I wasn’t ready for this post, because I didn’t even think it was going to make its way to Bread & With It. I thought making homemade butter would be really difficult. Boy was I wrong! Homemade butter is delicious, easy and just plain cool to make!
Deborah at the Stinky Kitchen wrote an article back in December, how to make raw butter. I shared her article on the Bread & With It Facebook page. Along with the “share”, I mentioned that I was excited to make homemade butter, and here I am in February finally sharing it with you! After going through the process… yes, I seriously think that everyone needs homemade butter on their bucket list! It was so cool, and it made the absolute best weeks worth of buttered toast! Yum!
One of my favorite things is the well-known “do it yourself” technique. There is so much to learn from doing things yourself. Even more so, it helps us to appreciate some of the conveniences of daily life. Great Grandma Hutchinson would wake up every morning and milk 40 cows, then use the cream to make butter. She would churn it herself. She didn’t go the store with perfectly printed tablespoon, 1/3 cup and 1/4 cup markings!
  Support Bread & With It by shopping today! |
For homemade butter, I used the Kitchen Aid technique. Deborah mentioned that she had trouble with her Kitchen Aid making a huge mess. I can see how that would be an issue, buttermilk goes flying everywhere. My very sweet husband bought me a Kitchen Aid for my birthday last summer. It came with a cover. I used it, and it saved my kitchen from the disaster Deborah went through. Although… her description of these events crack me up. If you’re not familiar with her writing. Get familiar. She’s hilarious!
I love my Kitchen Aid. Our kitchen is arranged around it, and Bread & With It would not be an option without it. It makes my life so much easier!
I poured in 1 1/2 cups of whipping cream into my Kitchen Aid mixer using the whisk attachment, and about 5 minutes later I had butter. When whisking heavy cream it first becomes homemade whipping cream, then it looks like it’s curdling. You will know when it’s finally done when the butter is completely separated from the buttermilk. It pretty much sticks to the whisk, and you know it’s done. I could not believe how easy it was. The whole house was beaming with excitement! My husband was just getting used to the fact that I could make food with whole pumpkins fresh from the field, and now I’ve thrown his world for a loop again by making butter.
This time around though, he wasn’t the only impressed one. I was pretty amazed at how easy it was. I don’t know if it really tasted better than our normal store-bought brand or if it was just because we made it ourselves, but we were all making delicious food moans! MMMMM butter!
- 1 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- In a large bowl, whisk cream on high speed. Cream will become whipped cream, continue to whisk until butter is separated from buttermilk.
- Using a mesh strainer, strain buttermilk into a storage container and refrigerate for another use. Rise butter under cold water. In a small bowl, stir in the salt. Store butter in desired container in the refrigerator.
Does this recipe make 1 stick of butter? Does it have to harden up in the fridge? Can you buy pretty molds?
Yes, it makes 1 stick of butter. You will want to refrigerate it, but it’s butter consistency when you are done. You could probably put it in molds since it’s still playable… like Playdoah maybe… but it’s not something that you would pour into a mold and it harden later. Good questions and ideas!
Can you make/do anything with the milk that was separated from the butter? Hope you guys understand this question.
Thank you for sharing!
Buttermilk is called for in plenty of baking recipes as it’s an acidic ingredient and will react with the leavening agents in your baking. Hope that helps 🙂
I’d make buttermilk biscuits with it personally 🙂 or even butter milk chicken
There are lots of recipes you can use the left over buttermilk. One of my favorites is buttermilk pancakes!
I have cream that has soured slightly. Can I use this for butter?
Do you chill the bowl and whisk before making your butter?
Mine took more then an hour
I can see how somebody could make a mess if they followed the recipe as written. They put the cream in the bowl turn on the mixer to high speed and wonder why they have a mess in their kitchen. You have to start slow and then turn it up.
Awesome recipe. Can anyone tell me what the shelf life would be?
I put a plastic grocery bag over my kitchen aid,
to catch the splashes!
Awesome. Thank you. I just whipped up 1l of fresh cream and got about 350g of butter and about 600ml buttermilk… and the red KitchenAid on speed I was perfect …. if a lot messy… 😉
Thank you Bread & With It for the photo and detailed post. The first time I tried to make butter the directions I used didn’t have that it turned to whipped cream I thought I had messed up & threw the whole quart size of cream away & my grandson thought we messed up. Made mine in a Ninja. (The first Ninja that came out). Thanks for all your work
Does it make a difference with the temperature of the cream and does it madder if it organic or not?
First time using my new Kitchenaid. Do you scrape down the sides or just let it run?
You can just let it run 😀
How much butter does this actually produce?
So you don’t have to let the cream sour up before you churn it
I never comment on recipes that I find but this one, this one warrants it. I’ve been timid regarding home made butter and I couldn’t be happier with the results. I did this this morning and promptly put it on toast and to say it’s delicious and easy is an understatement. And I even left it unsalted so I can use it for baking. I’m making rolls today just so I can top them with it ?. I wonder what the shelf life is though ? Any ideas?
Hi. I’m thinking of making butter too. But i have a question about “rinsing the butter”. Do you literaly rinse the butter after you like shape it and rinse it? And why do rinse it?
I AM 67 YEARS OLD AND WAS RAISED BY A MOTHER WHO MADE HER OWN BUTTER.. MY MOTHER USED SOUR CREAM. MOM WOULD TAKE THE TOP CREAM OFF OF THE MILK AND WHEN SHE HAD ENOUGH OR HER JAR WAS FILLED SHE SET ON THE COUNTER TO SOUR. THEN SHE GOT THE CHURN OUT AND WE ALL TOOK TURNS MAKING THE BUTTER. IT’S A MEMORY I CHERISH. MARY
If you wish to get the kids involved, put the cream and salt into a jar along with a “sterile” marble. Screw on the lid and they can take turns shaking the jar. Fun for them and you all get home made butter! 🙂
Thanks for the information, I had heard if the jar & shaking but not the marble, makes sense. What size jar would be used?
I have made butter by adding salt before mixing Terrie. It doesn’t really change it much, except that most of the salt ends up in the buttermilk, which meant it wasn’t great for using for pancakes. I used it as a pork marinade instead 🙂 yum
What do you do with the buttermilk by product? Is it okay to use for buttermilk pancakes?
Yes, we use it for pancakes. It’s very good.
I am so glad that you showed pictures of the process, I made butter for the first time and I cultures the cream first, for added nutritional value, so excing, will be making more!
the salt helps it from going sour,so does washing it ,washing will washes out the butter milk . but if you are doing little batches it doesn’t matter.we have better refrigeration than out Grandmothers had,
I have made my own butter for over 40 years, I have never added salt or rinsed with water. Not sure why you would need to do these. Our diets have too much salt already and I have always had compliments on the taste of my butter. Just cream churned into butter and drain off the butter milk for biscuits or pancakes or whatever you want to do with it.
I can’t find buttermilk listed in the ingredients.
That’s because you don’t start with buttermilk. You start with heavy cream and through the process it separates into butter and buttermilk. Buttermilk and butter are the end results.
Heavy whipping cream
Try putting the heavy cream and salt in a clean, empty mayonnaise jar and just shake the heck out of it. It’s a great way to involve kids in the process. Don’t worry about “washing away” the salt – it’s incorporated inside the butter!
We have Kinergarten classes do that in Wisconsin. They have such big grins when they bring in their butter.
The salt will get washed out when you rinse with cold water
Oh, that makes sense!
You add the salt AFTER rinsing it.
Love how easy this recipe and process it, but, I was wondering, what would happen if you put the salt into the heavy whipping cream before whipping?
I’m not sure. I will try it next time and let you know!
Hi Terrie, I have made butter adding salt before whipping. It still works fine except I found that most of the salt ended up in the buttermilk, which meant the buttermilk wasnt ideal for pancakes. I used it as a pork marinade instead, yum! It helps tenderise the meat 🙂 I would def recommend adding salt after whipping for a better saltiness to butter, and to make the buttermilk more useable afterward, minimalising waste 🙂