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    Home » Recipes » Condiments

    Homemade Butter

    Published: Apr 7, 2022 · Modified: Sep 13, 2022 by Laura Reigel · This post may contain affiliate links

    Jump To Recipe Comments
    How to make butter at home

    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.

    homemade buttermilk in a mason jar

    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 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. 

    homemade buttermilk in a mason jar

    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
    • Focaccia Bread Recipe
    • Banana Bread Recipe
    • Homemade Cinnamon Rolls
    • Pineapple Sweet Rolls with Cream Cheese Icing
    • Homemade Flour Tortillas
    • Corn Tortilla Recipe (Easy)

    ➽ Did you make this recipe? I love to see what's going on in your kitchen. Please show me what you're cooking. 🍳 Tag me @foodologygeek on your favorite social channel! Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest. If you loved ❤︎ this recipe, please leave a five ★ review and a comment!

    homemade butter recipe
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    How To Make Homemade Butter

    Laura Reigel
    Making homemade butter at home is so easy. Using fresh heavy cream, you will end up with butter and buttermilk.
    PRINT PIN SAVE SAVED
    Prep Time 20 mins
    Total Time 20 mins
    Course Condiment
    Cuisine French
    Servings 16 Tablespoons
    Calories 201 kcal

    Equipment

    • Stand Mixer
    • Souper Cubes ½ cup portion tray 
    • mason jars

    Ingredients
      

    • 1 quart hearty bread
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions
     

    • Add the heavy whipping cream to the bowl of your mixer. 
    • Start to whip the cream. You will while the cream past the point of making whipped cream. As you continue to whip the cream, it will begin to separate, and you will start to see the liquid buttermilk fall out. 
    • You will continue to whip the cream until you lump bright yellow butter surrounded by the liquid buttermilk. This could take up to 10 minutes. 
    • Strain off and reserve the buttermilk.
    • Store in an airtight container until you are ready to use it. 
    • Rinse the solid butter in cool water. 

    YOUR OWN NOTES

    Click here to add your own private notes.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 201kcalCarbohydrates: 2gProtein: 2gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 16mgSugar: 2gCalcium: 39mgIron: 0.1mg
    Keyword butter, buttermilk, homemade butter
    DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE?Snap a 📸 and share it. Tag me @foodologygeek and don't forget to hashtag #foodologygeek!

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    24 shares

    About Laura Reigel

    Laura is the owner and CEO of Foodology Geek. She holds a degree in Physiology and Neuroscience as well as a Certification as a Nutrition Coach. Laura uses her love of cooking and science to create healthy real food recipes that you'll love eating.

    As a certified recipe hoarder, and meal prep maven Laura is passionate about sharing her love for cooking easy from-scratch recipes. She also shares the occasional family recipe and all of the technical details.

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Adam

      January 13, 2023 at 8:42 am

      4 stars
      Im curious what happened? If you have 32oz of cream and churn it to butter, how do you get about 3 sticks of butter and 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk? What happened to the other 4 oz of cream?

      Reply
      • Laura Reigel

        January 13, 2023 at 9:38 am

        That is a good question. Some of the butter fat is still retained in the buttermilk itself. The buttermilk '12 ounces' is liquid volume and not weight. For ease of explanation, I was guessing most people will measure the liquid volume of buttermilk into a recipe. Next time I make this, I will measure the weight of the buttermilk to see if it does add up to 32 ounces in the end.

        Reply

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