Homemade Butter- From Scratch!

by Anna-Grace

2.5K349

Intro: Homemade Butter- From Scratch!

Butter is one of my favorite things! I just love it! We buy raw milk from an Amish family nearby and the cream is just perfect for making butter! You can easily use heavy whipping cream as well. I hope you enjoy!

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STEP 1: What You Need

First off, gather the things will need. I'll list them below:

Heavy, whipping cream

Salt

Mini Food Processor

Hand Held Strainer

Wooden Spoon

Bowl

Ice and Water

Cookie Cutters (optional)

STEP 2: Begin Blending and Voilà!

Take your cream (I usually do about a cup, it just depends on how big your food processor is. I recommend not doing any more than halfway full) and pour it into the food processor. Turn it on and begin blending! This is actually really simple, it just takes a bit of time.

After about ten minutes, your blender should begin sounding a bit different and the cream won't go around evenly, but go up and down. Allow it to blend for about a minute longer- just long enough for the little butter clumps to come together.

STEP 3: Goodbye, Buttermilk!

With the butter in clumps, take your hand strainer and strain out all the buttermilk. But don't just throw it away! Make something with it- pancakes, smoothies, biscuits or bread. There are all sorts of different things to do with it. If you want ideas, check out this.

Okay, so we have the butter strained, so now it's time for the ice water! Take your bowl and fill it a little with large ice cubes, then add water until it is about three fourths full. Dump your butter into the ice water and begin to pat it with your spoon, like shown above. This will get out the rest of the buttermilk, so that the butter won't spoil fast. If you plan on using the butter immediately, there is no need to spend very much time on this step. Just give the butter a few pats to get out a little, and move on.

STEP 4: Everything Is Better With Salt!

As the step name says, everything is better with salt! So true! Take your butter, and salt it. I'm doing it on a cutting board to knead it, but you can just do it in your hands as well. Just get the salt in! If you prefer saltless butter, obviously, skip this step :)

STEP 5: Fun Shapes!

If you have little kids in the house, this might be a fun thing to do for them (I purposely said "do for them". Your kids would get frustrated at the butter and the shapes wouldn't work at all!). You will want to stick your butter in the freezer for about ten minutes until it's firm and then cut out the shapes. The butter will become room temperature very quickly, so you have to work fast. If you don't, then the butter will get all stuck to the cookie cutters and, let's just say it'll be a mess!

STEP 6: What to Do With It

This is great butter, and it's homemade and isn't everything better homemade?! You can use this butter as you would normally, though I don't recommend just leaving it on the counter at room temperature all day. It'll get sour quickly, even if you thought you got all the buttermilk out. You can also melt it, and it will be just the same as storebought butter, except that it will be lots darker. I used raw milk cream for this butter, and the melted butter was darker than olive oil! It was crazy! If you bought your cream from the store, then it most likely won't be quite so yellow.

7 Comments

pefferie 6 years ago

Thank for a great idea! Can you explain the difference in the process when using raw milk? Do I need to buy cream or milk?

Anna-Grace 6 years ago

There isn't really a difference in using raw milk compared to milk from the store. I think that if you wanted to be perfectly safe about using raw milk, you should pasteurize it. I have never done that though. Sorry if I'm confusing you:) Also, you use cream and not milk.

MichaelsTestKitchen 6 years ago

I used to do this with a Vitamix, but using a food processor is a much better idea given the bottom is larger and flatter, and making it easier to get the butter out. Great instructable! :D

Anna-Grace 6 years ago

I've used a Vitamix before, but I found that it "over blended" the butter and heated it up and the milk wouldn't turn into butter. And true about what you mention! It's LOTS easier to get out with a little food processor! Thanks!

bobski_horner 6 years ago

I love how you presented this with clear instructions and the clips. Only one downside is the safety aspect about raw milk and products made from it which you did not mention. Raw milk must be pasturised (heated up and simmered to between 50 and 60 degrees ) as this kills off any bacteria without losing the taste of the milk .