This post contains affiliate links.
Homemade butter is amazing! When I first heard of making my own, I thought “why bother, I can grab spread butter at the store.” I wasn’t sure going to all that work to church by own butter was worth it. I didn’t have a fancy butter churn and didn’t think buying one was even in the budget. Turns out, you don’t need one! You can make your own butter easily at home with a stand mixer, blender, or food processor. That was excellent news for me! I gave making butter a try, giving Ruby (my red stand mixer) a workout.
Turns out that making butter was beyond worth it! The flavor is so much better, hands down, better! In a way, it’s a bit sad for us because when we travel now, I need to prep butter to take along with us because store bought spread butter tastes very plastic to us now. Almost inedible, really.
You may be thinking, “ok, great, so I make butter, but how do you store the stuff after making it?” This is how I store mine:
Storing Butter
Did you know that you can store butter at room temperature? With a butter bell, it’s totally doable. The butter bell has a water seal at the bottom that keeps nasty stuff from forming on your butter so that you can keep it room temp for easier spreading. My homemade butter never lasts long enough to go bad because my people just love it 😉
You may not ever churn your own butter, but you can still use a butter bell. Soften a stick of butter on your counter for a few hours and then using a spoon or butter knife, press the butter into the bell. I love having a butter bell full of soft butter for my bread and toast!
If you aren’t really a spread butter type of person, you can press your butter into molds for a whole host of uses! I have a stick butter mold that turns my homemade butter into stick butter for regular baking. The mold has tablespoon markings along it so I can cut off the amount needed for any recipe.
Another cool thing to press your butter into is decorative molds! I have friends who press their butter into turkey molds for Thanksgiving and I purchased a cool Christmas tree mold that I’ll be using this year for our Christmas feast.
I truly do think making your own butter is worth the effort. For a large family, this means I make butter about once every two weeks, doubling the recipe you see below. If you have a smaller crew or just have yourself, your butter will last longer and you won’t have to churn that often.
Please reach out if you have any questions or if I can help you with anything kitchen related. I would love to help you find your own joy in the kitchen.
Homemade Butter
Ingredients
- 1 quart heavy cream, pasturized
- 2-4 Tbsp buttermilk with live cultures
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
- Pour your heavy cream into a plastic container and whisk in the buttermilk. Cover and set on a flat surface for 24 hours at room temperature.
- After 24 hours, check to see if the culture has fully incorporated (whisk again if there are thick and thin places). If not incorporated, leave out another few hours. You will know your cultured cream is ready to church when it is thicker and feels more like a yogurt consistency.
- Once your heavy cream is thicker and fully cultured, place the plastic container into the fridge to reduce the temperature to 60º (can take 2 hours, or overnight like I do in the video). Once your cultured heavy cream is 60º, begin churning your butter.
- You can whip your cultured cream on medium high to begin the separation process, but once the buttermilk is separating from your butter, you'll want to reduce the speed to avoid sloshing. I use the whisk attachment of my stand mixer.
- Once the butter has begun coming together, exchange the whisk for the paddle, and slowly continue churning. Use a large towel to cover the stand mixer if the sloshing gets too bad.
- Strain off the buttermilk (sweet whey) from the butter and return the bowl for more churning. You will be done churning when no more whey is produced. You can keep this whey to substitute as buttermilk in your baking but this won't last very long and must be used within a couple days.
- You will now need to 'wash' your butter by pouring half a cup of cold water (to avoid heating up your butter) and allowing your stand mixer to push the water through your butter. You will strain this water off and repeat with more cold water until the water strained is clear. If you leave whey in your butter, it will sour and rot faster.
- Once the washing water is clear, strain it off and salt your butter if so desired. Work the salt throughout the butter. Once the salt is fully mixed in, using a scraper, press the butter up along the sides of the churning bowl to allow the salt to push out the last of the water.
- Allow the butter to sit like this for a while (I usually allow it for an hour at least). Your butter is now ready to either press into butter stick molds or into your butter bell to enjoy.
Notes
- when working with live cultures, I avoid using metal as much as possible, it can cause a culture to become sluggish
- you can churn your butter using anything you wish, as long as it will encourage the butter and buttermilk to separate and have a slow speed option
- the buttermilk that separates from your butter is not true buttermilk, but a sweet whey, which can be used in a whole host of ways
