Homemade Butter (and Buttermilk!) Using a Kitchen Mixer

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I’ve been on a crusade the latter half of this year. As a long-time couponer/frugalista, for the past decade or so I dutifully bought what was on sale using coupons; more money conscious than ingredient conscious. Since I’ve all but stopped using coupons, I’ve struck out on a homemade crusade to see just how many items in my home I can replace with handmade, homemade and otherwise made from scratch products while maintaining as frugal a lifestyle as possible. I feel better about what I am feeding my family, and what I’m putting into my own body, even if for the sole fact that I enjoyed creating it.

What is next on this homemade crusade you ask? Butter and buttermilk, of course!

Homemade Butter (and Buttermilk!) Using a Kitchen Mixer

All you need when making butter and buttermilk: whipping cream. Well, that and a stand mixer and half an hour or so. #seriously

Find whipping cream in the dairy section of your local grocer. It is sold by the pint or by the quart, for about the price of a pound of pre-made butter, depending on which you pick. As I stood for long moments, awkwardly assessing the different brands and prices of “heavy” vs “regular” cream, I asked myself “is this really more cost effective than just buying a pound of butter?” The answer, I decided as I mentally weighed time and cost against ease, is yes and no.

The price I paid for the heavy whipping cream was right in line with the store brand pre-made butter price, and when you consider that you are also going to get some homemade buttermilk out of the deal? Yeah… I was sold. Or the heavy whipping cream was sold that is. 😉

Ready?

Pull out your kitchen mixer and insert the whisk. In this tutorial I am using one PINT of heavy whipping cream. Pour it in there. Just pour the whole pint right in.

Turn on your mixer, set the speed as high as you can go without the cream splashing. For me this is a 4. If you have a larger bowl on your mixer, you may be able to go up a speed still.

Let it mix. It will turn into a whipped cream (that you could literally add confectioner’s sugar to and use for pie!) and soon it will start to separate: butter and buttermilk.

Let the mixer do its thing (while you’re cooking something else, cleaning up the kitchen etc, this could take ten or fifteen minutes ish) until you hear more of a splashing than a mixing noise. You’ll know it when you hear it. Turn down the speed and watch until you have as much of the butter (omg that’s LEGIT BUTTER you guys!!!) as possible inside the whisk. This just makes the next process that much easier.

When you’ve got the majority of the butter inside the whisk, turn off your mixer and prepare an ice bath.

Using a medium sized bowl, throw in some ice and water, carefully remove the whisk and smush the butter through the tines. Next you’re going to knead your butter. Don’t overthink it.

Just squeeze, roll it around, rough it up a little, then form into a ball. If you would like salted butter instead of unsalted, now would be the time to massage the (sea or kosher) salt into the ball. Just a pinch!

Pour your fresh and oh-so-delicious buttermilk into a container for storing. (see note below for using it up!)

Note: if you don’t care about the buttermilk you’re gaining in this whole butter making process, you can put the salt in at the very beginning instead. But then you lose the buttermilk, and wasting makes me sad so let’s do it at the end during the kneading process, mmmkay?

Use your fancy new homemade refrigerated stored in an airtight container butter within two weeks. You can even use an old container that has the print removed!

Easy peasy, right? If you try this today, keep your buttermilk because we’ve got a recipe for Orange Cranberry Scones that I’ll be sharing with you tomorrow! Woot woot!

Side note: my girlfriend Cassy that turned me onto the whole make-your-own-butter thing convinced me that you can freeze the buttermilk, and when in a pinch or just because, use instead of real milk in your recipes. Hello, awesome resourcefulness!