Making Butter 101

Homemade Butter

 

Maybe you like science experiments, maybe you enjoy the simple life, maybe you always wanted to be Laura Ingalls, maybe you consider yourself a domestic goddess and making butter is on the bucket list. For me it's all of the above! If you have a stand mixer I highly recommend it. If you are into exercise or do not have a mixer, try a mason jar and shake for 6-8 minutes.

Let's get started!

Ingredients:

Heavy Whipping Cream

Salt

Just to be clear, this is simple butter recipe. You can add wahtever spices to your butter later to give it a desired flavor (e.g. cinnamon, honey, garlic, chives...endless ideas)

Pour your whipping cream into the mixing bowl. 

NOTE: You will want to make sure you DO NOT OVERFILL the bowl. Trust me on this. 

I cover my mixer with saran wrap, using tape to secure and make a "tent". Trust me you will want to cover with something. I recommend a clear view, because it is an amazing process :) Once you have it covered start mixing. With a mason jar start shaking! Now it will seem like it is doing nothing. You may question if you are even doing it right. You are...as long as you used heavy cream, poured in the mixer, and in fact turned on the mixer you are doing it right! I usually set mine to a medium speed. You will start to hear the mixer "churn." you may want to stop at that point, don't! As it starts to churn into butter it will eventually make a "splattering" sound. And it seperates, you will have butter (a soild) and...BUTTERMILk (the liquid)! AMAZING! In the picture below, I am draining out the buttermilk to use in pancakes for later, yum! I usually store it in a mason jar, in the fridge. 

You are not done. 

Take the solid (the butter) and rinse it under cold water. Squeezing out the milk. Wash it, squeeze it, repeat! You need to wash it, otherwise you end up with rancid butter. It is like playing with play doh.

Once you have the milk rinsed out of the butter. I normally put the butter back into the mixing bowl and add the salt to mix thoroughly. The amount of salt you add is entirely up to you. That is it, you have butter! 

For a variety of flavored butter: after you add the salt, mix, you can add your favorite herbs or spices.

Now my husband did not enjot this and did not find it as amazing as I did so be warned, not everyone may think this is amazing. Yes I paid $2 for heavy cream for eight ounces of butter. So worth it!

Enjoy!