Making your own butter at home is incredibly easy and rewarding. With just heavy cream and a KitchenAid stand mixer, you can have fresh, homemade butter in minutes.
Why Make Your Own Butter?
There are several benefits to making butter yourself rather than buying it pre-made:
- Quality Ingredients: You control exactly what goes into your butter. Store-bought butter often has preservatives, artificial colors, or flavors. Homemade allows you to use high-quality heavy cream and salt.
- Freshness: Nothing beats the taste of freshly churned butter straight from the mixer. It’s light, creamy, and full of flavor.
- Cost Savings: Making your own butter is much cheaper than buying quality butter from the store. Just a few ingredients yields many servings of butter for far less money.
- Fun Activity: Kids will love watching the butter come together in the mixer. It’s an entertaining kitchen science experiment.
- Customization: You can experiment with different flavors by adding herbs, spices, garlic, lemon, or other mix-ins to your butter.
Ingredients Needed
The two main ingredients for homemade butter are:
- Heavy Cream: Look for cream that contains at least 36-40% milk fat. Lesser fat contents may not yield as much butter.
- Salt (optional): Adding a pinch of salt enhances the flavor. You can omit for sweet cream butter.
That’s it! Unbelievably simple.
Step-By-Step Instructions
Here is a step-by-step guide to making butter in a KitchenAid mixer:
1. Pour Heavy Cream into Mixer Bowl
- Start with 2 cups of cold heavy cream. Make sure your cream is fresh, not ultra-pasteurized.
- For larger yields, you can use up to 4 cups of cream. Just don’t fill above the max line on your mixer bowl.
2. Beat the Cream on Medium-High Speed
- Whip the heavy cream on medium-high speed using the whisk attachment.
- It will first get foamy and then thicken into whipped cream within 2-3 minutes.
3. Continue Mixing Until Butter Solids Form
- Keep mixing on medium-high, stopping to scrape down the sides as needed.
- After about 5-8 minutes total, the cream will break down into butter solids and liquid buttermilk.
- You’ll see the butter clump around the whisk and the thin, milky buttermilk lower down in the bowl.
4. Drain and Rinse the Butter
- Place a fine mesh strainer over a bowl and drain the liquid buttermilk out of the mixer bowl. Keep the buttermilk for recipes or drinking.
- Return the butter solids to the mixer bowl. Add 1-2 tablespoons of cold water and mix briefly to rinse off the buttermilk.
- Drain and discard the rinse water.
5. Knead the Butter
- Take the solid butter globs out of the mixer bowl and knead together by hand for 2-3 minutes.
- This kneading helps remove any remaining buttermilk and makes the texture smooth and creamy.
6. Add Salt (Optional)
- If desired, knead in 1/2 teaspoon to 1 teaspoon of salt. This helps enhance the butter’s flavor.
- Taste a small bite and adjust salt amount to your preferred taste.
7. Shape, Chill and Use the Butter
- Form the kneaded butter into a log shape or small cube.
- Wrap in parchment paper or waxed paper and refrigerate until firm.
- Your fresh, homemade butter is now ready to spread, bake, or cook with!
- Butter will keep 1-2 weeks refrigerated or 2-3 months frozen. Freeze for longer storage.
Tips for Success
Follow these tips for the very best homemade butter:
- Make sure your cream and mixer bowl start cold. Chilling everything helps the butter form.
- Whipping on medium-high speed is ideal. Too fast causes splattering. Too slow won’t separate the butter.
- Look for the color change. Butter solids will get more yellow as the cream breaks down.
- Don’t over-mix once you have butter. It can quickly become greasy.
- Knead just until smooth. Overworking makes butter grainy.
- Use butter within 1-2 weeks for the freshest taste and texture.
Get Creative with Flavored Butters
Once you master the basics, try mixing in these flavor ideas:
- Honey Butter – blend in 1/4 cup honey
- Lemon Butter – add zest of 2 lemons
- Orange Butter – add zest of 1 orange
- Herb Butter – mix in 2 tsp fresh herbs like parsley, dill, or chives
- Maple Butter – add 2 tbsp maple syrup
- Cinnamon Butter – add 1 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp vanilla
- Strawberry Butter – blend in 1/4 cup dried strawberries
The possibilities are endless for making gourmet, flavored homemade butters!
Frequently Asked Questions
What’s the difference between buttermilk and heavy cream?
Buttermilk is the thin, milky liquid left from churning cream into butter. Heavy cream is the thick dairy product used at the start of the process.
Can I use a hand mixer instead of a stand mixer?
Yes, but using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer makes it easier to separate the butter from the buttermilk. Expect the process to take a little longer with a hand mixer.
Why not use whipping cream?
Heavy cream contains more fat (36-40%) than whipping cream (30-36%). You need that higher fat content to properly emulsify and produce the most butter.
Conclusion
Making fresh, homemade butter with a KitchenAid mixer is remarkably easy and so satisfying. In less than 10 minutes, you can churn out multiple servings of butter using just cream and salt. Tailor the flavors to your taste and whip up fun, flavored butters too. Far superior to store-bought, your homemade butter will be creamy, spreadable perfection.
