How to Make Butter

I know several of you have been asking about how to make butter. Butter is truly the easiest thing to make and it really doesn’t take that long either. There is only one ingredient needed to make butter, heavy whipping cream. Yes, that is the secret ingredient in how to make butter. Since I was trying to buy more organic items, organic butter seemed a little expensive. I did some research to see how to make butter on my own. I was amazed I could turn my mixer into a butter churner and have butter in about 10 min. 

You can watch the YouTube Video to see how to make butter yourself:

Ingredients for Butter

1 pint heavy whipping cream

Butter Churner Mixer

How to make butter:

1. Let the whipping cream warm a bit on the counter. Somewhere in the 60′s is a nice temperature to work with. But it really doesn’t matter. The warmer the whipping cream the faster the butter will happen.

2. Next pour the whipping cream into your mixer bowl. Turn the mixer on high with the whisk attachment. You may want to cover the bowl and the mixer with a towl. It gets a little sloshy. (if that is a word) Let this go for about nine minutes or so.

3. Occasionally turn the mixer off and scrape the sides once the cream gets really frothy. Usually about twice will do it after 7 or 8 minutes.

4. Then the mixture will break. Stop the mixture at the break. The break is a magic process where the solid fat of butter starts to stick together and the liquid (buttermilk) separates. There will be tiny little clumps of yellow in the bottom with some liquid when this happens.

5. Switch the attachment on the mixer to the paddle attachment and turn the mixer on a low to medium speed. The butter will start sticking together in a big lump. Once it is together, butter milk will be at the bottom. Turn off the mixer and pour the butter milk into a container and save it. We will use it for other fabulous recipes.

6. There is still butter milk in the butter. It is a good idea to get it all out. This prevents the butter from going rancid quickly. Pour ice water in the mixer bowl without getting any ice cubes in the bowl. Turn the mixer on slow and the water will draw out the butter milk. Pour out the water and repeat until the water is clear. This takes only a couple of times. 

Now you know how to make butter. Wasn’t it really simple and easy to make butter. I found these little dishes at Ikea to store to keep my butter in the fridge. To whip the butter, simply leave it in the mixer and beat a little longer. This creamy butter is delicious on muffins, biscuits and just about anything. I now make my own organic butter this way. I buy a few pints of cream and set some time aside on a Saturday or Sunday. Butter freezes well, so I can make enough for an entire month in less than an hour. This is also a great science experiment for the kids to see how the fat parts of the cream start sticking together and the buttermilk is separated. You could do a science experiment on how to make butter for a home school project.

Now there is the by product of buttermilk that needs to be used, since I don’t throw anything away. Stay tuned for the awesome buttermilk recipes coming soon.