For a while now I have wanted to try making homemade butter.
Well, this way you can have homemade butter a little quicker and without tiring your arms with just the use of a KitchenAid or you could use a food processor. I used my KitchenAid. It was a fun process to watch the cream first become whipping cream and then eventually turn into butter (and buttermilk). A lot of other tutorials say that it can be done in 10 minutes or less, but I’ve tried this repeatedly and for my cold cream to become butter it took 15 minutes. And I have a high powered professional KitchenAid.
Near the end, I did lower the speed to keep it from splashing all over the place, whereas if you used a food processor you wouldn’t have to do that as much because of the lid, or you could also use a splash guard for your mixer. Amazingly, the cream goes through stages, it quickly thickened into whipping cream after only about 2-3 minutes, then, and stays in that stage for the next several minutes. It got slightly thicker, but not much so at about 10 minutes, I use my whipping wire. Then it starts to get a little bit lumpy and curdly like cottage cheese and the buttermilk slowly starts to separate and then the last minute it just got thick and there was a huge puddle of milk in the bottom.
As I said, I really enjoyed watching the step by step process of it.
After it separates into butter and buttermilk you aren’t completely done. You now have to drain the buttermilk. Lightly rinse and drained it in a mesh strainer or cheese cloth.
I then had to enjoy my fresh butter so I tossed an English muffin into the toaster and once it was done I slathered it with that delicious fresh butter. Because I had been wanting to make homemade butter for a while I bought some heavy cream just for this purpose, but this would be a great way to use up extra cream left over in your fridge from making ice cream, or truffles or whatever. I used 2 cups of heavy cream and it made 2 cups of butter and 1 cup of buttermilk.
Ingredients
1 cup cream
salt to taste (optional)
Instructions
Pour heavy cream into your mixer. Turn your mixer on low speed and gradually raise it to high speed. Keep mixing until your cream breaks and separates into butter and buttermilk (You may have to lower the speed slightly to this point to prevent sloshing)Once your butter has solidified and is sticking to your mixer blade, pour off your buttermilk into a separate container. Scoop your butter into a bowl and add a few pieces of ice.
Place your butter in a mesh strainer and rinse with cool water until the water runs clear. If desired, mix in about 1/8 tsp -1/4 tsp salt. Store wrapped in plastic wrap in your fridge. (It will keep for about a month) Or place in a butter bell on your counter for up to a week. I put a 1/2 tsp of water and a 1/2 tsp of vinegar to prevent mold from forming. Use the buttermilk to make fabulous pancakes or biscuits!
Variations of homemade butter
Lemon Basil Butter
1/2 cup soft salted butter
2 tablespoons fresh basil finely chopped
Zest of one lemon
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic finely chopped
Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl. Stir until well combined.
Rosemary Honey Butter
1/2 cup soft salted butter
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary finely chopped
2 tablespoons honey
Add all ingredients to a mixing bowl. Stir until well combined.
Strawberry Butter
1/2 cup soft salted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3 - 6 fresh strawberries finely chopped
With a standing mixer or hand mixer, whip the butter for 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar and strawberries. Whip for 2 - 3 minutes more.
Notes: All the butter recipes can be easily doubled. Butters can be stored in glass jars in the refrigerator for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
You may want to incorporate our very own Pink Moscato Champagne Jelly :) Find it here at www.angiemammas.com/jellies
Now, go get your Croissant, toast, baked potato, biscuit, pancake or whatever and ...