The last thing we learned from the Dairy Making 101 workshop was Making Clarified Butter (or Ghee in South Asia ). Clarified butter has a higher smoke point than regular butter which is good for high heat cooking. Clarified butter also has a much longer shelf life than fresh butter. It can be stored without refrigeration when kept in an airtight container.

We started off with melting unsalted butter (preferably organic) in a large pot.

Here is the pot of melted butter bubbling away. You may give it a stir once in a while.

You can flavour your clarified butter with herbs which render their flavour through the oil in them. Thomas flavoured one pot with garlic and rosemary and another with cardamon. I brought some of the clarified butter flavoured with garlic and rosemary home. It smells wonderful.

Clarified butter is made by rendering the milk solids and water from the butter fat. The foam which sticks to the sides of the pot and also those at the bottom of the pot is milk solids. Milk solid is not good for consumption but it is very good for your skin. Thomas uses the milk solid which sticks to the sides of the pot, not those at the bottom as a lotion. When the water evaporates, the volume of the clarified butter will reduce. Cook until all the water evaporated.

You just have to make sure that the solids at the bottom of the pot does not get burned.

Thomas made some chocolate spread using some unflavoured clarified butter. It is like nutella.

Click on Read More for the instructions.

Instructions

Sieve the clarified butter into a jar through a cheese cloth to make sure no milk solids get in.Refrigerate the clarified butter until it’s partially solid so that it can be mixed with the melted chocolate well.

Thomas used dark chocolate to make the chocolate spread.

Melt some chocolate in a pot on low heat.

Add the melted chocolate into the partially solidified clarified butter and mix well.

We enjoyed the chocolate with some of the scones. The chocolate spread is not as sweet as nutella. Arzeena and Thomas, thank you so much for organizing and conducting such an informative workshop.