Stealth Butter

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that is yet another shot of yet another lemon curd recipe and when the hell is that woman gonna quit making lemon curd? Hah! You will be relieved to know that is not lemon curd. Not even close.

What it is, Coffee Mates, is something called Extended Butter. Frankly, I'd never heard of it before, although I understand it was an idea in use during World War II when everything was rationed. I do remember, when I was five or six years old, something about sugar and gas rationing but we lived on a dairy farm. Butter was not something we did without.

I'm signed up for the daily email newsletter from Tip Nut, which almost always has some neat bit of information. Today was the butter thing -- "How To Turn One Stick Of Butter Into Two" -- and I said, "Huh? Really?"

This interests me because I don't do margarine anymore, preferring butter for all kinds of reasons. So it certainly wouldn't hurt my feelings to save a few cents on it, right? There just happened to be roughly two-thirds of a stick of room temp butter in the butter dish so I decided to test it out.

Now, the formula given is 1/2 cup of lukewarm water per stick of butter (which, by a lucky coinkydink, is also 1/2 cup). You're supposed to gradually cream in the water, making sure it's all incorporated as you go along. (You may use a mixer at low speed.) I'm afraid I forgot that "gradually" part and just dumped all the water in at once and hit it with my immersion blender. Which worked out fine except there seemed to be just a teensy bit too much water. I don't know if that's because I didn't add it slowly or if it's because I guesstimated too far in the plus category with the amount of water I should add. I put in 1/3 cup instead of the 1/4 cup that was probably more accurate.

Not a problem. I just held the mass of whipped butter with a spatula while I tipped the bowl and drained out the excess. The butter firmed right up in the refrigerator and I gotta say, it really doesn't taste any different now than it did before. Hmmm.

Hmmm, indeed. This raises all kinds of interesting possibilities. It isn't just a matter of saving a little bit of money. If all you're adding is water, you're simply making "light" butter, so if you slather your usual amount on your baked potato, you're only getting half the calories. Right? Therefore, by default, this extended butter is healthier than the regular butter. Think of that butter pat as a mere shadow of its former self. A sort of stealth butter if you will.

Only thing is, they don't recommend you use it in baking because the amount called for would consist of half the required fat so it may affect the texture of your baked goods in an unfortunate way. Well, we'll see. There must be some goodies that would be okay with stealth butter. I'll have to check into that. In the meantime, I have this intense craving for baked potato. Slathered with some of my freshly churned stealth butter, of course.