Homemade Butter

I never imagined that it would be possible to make butter in my own kitchen, but it is and it was delicious! I don't think people realize that they can make their own butter as it is a lost art. But I have discovered it is simple, cost effective, and most importantly healthy. Most people avoid butter because they think its bad for you, but it turns out that it is a good source of vitamin A, high in trace minerals and antioxidants. As long as you don't over do it and exceed your daily saturated fat percentage, you can enjoy butter without worrying.

For this tutorial, I was originally attempting cultured butter, but what I really ended up with was sweet cream butter. It was good nonetheless, but I'll have to experiment a little further to achieve the taste I am looking for. So here's how I did it..

I started out with a carton of leftover cream that didn't get used for ice cream and added a heaping spoonful of cultured yogurt. Then I let it sour in the fridge for about 1 week past its expiration date. It should aquire a pleasant tangy smell. (Note: If you cream looks like its curdling, or it smells or tasts bad, discard it.)

Once the butter was cultured, I poured it into a mixing bowl with a stand mixer. Then I covered the mixture with plastic wrap to avoid splashing and started to beat the cream.







The butter will undergo three phases: 1) creamy, 2) grainy, and lastly 3) chunky as it begins to split. Here you begin to see the buttermilk separating from the butter.

As you can see in the picture below, after about 5-7 minutes of beating, the butter started splashing as it began to split.













Now the butter has split leaving butter and buttermilk. I drained the buttermilk and reserved it for baking. I gave the butter a quick rinse to wash off any excess buttermilk. Then I put it on my wooden cutting board and smacked it around with a wooden spoon to get any residual liquid out. Wood works well as butter does not stick to it very easily.



Finally I shaped it and wrapped it in parchment paper. You can also add sea salt, however, I did not as I was planning on storing it in the freezer. The butter stores longer in the freezer when it is not salted.

So there you have it. Fresh butter!