, and actually looks a lot like cornbread.  the recipe said they made two pies, so I figured I need to divided the batter in two plates, but they came out kinda thin and the edges were dark, so to fix it I stacked them! O:)  they tasted alright, but it's nothing like what mom makes.

I tried a crustless no-bake pumpkin pie recipe, too.  I had the can of easy pumpkin pie mix that just needs eggs and evaporated milk, so I nixed the spices and sugar this recipe called for.

it cut beautifully and stayed together on the plate, the texture wasn't quite the same as a baked pie (more like a Jell-o pudding pie), and I did miss the crust, but it's something I'd try again if I didn't have a crust or didn't want to use the oven.

I'm gonna try this recipe next. this one looks really good, too - just gonna have to set aside one day a week through the end of the year to bake all the stuff I want to try, I guess! ;)