Oh, butter. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Did you know you can make homemade, fresh, creamy butter at home in under ten minutes?!?! Yep, you read that right. This is how to make homemade butter.
Health Benefits of Butter
I love my healthy fats. Good ole, healthy, saturated fats. And butter is one of them. Here are some amazing things butter from grass-fed butter can do:
- Lots of vitamins (including A, D, E, and K)
- Full of fatty acids that fight cancer
- The cholesterol found in butter fat is an important part of brain development
- Butter fat protects us against gastrointestinal infection and promotes gut & digestive health
Read more about the amazing health benefits here, here, and here.
What Kind of Cream Should I Use to Make Butter?
Local, raw cream from grass-fed cows is best. If you do not have access to raw milk, you can use organic pasteurized milk from grass-fed cows. Here are some articles on why my family drinks raw milk:
Here’s my cream:
How to Make Butter
What you need:
- Cream – any amount. I used one quart of cream.
- A blender – I use this one. (You can use a food processor. But pay attention to the line that marks the max amount of liquids for your processor.) You don’t need a super expensive, fancy blender. But note that some blenders may take longer to churn your cream.
- Colander and/or cheesecloth (here is a good quality unbleached cheesecloth).
Directions:
- If you are using raw cream, let it age for 2-7 days before you make butter.
- Put your cream on your counter for 1-2 hours to bring it to room temperature.
- Put your cream in your blender.
- Turn your blender on low and slowly increase to medium high (2-3 minutes). You will see the butter start to form and a milky liquid will separate. You guessed it – the liquid is butter milk!
- Stop your blender and scrape the sides of the blender bringing the solids to the center.
- Turn the blender back onto medium for about 30 seconds. Stop, scrape, repeat on medium. Do this about 5 times.
- Strain all of the buttermilk from the butter. Save your buttermilk for pancakes or biscuits! Squeeze out the excess liquid with your hands or cheesecloth.
- Now wash the butter. You need to remove as much of the buttermilk as possible. The buttermilk will sour the butter and it won’t keep as long. There are 2 methods to wash it:
- 1. Put the butter back in the blender with ice cold water (about 1/2 – 1 cup). Repeat the process of turning on medium for 30 seconds, then stop, scrape the solid to the center, repeat 3-5 times. Then strain the liquid from the butter and squeeze out excess liquid with your hands or cheesecloth.
- OR 2. Put your butter in a bowl with about a couple tablespoons of ice cold water. Knead with a pastry cutter (like this one) or a wooden spoon. Pour the buttermilk out as it separates from the butter. Knead for a couple minutes until liquid stops appearing.
- Store in an airtight container (like this mason jar). Your butter will last about 2 weeks.
For a dairy free option, check out How to Make Coconut Butter from It’s a Love/Love Thing.
is it possible to use this homemade butter for baking cakes?
Absolutely! I have.
Ok I just got a Vitamix. Learning how to make butter. I had my cream to at a good speed for at least 20 mins. It got really hot and foamy. Should it take that long. What am I doing wrong????
No it shouldn’t take that long. I’m not sure?? The cream should be a week or so old and room temperature. I use raw cream.
Can you freeze the butter?
Yep 😉