Homemade Butter
We provide instructions for making your own butter in a stand mixer from store bought cream or fresh cream. Also included are the steps to cleaning out the buttermilk, as well as shaping and salting the butter.To learn to make butter in a canning jar, please see the body of the post.
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer
Ingredients
- 1 Quart Cream, High Butterfat
- 1/4 tsp. Sea Salt
Instructions
Mix the Butter
- Place the cream in the mixing bowl, affix the bowl in the stand, and place the paddle attachment inside.
- Put the mixing collar on with a kitchen towel over that to cover any open spaces that are left (or your eyebrows and backsplash will be creamy).
- Turn the mixer to high.
- Watch carefully/check frequently as the cream goes from liquid to whipped cream to a cottage cheese looking substance to where it thunks against the side of your bowl, spewing white liquid and, if you’re using cow cream, turning an impossibly gorgeous color of yellow.
- Turn off the mixer, and remove the collar, paddle, and the bowl.
To Clean Out the Buttermilk
- Place a mesh strainer over a bowl and pour the contents of the jar into it. The buttermilk will drain into the bowl and the butter particles will stay in the strainer.
- Remove the strainer from the bowl and remove the bowl from the sink. Set the buttermilk aside.
- Under gentle, cold, running water, rinse the contents of the strainer (the bits of butter should look like fine, yellow bread crumbs) to get out the rest of the buttermilk-y whey.
Shape the Butter/Add Salt
- Working in the strainer over a bowl, whip the butter pieces together with a spoon. This process smashes the particles together and also pushes out more liquid.Alternatively, you can put the butter particles into a regular bowl and go through this process. Either way is fine.
- Press and press and reshape the butter ball. Always press it to work out more liquid. (You don’t need to save this buttermilk because it’s so watered down.)
- Once you’re satisfied the butter is dry enough, add 1/4 tsp. sea salt (or to taste) per cup of butter and work it in thoroughly with your hands.
- Pack the butter into your preferred container. I like to find containers that have capacity I can measure evenly like a ½ cup to a cup, since those are the measurements we use most often when baking.
- After processing, fresh butter can be used right away, stored in the fridge, or frozen. If the butter is raw and is kept on the counter, consume within 3 days or refrigerate.
Notes
Generally speaking, the spring cream will have the highest butterfat, but it can vary by cow.
Also generally speaking, 1 quart of cream with high butterfat will yield around 2lbs, or 2 cups, of butter.
There are a lot more tips and troubleshooting in the body of the post!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!