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Happy May! I know it’s not technically summer yet but I always get excited when May comes around because it tends to be a good bit warmer and less rainy than it is in April, so it starts to feel like summer! And nothing makes me feel more summery than fresh, creamy, homemade butter.
To be totally honest with you, this is not something I’ve been doing for a long time. I actually just learned that you can make your own butter in a stand mixer last year, and just tried it out for the first time about a month ago! But I was so excited with how it turned out that I couldn’t wait to share it with you :) And of course I’ve tried it out a few times since then!
When I think of homemade butter I imagine a milk maid from the 1800’s churning away with a wooden butter churn. But thankfully we have technology now to make that process a little quicker and a lot less sweat-inducing. And because we don’t have our own dairy cow (yet), we also have to buy our heavy cream from the store. So that’s slightly less exciting, but it still works!
All you need to make your own butter is a stand mixer (or a handheld one is fine too), heavy cream, some salt, and a bowl of ice water for “washing” your butter.
When you vigorously shake/beat/mix heavy cream, usually for about 12-15 minutes, it eventually separates to form two byproducts- butter and buttermilk! Keep in mind that the stand mixer needs to be working pretty hard (usually level 6-8 on the Kitchen Aid mixer), and that can cause a lot of splatter. I would advise draping an old dish towel over your mixer while it is in use to ensure you don’t make a mess of your counter. This will indeed make a mess of your stand mixer but it’s easy to wipe down afterwards!
While the mixer is beating away, it’s fun to check on the progress every few minutes and watch the butter transform from cream, to whipped cream, to clotted cream, and then slowly into chunks of butter! After about 12-15 minutes of mixing and once all the butter is fully formed and stuck to the mixing attachment, you can scrape all the delicious, yellow butter off and lump it together into a ball.
Next you wash it in a bowl of ice water to get all the remaining buttermilk out, because if any is left it could make the butter spoil faster. And the washing water has to be pretty cold to make the butter easier to work with and not as sticky!
Then you mix in about a 1/2t of salt per 8oz-ish of butter. You can leave it unsalted if using for a baking recipe but the salt brings out so much flavor! And finally you can press your lovely golden butter into a butter bell, glass container, or even just wrap it in parchment paper.
And then we can’t forget the other star of the show- the leftover buttermilk! Buttermilk is a very tangy and slightly sour byproduct of cream, and is great for baking things like scones, pancakes, and biscuits. You should have about a cup of buttermilk left over after making butter with a pint of heavy cream. I used my leftover buttermilk last time to make some gluten free scones and they were just perfect.
Below are all the steps for churning fresh, homemade butter using a stand mixer:
How To Make Homemade Butter With A Stand Mixer
Tools/Ingredients
Stand Mixer (or handheld)
Bowl of ice water
Dish towel (to catch splatter)
1 pint heavy cream
1/2t salt
Instructions
About 10-15 minutes before starting, put the bowl of your stand mixer into the freezer to chill it. This will keep the cream extra cold while it's mixing and make the resulting butter easier to handle.
Pour 1 pint of heavy cream into the chilled bowl of your stand mixer, fixtured with the whisk attachment.
Beat the cream on level 6-8 (medium-high) for 12-15 minutes and watch carefully as the cream transforms:
2-3 minute mark: Whipped cream is starting to form
5-6 minute mark: Turns into clumpy whipped cream and starts to smell like butter!
10-11 minute mark: The buttermilk is starting to separate Note: Around the 11 minute mark I like to turn the mixer down to medium (level 4) to minimize splatter.
12-15 minute mark: It should look fully separated into clumps of butter and buttermilk!
Turn off the mixer and scrape all the butter off the mixer attachment into your bowl of ice water.
Knead all the little butter clumps together into one ball, pressing and squishing as you go to rinse off the buttermilk.
Keep kneading until all the buttermilk is rinsed out. You may need to swap out your bowl with fresh ice water once or twice.
The butter is ready once the water runs clear!
Mix in 1/2t of salt if using, then press the butter into your desired container.
Save the leftover buttermilk from the mixer bowl and store in the fridge.
Slather your fresh butter on toasted sourdough or scones and enjoy!
I would recommend storing your butter in the fridge instead of at room temperature. It’s very hard to get 100% of the buttermilk out and you don’t want your butter to spoil! I can’t say for sure how long it will last in the fridge since we tend to go through this fresh butter so quickly, but it’s probably good for a few weeks. The buttermilk will last 2 weeks in the fridge and freezes well if you won’t be able to use it that quickly.
I hope you have enjoyed this how-to guide for making homemade butter! There really is something so satisfying about making your own butter from scratch, and it definitely tastes so much better than anything you can find in a store.
Leave a comment below if you decide to give it a try. Happy churning!
