Recipe European Style Cultured Vegan Butter

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I came across this recipe years ago, and printed it out, but there isn't a reference to tell me where I got it from, so I can only guess, however, I think it most likely that I got it from here (Cultured European Style Vegan Butter).

Over the years though, the totally pure white of this butter has 'put me off' a little, so I have decided to use a little colouring used to colour some of my dairy free cheeses and have added in a tiny amount of beta-carotene. This comes from Vit A gel capsules (or one dedicated to eye care which mine states) and is an oil based vitamin. A lot of it will flavour your butter with, well vitamin A flavour which isn't all that great, so you are looking to use the smallest amount possible and this is easiest when quantities for the recipe are doubled (or more), so I now always make a double batch which this recipe takes into account.

The Recipe - Regular Vegan Butter (Coconut Oil Based) recipe is the easier of the two to make, but I have to confess to preferring the Cultured European Style Vegan Butter. It has a little more taste to it and is closer to the 'butter' I knew before my dairy allergy took hold. But you need to make your soya yoghurt the night before you want to make your butter. So prep ahead and plan...

Note that if you don't use refined coconut oil you will taste and smell the coconut, but if that is OK with you, it's much cheaper assuming that you have been able to source refined coconut oil that is solid at room temperature anyway!

Ingredients
125ml homemade soya yoghurt (unsweetened)
1-2 tsp apple cider vinegar
5 tbsp (75ml) sunflower or canola oil
1 drop of the liquid inside a vegan Vit A (beta-carotene) gel capsule.
3g fine sea salt (this is 3/4 tsp salt)
225g refined (odourless) coconut oil
5 tsp soy lecithin granules - now grind them to a powder! (sunflower lecithin is probably OK but may need different quantities)

Method

1. You need to curdle your soya yoghurt using the apple cider vinegar (note that the original recipe does state that you can use coconut vinegar (assuming you can find it)). So mix the two and set it aside for 10-15 minutes and hope it curdles - not all soya yoghurt will because of additives to prevent this, so try to find an organic one with the least amount of ingredients possible - or make your own as I do now. It's really easy, you just need to prep things to run overnight before making this recipe.
2. Mix up the colouring. Take advantage of the 5tbsp of sunflower oil and use it as a base for the smallest amount of the liquid from the inside of the Vit A gel capsule. Less than 1 drop is all that is needed - and if you don't want to stain your fingers yellowy orange, use gloves.
3. Melt the coconut oil so that it is barely melted at room temp - you want to as close to not being melted as possible. You can do this in a saucepan over a very low heat, or in the microwave using reduced power.
4. Grind the soy lecithin granules up into a powder in your spice grinder, or by hand if you have a pestle and mortar. If the volume is too small for either, add the sea salt. (Note that if you choose not to do this, the next step is significantly harder in my experience and you are likely to end up with undissolved soy lecithin granules in your final product.)
5. Add the melted coconut oil, the sunflower oil (with colouring), soya yoghurt mixture and soya lecithin powder (with sea salt) to a food processor and process for a couple of minutes until thoroughly combined. Scrap down the sides as needed and process again for another couple of minutes. This is one of those where I have found it takes much longer than the original recipe suggest it should, but you are after a totally emulsified butter and if you don't process it for long enough, you won't get it.
   It should turn traditional butter coloured and be opaque but still liquid enough to pour into a suitable container. The original recipe suggest extra large silicon ice cube moulds, but I prefer to pour it into a suitable recycled container and get into the freezer as quickly as possible.
6. Once it has set solid, you can keep it in the freezer or move it to the fridge, whatever is the easiest for you. I keep my open container in the fridge and the unopened one in the freezer.