In 90 seconds, a stand mixer can break 1 cup (about .25 L) of cream down into the butter and buttermilk stage.

Like a lot of people, the first time I made butter, it was an accident. I was whipping some cream and got distracted. I got back just in time to see the whipped cream separate into butter and buttermilk. (Hmmmm... I don't think that ever happened with the powered whip cream mix Mom bought.- I love you Mom, but you know - you and cooking = Pellegrino and Crisco.)

I was bummed that I screwed up the whip cream, but It was still really cool how it became butter in just seconds. So I started making butter at home and I'd thought I'd show you how I do it.

I always find that these kinds of things are a lot easier, and less intimidating, if you can watch someone do it. So watch the video and you can see me make butter, start to finish, in real time, with no editing. It's not as messy as it looks in the video - unless you are making a video of yourself doing it.

In the video I use 2 cups (a little less than .5 L) of cream so it takes twice as long. You will see the cream break down at about 3 minutes. Because I didn't use the splash guard, I also couldn't run the mixer at full speed.

With washing, it only takes a little over 9 minutes to go from 100% Heavy Cream to finished homemade butter. That's probably faster than it would take Usain Bolt to run to the corner store, buy a pound of butter (with free Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80 and Carrageenan) and run back home.

These are the ingredients.
Manufacturing Cream (or Heavy Cream)
Sea Salt (optional)

These are the tools I used:
Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer
Wire whisk attachment
Beater attachment
Splash guard - Omitted in video - you'll see why it's important
(ew, i think there is butter in my hair, yummm, yep it's butter.)
Ice water
Spatula
Parchment paper or Plastic wrap

Step 1: How to Do It

How to do it.

When I went to buy cream at Smart and Final (restaurant supply that is open to the public) I saw "Manufacturing Cream". I didn't know what it was, but it was a little higher in fat than Heavy Cream. It was only pasteurized, not ultra-pasteurized, and the only ingredient in it was "Heavy Cream".

I bought a 2 quart (1.89 L) carton for $7.

I researched it and found out "Manufacturing Cream" is the cream restaurants and bakeries use for baking and cooking (the names of types of milk/cream are different all over - even from state to state. I'm in California.) It does not have all the additives like Ultra-Pasteurized Cream. The flavor is very good. It doesn't last as long as regular ultra-pasteurized heavy cream though.

In the video I'm using 2 cups of cream. I went ahead and weighed the cream, and then the finished butter, so you could see how much butter I got out of it.

Before: 2 Cups (a little less than .5 L) Cream = 1 lbs = 16 ounces = 450g
After: Butter: 7 ounces = 198g
Total cost was $1.75 (sorry, don't know how many €'s, or £'s, or Can$'s or Aus$'s, or ¥'s, etc. that is)

Almost half of the cream was butter.

You want the cream to be between 61°F (16°C) and 65°F (18°C) to get it to separate fast.

I usually do 1 cup (about .25 L) of cream at a time, and it takes about 90 seconds to separate.

I put the cream in the mixer with the wire whisk. If you have a splash guard - USE IT. I left it off in the video so you could see what was happening. The camera, my kitchen, and I, all got splattered with buttery goodness.

It will whip into whip cream, and right after it gets to firm peaks, it will start to separate. SLOW the mixer down, or it will make a mess and splash all over the place - even with the splash guard. Just let it run another 5-10 seconds.

Then switch to the beater blade. If you stay with the whisk, the butter clumps up inside the whisk and is very hard to get out.

Beat the butter on a slow speed for about 10 seconds to let it finish separating. Using a spatula, squish the butter into a lump in the bowl, then pour the buttermilk off. You can use this buttermilk for baking. Some people like to drink it.

Now wash the butter to get all the buttermilk out. If you leave buttermilk in your butter it won't last nearly as long. If you are the kind of folks who like to leave butter out at room temperature, you might find that it has gone rancid if you leave any buttermilk in it.

Add some ice water to the bowl and beat it on low for around 10 seconds.

Use your spatula to squish the butter into a lump again then pour the water off.

Keep repeating the rinse process until you get clear water.

I do the last wash by hand. Pour in some ice water and squish the butter around to see if you can get any more milk.

Pour that water out. Squish the butter around some more to squeeze out any water that is in the butter. We don't want to leave any water suspended in the butter. Keep squishing it and pouring off any water you get until you don't get any more water - about 3 times for me.

That's it. You have butter.

If you like whipped butter, you can just put it back on the mixer and beat it on high, for a minute or two. If I want salted butter, I put some sea salt in while it is whipping. About a 1/4-1/3 tsp per cup of cream.

Whipped butter spreads easier and melts faster. If you use whipped butter for baking - you cannot measure it by volume. You can only measure it by weight. Because we whipped air into it - 1/4 cup of regular butter will be about 1/3rd cup of whipped butter (depending on how much air you whip into it). You smart Europeans, who bake by weight already, need not worry.

(The video is available in High Quality - It's easier to see the splattering of butter all over me and my kitchen)

Step 2: Wrap It Up for Storage

I wrap it up in Parchment Paper then freeze or refrigerate it.

Parchment Paper is used by bakers to line pans so they don't have to grease them. It is also great for things like this. You can buy it at a grocery store. It will be with the plastic wrap and foil.

You can save some butter to use, and then package the rest for freezing.

I put the unwrapped glob of butter on the Parchment, and stick it in the freezer for about 5 minutes. This is to firm the butter up, so when I squish it around to shape it, it doesn't get the paper all gooey.

After you put it in the freezer, lick your fingers and say "Yuuummmm".

I wash my hands, then take it out of the freezer, roll it into a cylinder inside the paper, then I squish the paper tube of butter until I get it the size I like. I then unroll it again to straighten out the paper.

You know when you unwrap a cube of butter, and an edge of the wrapper is embedded in the hard butter? You try to pull it out very very carefully, but you still end up with that &*%$**# little piece of paper embedded in your butter. That's why you unroll it and straighten out the paper.

Now roll it back up. You can twist the ends like a du.. jo... well, you know, one of those things you share with friends on Saturday night that makes things like butter taste so so so very good. Or you can just fold the edges over. Then put it back in the freezer.

You now have delicious, no additives, nothing artificial, as fresh as can be without owning a cow, homemade butter.

Hope you like it. Now I have to clean this smudge off my glasses. Yummm butter...

Step 3: Using a Buttermold

Maybe you have friends coming over for dinner. You want to offer your homemade butter, but you don't want your friends double dipping in your wonderful fresh butter.

How can you prevent Double Dipping?

Use a butter mold to make individual portions.

You can get butter molds in all kinds of different shapes. The original ones were metal and usually shaped like a shell.

I recommend you use a silicone mold. There are silicone molds for butter, but you can also use any silicone molds used to make ice cubes, candies or mini muffins. You could also just use a plastic ice tray. Only fill the ice tray about 1/3 to 1/2 full to make a nicely sized individual servings.

I've uploaded some photos of me putting butter into a fish shaped silicone ice tray.

I just push the butter into the mold with a spatula. Then I whack the bottom of the mold onto the counter. This is to push the butter down into the mold and squeeze out any air pockets. Top the mold off, and then put it into the freezer.

When you are ready to serve dinner, pop an individual butter pat onto each plate.