Homemade Butter with a Bonus

If you love making homemade things you will love this butter!

The possibilities are endless with how many flavors you can add, such as herbs or  Old Bay seasoning for your seafood and how many ideas for how to use it, from simple butter on toast to cinnamon sugar butter biscuits, or extra love in your morning eggs. 

How to make your very own butter

(2 cups cream = 1/2 lb butter)

Items needed:

1 pint Heavy Cream, chilled

Salt

Seasoning of your choice

Kitchen aid mixer with shield

Ice Water

If you don't have a kitchen aid mixer you can use a blender.

I use one pint of cream, as I only needed a little for what I have planned (1/2 lb)

If you are going to make more do not over fill the blender or Kitchen Aid. I recommend only 2 cups (1 pint) max at a time and doing it in batches.

Pour the cream into the mixer bowl.  Then, cover your kitchen aid with the shield. If you do not have one, use a paper or cloth towel.

Turn the kitchen aid on the highest level.

Now, how quickly all this happens all depends on the heavy cream, so please stay close as this can take 3 to 6 mins.

First it will become whipped cream at this time you do nothing just keep mixing.

Then it will start to separate - right before this happens, you want to stop and push down any excess on the side of the bowls. Next is the separation of the butter and buttermilk...hence the bonus!

Now you will need to keep watching it, once a lot of buttermilk starts to form you will want to stop and dump the buttermilk out for later use.  Then start it up again to make sure you get as much buttermilk as possible out of the batch.

Once you are sure that you have gotten all the buttermilk out, then it's time to rinse the butter you've just made:

Fill a glass with water and add ice (just as you would if you planned to drink it).  Make sure the water is as cold as possible. Pour in a little of your ice water into the mixing bowl with the butter, but make sure no ice goes in.

Turn on the mixer again, and keep mixing - the icy water will separate out just like the butter did.  When it is cloudy, dump it out and add more water, and keep going until the water stays clear.

Now, you have unsalted butter!  You can leave it at that or salt it and even add what ever seasonings you would like.

For this batch, I will be doing our regular butter which is just adding salt, as it will be used mostly for eggs and mashed potatoes.

I start with 1/4 tsp of salt and add as I like. Sprinkle the salt over the butter in the mixer, and mix it again.

Mix well and place in a container with a lid and store in your refrigerator.

In my experiences this hasn't last more then a week in my home but can also be frozen and kept for later months.

I recommend using the buttermilk within the first 2 weeks.

Buttermilk is great for making pancakes, adding in your mashed potatoes and pretty much anywhere milk is needed to be added - it will add a rich, tart note to your recipes.

I used mine to make homemade ranch (try it with Bree's Homemade Ranch Seasoning!) and I used the entire amount that day.

DELICIOUS!!

If you give this a try, please let me know how it turns out and if you have any questions!

and

Old Fashioned Friday