Easy Homemade Butter
Making homemade butter used to be a necessary and lengthy process. Today we have the luxury of picking up our butter at the supermarket, but every once in awhile I decide to whip up a fresh batch at home. It literally takes less than 10 minutes to make when you use a stand mixer and the taste is more than worth the small effort.
Wow your family by serving them up some homemade butter alongside your next batch of homemade bread!
Make Butter From Heavy Cream
The process begins very much like making homemade whipped cream — only instead of adding sugar, you’ll add a touch of salt. Fit your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and start whipping on high.
How To Make Butter With Heavy Cream
The cream will whip up and then deflate. At this point, you may want to wrap a towel around the top of your mixer to avoid having buttermilk flung all over your kitchen…
Depending on your mixer, in about five minutes or so you’ll end up with a whisk full of butter! At this point you can drain off the buttermilk, and then you’ll need to wash the butter. Mix and knead your homemade butter in a clean bowl under cold water until the water runs clear to remove any excess buttermilk. Removing all of the buttermilk is essential to keeping your butter fresh longer.
You can use the butter immediately or chill in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. But I have serious doubts that it will last that long…
How to Make Homemade Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add heavy cream and salt to your mixing bowl.
- Fit your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and whip on high for approximately 5 minutes. The cream will separate into butter and buttermilk.
- Pour off the buttermilk and rinse and knead the butter in a clean bowl under cold water until the water runs clear.
- Keeps for up to 2 weeks when refrigerated.
If you’re looking for some simple bread recipes to highlight your home made butter, here are a few of our favorites:
- Sweet Irish Soda Bread
- Crusty Bread Machine Sourdough Loaf
- Homemade Cornbread Mix Recipe
- 15-Minute Homemade Biscuits
Or for a real treat, you could also make your own butter and use it in this 4-ingredient garlic bread spread to make the very best garlic bread recipe ever (according to my uber picky daughter)!
Did you make this recipe?
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Sam
Saturday 15th of February 2014
I've made butter a couple of times now. The wife said that she couldn't taste any difference between the home made butter and the commercial stick butter. I was a little disappointed... until we ran out of the home made butter and she opened a stick of store bought. She tasted the difference. Guess I'd better not run out anymore. Now she really likes the home made butter. Made some more today; two quarts of heavy cream worth.
Peggy
Saturday 23rd of November 2013
I made this this afternoon using my immersion blender, and it came out great, although it did not turn yellow as yours is in the photo. I'll make this whenever I need unsalted butter, as I rarely need that and don't generally keep it on hand. I have the buttermilk saved for the next time I need to dissolve cornstarch in liquid for gravy to give it more punch. Thanks for the technique!
Susan
Wednesday 11th of September 2013
After purchasing butter from the Amish folks at the local Farmer's Market, I decided I am going to venture into making my own butter. The fresh stuff was just too yummy to stop using. Does it HAVE to be rinsed? I saw a comment above that said it didn't but, well, opinion? Also, I have a Ninja mixer/blender. Would this work for "churning" the cream or does it have to be a hand mixer?
Tara @ Unsophisticook
Tuesday 17th of September 2013
Hi Susan! If you're going to use it all immediately, then you would not necessarily need to rinse it. However, if you're planning to refrigerate it and use it over the 2 week period, rinsing is critical for keeping it fresh for that timeframe. And yep, you can definitely make it in a blender, as well. Enjoy!
Melissa
Wednesday 6th of March 2013
Ive heard you cannot used ultra-pasteurized heavy cream. Thats all I have at the store, I was sad. Maybe someday I can find heavy cream somewhere that I can use.
Tara @ Unsophisticook
Wednesday 6th of March 2013
Melissa, ultra pasteurized heavy cream is a little more difficult to whip into whipped cream, but it still works. There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to use it to make butter though!
Lindsey O
Wednesday 12th of December 2012
Oh my goodness!! It's SO GOOD!! :D I can't believe how fun and easy that was! At first it took a while, and all of a sudden - BOOM! butter and buttermilk. Thank you so much for posting this!!