Homemade Butter

Making homemade butter at home is so easy. Using fresh heavy cream, you will end up with butter and buttermilk. This process takes less than 10 minutes and will give you super fresh butter and buttermilk that you can use in your recipes that call for butter. 

1 quart (32 ounces) of heavy whipping cream will yield 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) of butter and 1 ½ cups (12 ounces) of buttermilk. 

I recommend making butter with 2 quarts. Butter freezes well, so you might as well make a double batch right off the bat.

Why Make Homemade Butter

1. It’s fun. Making butter is a fun experiment.
2. When you make butter from scratch, you start with one product and end up with two. Butter & buttermilk.
3. Cost. It’s not exactly cheaper to make your butter. However, you might break even if you can find heavy cream on sale.

In my area at Safeway, 1 lb of unsalted butter (4 sticks) costs anywhere from $6.89 to $8.69. I quart of buttermilk is $2.29 to $3.49.

One quart of organic heavy cream costs $8.89 to $9.19.

At the lowest cost point, 1 quart of heavy cream ($8.89) Will yield 3 sticks of butter which would cost $5.16, and 12 ounces of buttermilk which is typically less than a dollar. So yeah….maybe not the most cost-effective recipe.

What You’ll Need

• Heavy Cream. Use heavy cream to make butter. Do not substitute for milk or half and half. 
• Mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. 

How to Make Butter

1. Add the heavy whipping cream to the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. You can also use a food processor or hand mixer.
2. Whip the cream on low at first and then speed it up. 
3. You will whip the cream past the point of making whipped cream. As you continue beating the cream, it will begin to separate, and you will start to see the liquid buttermilk fall out. 
4. Continue to whip the cream until you lump bright yellow butter surrounded by the liquid buttermilk. This could take up to 10 minutes. 
5. Strain off and reserve the buttermilk. Store in an airtight container like a mason jar until you are ready to use it. 
6. Rinse the butter in cold water. 

The End Results

Fresh homemade butter + buttermilk.

How to Use Homemade Butter

Use homemade butter any way that you would use store-bought butter. Butter can be used to make a variety of compound butter. 

• Garlic and herb
• Sriracha
• Mushroom
• Basil
• Roasted red pepper 
• Honey butter

How to Store Butter

If you won’t be using your butter right away, you can portion out your butter into ½ cup portions. This is the typical portion for 1 stick of butter. 

Use Souper Cubes (affiliate link) portion trays to portion and chill the butter. Once the butter is chilled firm, you can freeze it until you have already used it. 

How To Use Buttermilk

Buttermilk can be used for all types of baking. 

• Buttermilk Ranch Salad Dressing
• Buttermilk Pancakes
• Cakes and Cupcakes

How to Store Buttermilk

Store buttermilk in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. 

Bread For Your Butter

Nothing is better with fresh butter than a slice of homemade bread.

• French Bread
• Dinner Rolls
• Banana Bread
• Buttermilk Cornbread
• Buttermilk Bread