Did you know you can make your own homemade butter in a KitchenAid mixer or food processor?!! It is fun & easy and tastes SO much better than the store bought stuff!

Okay, so maybe I just tend to get overly excited about butter in general, but I am pretty sure that making homemade butter in my Kitchen-Aid is both the coolest and the most domestic thing I’ve ever done. Just when I didn’t think it was possible to love an appliance even more….I mean really, what’s better than homemade butter? Mmmmmmmm…..butter……

But I digress.

It was seriously so easy that I see a lot more butter making in our future. Since this was technically a homeschool activity (and had no selfish motivations whatsoever!), we tried to follow the instructions from Little House in the Big Woods as closely as we could. Of course considering that we didn’t have a cow or a real butter churn, or even a wooden bowl and paddle, we did a lot of improvising.

We used a quart of heavy cream, which made approximately a pound of butter and about 2 and 1/2 cups of buttermilk. I paid $5.99 for the cream at Publix, which was a lot, but next time I’d probably stock up at Sam’s Club, where it is just under $3 a quart. I’ve heard Aldi has super cheap cream as well. We also grated a carrot to add yellow coloring because that is the way Ma Ingalls did it, but next time I would probably skip that step!

 

How to Make Homemade Butter

Here is what you need:

1 carrot (optional)
1/4 c. milk (optional)
1 quart heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon salt

 

Grating carrots to add to homemade butter we made in a mixer.

The finely grated carrot can be used to add color to the butter (although it's optional).

Step 1 (optional):  Peel & finely grate a carrot. Heat in small saucepan with 1/4 cup milk until milk is bubbly. Use a clean cheesecloth to strain orange-colored milk into the bowl of your stand mixer. Discard shredded carrot.

Peaking under the cloth to see how the butter is coming along in our stand mixer.

Step 2:  Pour cream into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add salt. Cover mixer with a towel–trust me on this one, it will be messy! Turn mixer on high.

Step 3:  Continue mixing, checking on mixture frequently. It will first turn to whipped cream, then begin to get grainy and separate into butter and buttermilk, and the splashing will get much worse. The butter is ready when it sticks in a clump to the paddle.

Our homemade butter draining in a colander--it's easy to make butter in a stand mixer.

Save the buttermilk runoff and use it to make buttermilk biscuits, flavor chocolate cake or in another recipe.

Step 4:  Place a colander over a bowl, then strain the buttermilk off of the butter. (For a GREAT recipe using buttermilk, try these super yummy refrigerator raisin bran muffins–they are our FAVORITE!)

Rinse the butter under cold water in a colander in the sink.

 Step 5:  Using your hands or a spatula, press out excess buttermilk under cold running water until water runs clear. Shape into stick or ball. Butter will keep covered in refrigerator for up to 4 weeks. Serve with bread and enjoy!

We also made a small amount of shaker butter, which takes a very long time to make by hand.

Note:  While we were making our main batch of butter in the Kitchen-Aid, we also made a very small amount of butter by placing the cream in a small jar and taking turns shaking it. This was a great way to show the kids how much work it is to make butter by hand! Our shaken butter didn’t turn out quite as firm, probably because we didn’t shake it long or hard enough–my 3 and 6 year old didn’t have a lot of stamina, but older kids would probably do a little better!

 

How to Make Homemade Butter | DIY Butter | Homemade Butter Recipe | How to Make Butter | Butter
4 from 6 votes
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HOMEMADE BUTTER

It takes just minutes to whip up this batch of homemade butter (& buttermilk) in your stand mixer!
Course Side Dish
Cuisine American
Keyword Homemade Butter
Prep Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 1 pound

Ingredients

  • 1 carrot optional
  • 1/4 c. milk optional
  • 1 quart heavy cream
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt

Instructions

  1. (OPTIONAL) Peel & finely grate a carrot. Heat in small saucepan with 1/4 cup milk until milk is bubbly. Use a clean cheesecloth to strain orange-colored milk into the bowl of your stand mixer. Discard shredded carrot.
  2. Pour cream into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add salt. Cover mixer with a towel–trust me on this one, it will be messy! Turn mixer on high.
  3. Continue mixing, checking on mixture frequently. It will first turn to whipped cream, then begin to get grainy and separate into butter and buttermilk, and the splashing will get much worse. The butter is ready when it sticks in a clump to the paddle.

  4. Place a colander over a bowl, then strain the buttermilk off of the butter. 

  5. Using your hands or a spatula, press out excess buttermilk under cold running water until water runs clear. Shape into stick or ball. Serve with bread and enjoy!

Recipe Notes

Preparation time: 30 minutes. Number of servings (yield): Approximately 1 pound of butter + 2 1/2 cups of buttermilk. Butter will keep covered in refrigerator for up to 4 weeks.

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Did you know you can make your own homemade butter in a KitchenAid mixer or food processor?!! It is fun & easy and tastes SO much better than the store bought stuff! How to Make Homemade Butter | DIY Butter | Homemade Butter Recipe | How to Make Butter | Butter #butterrecipe #homemadebutter #recipes

Ruth Soukup

Ruth Soukup

Founder at Living Well Spending Less
Ruth Soukup is dedicated to helping people everywhere create a life they love by follwing their dreams and achieving their biggest goals. She is the host of the wildly popular Do It Scared podcast, as well as the founder of Living Well Spending Less® and Elite Blog Academy®. She is also the New York Times bestselling author of six books, including Do It Scared®: Finding the Courage to Face Your Fears, Overcome Obstacles, and Create a Life You Love, which was the inspiration for this book. She lives in Florida with her husband Chuck, and 2 daughters Maggie & Annie.
Ruth Soukup

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