The Basics Of Homemade Butter

Making things from scratch can leave you with a sense of accomplishment, especially when you just begin to learn to cook. When most people think of preparing something from scratch, they are only actually coming up with creative recipes using individual ingredients rather than a boxed mix. However, you can go a step further and develop some of the ingredients from scratch as well. Somebody has to make the butter you’re adding to your cookie dough, so why not do it yourself?

Now, you may be picturing pioneer women out on their homestead with wooden churns making butter, but modern butter making is nowhere near as difficult or tiring. We now have the power of electricity to do the heavy work, so making butter is a much less time-consuming task. Making butter is very simple and can even turn into fun for the kids to help with.

Homemade butter recipe
For plain and simple butter, there isn’t much variation on the recipe. All that you’ll need is two simple ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
1/4 teaspoon salt

However, one of the benefits of making your butter is being able to personalize the flavor to complement the meals you are serving it with. Add herbs, spices or zest to create a varied flavor palate using one of many simple recipes.

1. Add 2 cups of heavy cream into your electric stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment, begin to beat the cream on a low setting. Once the cream begins to thicken, turn your mixer up to medium speed. After about 10 minutes, what looks like lumpy curds will begin to form, separate and sit in the liquid – this is OK. During this process, the fats in the cream will divide themselves from the buttermilk.
2. Drain the mixture using the sieve so that you are only left with the butterfat. If you wish to keep the buttermilk for baking, you can store it in a lidded jar, otherwise you can let it drain into the sink.
3. Place the remaining butterfat back in the mixing bowl and whisk again on medium speed for another minute to remove even more liquid from the butterfat. Pour into the sieve again to drain the mixture. It is important to remove as much buttermilk as possible to extend the shelf life of your homemade butter.
4. Take the butterfat and place it in a clean, dry mixing bowl. Fill the bowl with icy cold water and use your hands to knead out as much remaining buttermilk as possible. The water needs to be as cold as possible because if you work the butter with warm hands it will liquefy. If the water becomes cloudy, you can pour it out and add new water. Repeat this process until the water stays clear while you knead it. Pour out water and use your cold hands to work the salt into the butter to help preserve it.
5. Place butter in an airtight container and store in your refrigerator for 1 week or your freezer for 1 month.

If you like this post, please be sure to check out the following!

Salted vs. Unsalted Butter
Staple Items For The Baking & Pastry Arts
The Difference Between Butter And Margarine

If you have questions or comments about this recipe please leave them below.