Homemade Butter

Everybody loves butter. Most people forgive Paula Deen for her racism when she tosses sticks of butter into her dishes. Butter can make the most disgusting foods, like Brussels sprouts, transform into edible plates, even delicacies. My project today is homemade butter.

Butter I made today on a blueberry scone

 As a child, I always thought butter was something like Goldfish crackers--purchased only in the supermarket and not made at home. I'd done the activity in school where cream is placed in a baby food jar and shaken until thick whipped cream or "butter" is created. Perhaps I did it wrong, but this ruined the notion of homemade butter for me. That is until some childhood friends and I went on a field trip to the 1800's.

In some remote Colorado town there is a farm in which workers were truly Amish or were acting as though they were trapped in the mid 1800's without technology. Like I said, I was young and I don't remember. Anyway, wood stoves and no electricity made this into a place with no redeeming qualities. Except, that is, for one. The butter.

 

An unpleasant way to make butter

We were walking out of a one bedroom "home" with a small metal bin as a "bath tub" next to the kitchen table next to the bed when my friends and I stepped onto the porch to see a woman with a strange contraption. We probably would have walked by if she hadn't told us that samples would be available any minute. That's enough to get any five year old to stay still for a few moments. She explained the process of churning butter as she continued working hard, pumping the wooden handle up and down. Finally, the wait was over and the young woman opened the barrel. Inside, butter coated the wooden spokes on the end of the long wooden handle. It was so thick and when the woman spread the substance on fresh bread right out of the wood stove I could have been persuaded to become Amish.  

After my adventures at the farm, I thought butter could only be created with an old fashioned butter churn with lots of arm work and labor. Wrong again. One day at a friend's house I made my way into the kitchen for a glass of water. In there, I found my friend's mother drinking a glass of wine standing next to the stand mixer. I asked if she was making cookies, relating the whirring to the sound often heard in my mother's home before sweet treats were to be baked. She told me she was making butter. While made in a Kitchen Aid rather than an old fashioned churn, the butter was lovely and smooth. So when I got my own Kitchen Aid, you will never guess what the first thing I made was. That's right. Butter.
Over time I've learned some tips and tricks I would have liked to know the first time I made butter. Hopefully this tutorial will make it simple even for the butter beginner.

Butter Tutorial

Make sure the bowl and attachment are both very very VERY clean before beginning. Ideally the bowl will be cold, but a room temperature bowl will work just fine. However, a hot bowl will melt your butter. When you are finally ready to start, begin pouring heavy whipping cream into the bowl of the stand mixer with the whisk attachment. 

Begin to whisk on medium high speed, As tempting as it is to walk away, DON'T. The cream goes through many stages and this process happens very quickly.  

This is the first stage: very soft peaks. This is familiar--similar to whipped cream. 

These are stiff peaks. This is perfect for whipped cream for between layers of shortcake. If you chicken out and decide you want whipped cream, stop here. If yo want to have butter, continue on bravely. 

You may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl. You want all the cream evenly incorporated. If you don't you can end up with butter in the bottom of the bowl and whipped cream on the sides. 

You will see the cream begin to separate a little bit. The fat of the butter will continue whipping around the bowl and the liquid will begin to pool at the bottom. This is great. The first time I did this I got nervous at this stage. I feared I had over whipped but in reality I was right on path.That sloping sound is good. 

Once separation begins you want to turn up the speed to high. Stay on high for another 3 or 5 minutes. Keep in mind I may say "3-5 min" but if it looks different than my photos you may need more or less time. Use your best judgement and stop when it looks like the product below. 

This product is ready. See the liquid pooling at the bottom and the butter clumped nicely all around the whisk. This took just under 3 minutes for me today.

This butter needs more time. While there is some liquid (and it was splashing up and out of the bowl), this is not what we want. Once again, if your butter looks like this at six minutes, just keep going until you get the above photo. If your butter looks like the photo above after a minute  then stop. 3-5 minutes is just a guideline. Use your best judgement. 

Take the butter that has clumped onto the whisk and place it in a strainer over a bowl.

 Pour out the remaining contents of the mixer into the strainer in order to collect the large pieces of butter.  With clean hands, squeeze and knead the butter into a ball and try to force out as much liquid as possible. Remember, warm hands melt butter so work quickly. The liquid on the bottom is buttermilk and makes for delicious pancakes. 

Take the ball of butter and place it back into the bowl of the stand mixer along with very cold water. Some people use ice water. I have a water cooler and I use that water. Some use tap water. Just make sure the water could be described as "chilly." Warm and even room temperature water will melt your butter. 

Giuve the butter ball a good bath before dumping the water into a collander and repeating the process. 

By the end the water should look like this. When it does, empty out the water and press out excess liquid with a spatula.  At this time, if desired, knead in salt, herbs, etc. 

Put the kneaded butter into a container with a lid. Refrigerate for up to a week. The better the butter was cleaned  and bathed, the longer it will last. If you cleaned it well, your butter may last even longer. Once again, use your best judgement.  As you can see, you don't get much so my family uses this as our spread butter. We use it for pancakes, toast, grilled cheese, etc. For things like greasing pans, fat for frying, and baking  we use the store bought butter. Why waste such delicious butter?

Homemade Butter
makes about 1 cup of butter
time: 15 minutes

• 1 pint cold heavy cream
• 1/4 tsp salt (optional)

1.  Add cream to bowl of stand mixer
2.  Whip on medium high until solids and liquids begin to separate. Increase speed to high
3.  Once fully separated, strain contents of mixer through a strainer into another bowl. Save the liquid (buttermilk) for later use. Knead together ball of butter, squeezing out excess liquid
4.  Use cold water to rinse off the butter. When water gets dirty, dump and repeat this step until water is clear
5.  Press out excess liquid with spatula. If using salt, this is the time to knead it into the butter
6.  Move butter to container with lid and save in fridge up to a week. The better step 5 was performed, the longer the butter will keep
7.  Enjoy!

I hope you all enjoyed my first project. Comments are appreciated and I would love pictures of how your butter turned out. Come back soon for my next project of the day. Stay creative!