Few things are quite as homely and satisfying as real butter. In my opinion, a little bit of full fat butter is much better than a splodge of that lurid yellow grease we call margarine.  It could be an urban legend, but I’m sure I heard that margarine was one molecule away from being plastic.  Yuk.

When I think of butter, I see a plump woman with an apron, milking cows on a sunny day and merrily churning up a big lump of gloriously smooth and silky butter.  She then serves it on homemade scones with a big pot of tea. To me, it evokes images of farm life in a country kitchen – James Herriot has just birthed a cow in the field and there are little puppies warming themselves by the Aga.

I fancied capturing some of this picturesque fantasy and injecting some quaint into my suburban life so I decided to make my own butter.  It is surprisingly easy.

All you need is cream – double or whipping.  It’s best if the cream isn’t too fresh.  Check the reduced section at your supermarket – the cream here will be cheap and the sell-by date will be coming up.  The beauty of making your own butter is that you control what goes into it.  If you prefer organic or want to use local suppliers, you can do so easily.

There are two main methods of home butter making: whisking and shaking in a jar. I haven’t tried the jar method – for me, part of the fun was being able to watch the cream separate into butter, and I don’t think you would see this so clearly if you were shaking it up in a jar.

Firstly, let the cream get to room temperature.  Then stick it in a large bowl and get whisking!  Keep going.  First the cream will get really thick.

Then it will start to get grainy and look like scrambled eggs.

Once it’s gets to this point, slow down – you don’t want to splatter your walls with buttermilk when it separates.   Whisk for just a little longer and you’ll have yellow butter with white buttermilk in your bowl.

When you’re quite happy that all of the cream has turned into butter, drain off the buttermilk (and keep aside for making buttermilk scones) and rinse your butter firstly in the bowl and then in a sieve or a muslin cloth under cold water.  This is to remove all traces of the buttermilk, as this could spoil the butter.

And that’s it.   You can leave it plain, or add salt, garlic, herbs or spices. There are so many possibilities.  The obvious garlic butter in a French stick springs to mind, but ginger and lemon butter on hot cross buns speaks to me too.

Right now, I’m thinking thickly cut homemade bread with a generous spread of fresh plain butter.  Or hot buttered toast.  Deliciously simple.  All I need now is an Aga and a few acres of land.  Maybe a gingham apron.

Your homemade butter will go off quicker than shop-bought stuff – due to the lack of preservatives and chemicals in it (this is a good thing!).  It should last a good few days.  You can freeze the butter too, and it should be alright in there for up to 3 months.