Making butter is… like moving a hot knife through butter: simple, smooth, and very, very easy. If you haven’t done this yet, go out today and buy a pint of heavy cream, and then spend 10 minutes to make your own butter. It’s incredibly simple to do, and it tastes wonderful!
Quick Homemade Butter
Equipment.
- Mixer (or jar to shake)
- Strainer
- Bowl
- Spatula
Ingredients.
-
Heavy cream (preferably fresh, organic & local!)
Steps.
1. Leave the cream out for a bit so that it warms to 50F or so.
2. Pour the cream into the mixer with a whisk attachment. Put a cover over the mixer, so you don’t splatter cream all over your kitchen:
Alternatively, you can pour the cream into a jar you can shake. (This will take longer, but your arms will get a good workout, and you can make it a family project.)
3. Mix on medium-high for 5-7 minutes. For once in your life, you get to over-whip cream! Here’s what you’ll see:
When the butter has separated from the liquid, you’re done mixing.
4. Strain the butter into a bowl, making sure all the liquid runs out. Then set aside the liquid. (That liquid is homemade, uberfresh buttermilk!)
5. Rinse the butter with water to remove any excess liquid.
6. Knead the butter with a spatula to bring together the curds. This doesn’t take long – a minute or two. If you want to salt your butter, now is a good time. (We prefer to have unsalted butter, which gives us more salt control when cooking.)
Save the butter in a sealed container in the fridge, and use the fresh buttermilk for pancakes or homemade biscuits!
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I did this over Thanksgiving because I had leftover cream, but was out of butter. It’s so easy, but so good!
I make butter this way. The buttermilk is good for scones too. :)
[...] responses One Green Generation has a recipe for homemade butter. MMMmmmmm, homemade [...]
I was surprised at how easy it is too. I don’t do this on a regular basis, but if I had to, I know how. It makes for a special touch, I think.
if you let the cream “go bad”, you can make cultured butter with it. cream can sit in the fridge for a few weeks, even, before you get around to making the butter! extra delicious, extra nutritious. i like to add fresh herbs from the garden and salt the butter; then all i need to do it toss a veggie or an egg into the butter and a dish is all set!
Looks good. I’ll put it on my list of things to try over my next vacation from work (Feb.) Each vacation, I have so many new exciting things to try that become part of my day to day activities, but I probably would never get around to trying them in the first place if it wasn’t for this time off of my crazy schedule.
Melinda,
How much butter did that quart of cream yield?
I do this from time to time. I have even tried Crunchy’s JAr method , but this is easier. I have heard you can do this in a CuisinArt as well but have never tried that. Note- If you dont have a kitchen aid mixer with fancy whisk attachment, a regular mixer with beaters will work nicely too.
I remember my Grandmother making butter using the the jar method. She would shake and shake that jar. I’m sure I probably had a go at it, but I don’t remember. It was a long, long time ago. I’m definitely going to try making butter soon. Luckily, I have the mixer! Thanks for nudging a sweet memory!!
[...] to peer pressure I decided to try my hand at making butter. I started it in the jar but when we hit the whip cream stage things seemed to stall out. After [...]
I am SO making butter next week…..Thanks!!!
Thanks for your comments, everyone! Fresh butter. Mmmm….
Dahlia, Interesting info re: cultured butter – thanks for sharing it!
Lisa, That was a pint jar, and it yielded about 3/4 – 1 cup of butter, and about the same amount of buttermilk.
Gale, You’re welcome – I love nudging sweet memories. : ) You should definitely relive the memory by making your own butter!
I had NO IDEA it was that easy – I’ll definitely be trying this next week! Thanks for the inspiration and the tutorial. :-)
Well, I didn’t even wait a week. I needed buttermilk for a bread recipe and figured ‘what the heck’…two birds with one stone as it were. Tasted great and SO easy.
Is it weird that I found the whole experience very empowering ?
We use to make this all the time when we had a “cow share” in Colorado. We got raw milk every other week and use the cream for this.
Now we can get huge mounds of homemade butter from the Amish which is good because we don’t have raw milk anymore.
Late Bloomer, You’re welcome – have fun!
Maureen, Awesome! Thank you for coming back to say so – brought a smile to my face! And no, not weird at all – it is empowering!
N., I wonder how amazing that butter must have been. Mmmmm.
How much better for you is homemade butter than store bought.
Hi Larry, Interesting question. I would say it depends on the brand you use of each. Eg, we buy cream from an organic, local source. So homemade butter from that would be better for you than average conventional butter (because my butter has no additives, preservatives, pesticides, or GMOs).
But truthfully, the main reason to make your own butter is for the amazing taste and the lower cost.
One more thought – homogenization and/or pasteurization (a process used in most conventional brands of butter) does remove a good deal of the vitamins found naturally in butter (A, D, K, E, some proteins). But again, you have to buy non-pasteurized and non-homogenized cream to preserve those vitamins in your own butter.
We have an old fashioned churn that I remember using as a little girl. The only way I could watch T.V. was to churn butter!!
ha ha ha!
I can do this! YES!
Here’s how I make my own organic yogurt at home: http://mamacitalujan.blogspot.com/2008/02/making-yogurt.html
Just to let you all know, #20 is probably written in cyrillic. I’ll leave it, as those who have Russian fonts in their computers can probably read it. Sorry that I can’t.
Joy, LOL! Then surely you can do this! Though do you still need tv as an incentive? ; )
How much cream did you use?
Rhonda, It was a pint jar, and it yielded about 3/4 – 1 cup of butter, and about the same amount of buttermilk.
I made butter by mistake once. My mixer broke so I pulled out my food processer. It was hoilday time and I always make my own whipping cream (no sugar added). Well I processed to long and ended up with butter, so I added honey and took it to dinner for the home made bread that someone else had made. It was just yummy and everyone loved it.
Hi there,
Its 8am here in Maryland. I really like your article on Making Homemade Butter.
I’m going to try this until I’m proficient at it. My wife just asked me to get 2 packs of butter. Egads…its real butter compared to “I can’t beleive its butter!” brand.
My Aunt whom I used to live with back in the 1950’s, made butter with a butter churn. I thought it was fascinating but she didn’t let me try it as far a I know. She’s gone now but I remember that homemade butter was the way to go.
Thank you for these instructions. I want to surprise my wife.
Have fun…ole Dukeydog
Hi there,
Its 8am here in Maryland. I really like your article on Making Homemade Butter.
I’m going to try this until I’m proficient at it. My wife just asked me to get 2 packs of butter. Egads…its real butter compared to “I can’t beleive its butter!” brand.
My Aunt whom I used to live with back in the 1950’s, made butter with a butter churn. I thought it was fascinating but she didn’t let me try it as far as I know. She’s gone now but I remember that homemade butter was the way to go.
Thank you for these instructions. I want to surprise my wife.
Have fun…ole Dukeydog
I make butter everyday at work. I’m working a temporary job at a local historic park. We teach school groups how to make homemade butter and vegetable soup. The kids love to help churn the butter. We give tours through the buildings at the park. When we are done the students get to eat the soup and butter that they helped to make. It’s very easy but we have noticed that if the room is very hot or too cold it will take longer to make the butter.
[...] was super easy, very fun and the results were amazing! (You can find instructions on how to do this here and here) [...]
I just made butter at home I used my magic bullet and the blender and stick method worked great.
Thanks for the wonderful recipe. I am definately going to try it as home made buuter is creamy and cheesy. Thanks a bunch.
i love making this butter.i add honey, basil, cinnamon, and garlic for additional flavors…so easy!
Oooh, Tami – that sounds fabulous!
Back in Kindergarten my teacher taught us all to make butter. We all took turns shaking a glass jar with milk and a clothes pin. I missed it so much I decided to try and make it today for the first time. (in about 15 years).
I tried the food processor, that made a mess. Then I tried the blender. The cream started to thicken and seperate, but then for some reason went back to liquid and wouldn’t thicken again. Maybe the motor heat caused a problem. SO! I added the cream to a mixing bowl and tried my hand mixer and VIOLA! Got butter. I definitely needed a towel to prevent more of a mess, but I love it!
Easter Dinner butter molds! Rather than buying those little lamb-shaped molded butters for your Easter (or any other special occasion) dinner, you can easily make your own special looking butter!
This would also make a great hostess gift, or gift for the neighbors at Easter or any time.
-After you’ve made the butter through step #6, press the butter into a mold of your choice. I’m a soapmaker and one aspect of what I do is highly decorative soaps, so I’m fortunate to have an abundance of different molds to choose from, being careful to clean thoroughly!! – to use for every occasion.
-To buy molds, you can go to any craft store, Hobby Lobby, Michaels etc., and either look for the section where they have melt and pour soap supplies where they’ll have some to choose from, or in the baking / candy making section where they’ll have silicone molds that may be more seasonal.
-Press the butter well into the mold, overfilling a but so that you can level off the top (which will be the bottom) with the back of a straight knife.
-If the mold is clear plastic, raise it over your head and look to see that there are no obvious air bubbles.
-Unmolding: Put the mold in the freezer. The more intricate the mold, the longer it should be in. You really want the butter to freeze so it will be solid and no part of it will stick to the mold. An hour should be good. Listen to be sure the freezer actually comes on at some point. The cold air blowing across the mold is much more effective than just the cold environment.
-It should unmold easily by turning it over and pressing on the center back of the mold.
-If you really want to get into it and have a beautiful mold for every special event, go online and simply search for “soap molds”. You will quickly be mind-boggled! There’s a lot of choices, but you can have something special and unique on your table all the time! Who knows – you may even take up soap making!
-Herb-butter is great in molds too, using chives, garlic, even lavender!
I’ve noticed a difference between European and American dairy. If I use raw organic milk to make butter, will that be closer to the European butters? Really cool article. Thanks much!
I made butter today!
I began making bread about 7 months ago, and have made waffles, pancakes, cakes and pies for years, but this was a logical, fun, continuation of the progression. Everyone loved it on their waffles today (made with the buttermilk from the process!
Thank you Melinda for sharing something so easy, yummy, and affirming!
Thank you so much for a wonderful tutorial! I’m going to be trying it this afternoon!
About how long will it stay good in the fridge?
While in Headstart my daughter and son made butter like this in baby food jars
My first batch (using local, raw, cultured cream)was easy and perfect…my second batch (using same great stuff), ended up looking like warm whipped margarine. Where did I got wrong? what can i do to save this batch? I’m wondering if time in the fridge will help, then I can press it again to remove more liquid?
thanks for any ideas!
Thanks for much for this post! I can’t wait to try it myself! :)
[...] of butter: did you know it was THIS easy to make your OWN butter?! I’m doing it. Soon. Updates to [...]
Amazing! I used cream I had leftover from making ice cream. I couldn’t believe how easy it was and so good!
This is a technical question but what is the fat content of homemade butter? While it sounds like I want less fat, that is actually not true. For baking purposes generally plugra butter is recommended because it has a higher fat content and just tastes better. As such I’m wondering if the homemade butter would be the high fat alternative to Plugra? Thanks.
[...] Click here for an incredible and simple homemade butter recipe! [...]
[...] for the credit: I followed the butter/buttermilk instructions from One Green Generation (because there were pictures) and Ellie Krieger’s whole wheat pancakes (the best fluffy whole [...]