Homemade butter is insanely easy to make. It only takes one ingredient and a little bit of time to create perfect, creamy, decadent butter unlike anything you can get in the grocery store. Once you try this butter recipe, you'll be hooked. It's so good and so easy! So start saving money now and make your own butter today. You'll be obsessed.
Let's first discover what is butter and how it's made commercially
So when it comes to food science, what is butter? In simple terms, butter is a dairy product made from milk that consists of butterfat, milk proteins, and water. It's made by churning cream or milk to separate the fat until it becomes a semi-solid emulsion.
Butter can be salted or unsalted and is typically made from cow's milk, but can also be made from the milk of sheep, goats, buffalo, and even yaks. Most butter is about 80% fat (or 82% - the so-called European-style butter) and stays solid at room temperature; however, melts easily when heated.
What is homemade butter made of
Check the original homemade butter article for the video recipe.
A homemade butter recipe is almost always made with heavy cream, which is the milk fat that collects at the top of non-homogenized milk. Heavy cream is high in fat and consists of about 36% to 40% fat, which is more than whipping cream and half and half. This makes it ideal for making rich creamy butter at home over other milk products.
Read also this: Heavy cream substitutes
How to make butter from cream
Check the original homemade butter article for the video recipe.
How much cream do you need to make butter? If using 36% cream and want to make 82% butter simply start with about x 2.5 cream. So, if you want 1 cup of butter, start with 2.5 cups of cream.
It's important to know that heavy cream will go through 4 different stages as the butter is being made:
- Frothy: When you first start mixing it will look frothy.
- Whipped cream: After a few minutes it will turn into fluffy whipped cream.
- Broken: Have you ever over-whipped heavy cream - hoping that it will get stiffer - to the point that the cream breaks? This stage might be too late for whipped cream, but keep going and you can make butter at home
- Solid: At the very end it will become solid and with white liquid.
First, whip the cream
Check the original homemade butter article for the video recipe.
Pour the heavy cream into the bowl of your stand mixer or a deep bowl that won't chip.
Begin whipping the cream at medium speed. If you are using a stand mixer you'll want to use the whisk attachment. Then once it starts to thicken you can turn the speed up to medium-high.
At first, the cream will turn into whipped cream, then form stiff peaks, and then begin clinging to the beaters as the butterfat separates from the liquid. The entire process will take about 10 minutes and when done the butter will be solid with liquid on top.
Pour the liquid off of the top of the solid butter. This liquid is buttermilk, so you can save it if you like to use it in other recipes.
Then, strain it
Check the original homemade butter article for the video recipe.
Put the solid butter in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and begin squeezing the butter with your hands to remove the rest of the buttermilk. You can also use a rubber spatula to press it against the strainer.
Form the strained butter into a ball. Then put it into a bowl of ice cold water to remove any leftover buttermilk. You may need to do this a few times until the water is fairly clear.
Work the salt into the butter if you are making salted butter. Or, leave it unsalted and ready for pastry making!
How to store butter
First, you should know that homemade butter will not keep like store-bought butter. It's not as shelf-stable and can go bad much faster. This can happen even sooner if the buttermilk is not fully removed when making and washing the butter.
But if you do a good job of removing the buttermilk from the butter and store it in an airtight container, this easy homemade butter will keep at room temperature for about 2 days but I recommend refrigerating it for about 3 weeks.
It can also be stored in the freezer for many months. Just roll the butter into a log shape and then wrap it well in plastic wrap before freezing.
Expert tips for making butter at home
- For the best flavor and creamiest butter use a high-quality heavy cream.
- Use heavy cream, not heavy whipping cream. Heavy cream has a slightly higher fat content that is needed to make the butter solidify better.
- Keep washing the butter off in the cold ice water until the water is almost clear. This is how you know that the buttermilk has been completely removed.
For more tips read the original How to make butter at home article at Spatula Desserts.
Flavoring tips
- Fresh Rosemary
- Lemon and Fresh Chives
- Mixed Herb and Garlic
- Roasted Garlic
- Stone Ground Mustard
- Cajun Seasoning Spiced
- Fresh Dill
- Lemon and Black Pepper
- Red Wine with Black Pepper and Rosemary
- Honey
- Pumpkin Spice and Vanilla
- Maple Syrup and Cinnamon
- Strawberries
- Fresh Cranberries and Sea Salt
- Apple Spice
- Molasses
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This article was originally published as How To Make Butter At Home at Spatula Desserts.
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