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
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.
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.
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!)
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!
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!
HOMEMADE BUTTER
Ingredients
- 1 carrot optional
- 1/4 c. milk optional
- 1 quart heavy cream
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- (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.
- 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.
- 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.
Place a colander over a bowl, then strain the buttermilk off of the butter.
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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Ruth Soukup
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Many years ago, when I was a little girl, my momma used whole cows milk that she would put inside a glass gallon jug. She would sit on the front porch with the jub laid down in her lap, towards her knees..She would rock the jug up and down from end to end til the butter was made. She then rinsed the milk out of the butter, press the water out, then add a little salt..That was the best tasting homemade butter I ever tasted. We then used the buttermilk for making biscuits and cornbread..The butter was so good in chocolate gravy and on her breads and homemade loaves of bread..I miss it still today…tlw.
Hi Ruth,
I have always wanted to learn how to make my own butter…this is something that sounds easy enough but I don’t think the carrot is necessary..lol.
Thanks for sharing the recipe and by the way – found it on Pinterest 🙂
Linda
Can you freeze this butter if you make alot, or just refridgerate? Love the idea of making my own butter.
Daughter makes this alot and she freezes. Used some to make a cobbler for her birthday and it was yummy. She shapes into 1pound logs and freezes.
Thank you, I was going to ask if this can be frozen. Yay!
I just read abut “canning” store bought butter or margarine which will last up to 3 years. I can’t remember the PIN but you can search Pintrest for the instructions.
Please If I may ask, what does the carrot have to do with anything????Next trip to the grocey store I’m going to start making my own butter! Thanks for the recipe.
the grated carrot makes it yellow. 1/4 cup milk heated with grated carrot in it then strain w cheesecloth into kitchenaid add heavy cream to bowl and beat.
The carrot is unnecessary – however, so many people are used to butter being yellow. If you don’t use the carrot, the butter will be white……..just as tasty, just not colored.
If you get your cream from cows that are grass fed the cream is yellow. Cows that don’t graze and pasture on green grass make white butter. It is still yummy just not as nutritionally dense.
Oh, wow. I never knew that.
You can also use a small amount of turmeric to make it yellow.
We made homemade buttermilk when i was a child growing up on the farm! Now this is awesome, I can make it without the cow!!! thanks so much for sharing this with us, you Rock!