Guide to Make the Best Homemade Unsalted Butter in Minutes

my love for dairy products

Have you tried to make a homemade dairy product like butter? I’ve been making homemade Greek yogurt for about a year. We have a small bowl every morning with breakfast. It’s also our little desert in the evenings.

Milk products have been a food staple in our home for years. We love cheese of every kind, milk, creamer, heavy cream, yogurt, and of course ice cream. We are blessed that we do not have lactose intolerance or a milk allergy. 

I realize some of you may be lactose intolerant or have a milk allergy and there are dairy-free butter recipes for you! I will list some recipe links at the bottom of this post just for you 😉

Others can have small amounts of lactose so homemade ghee might be a good option for you. Ghee can be used in place of butter. I will include a recipe for The Pioneer Woman’s recipe. Ghee is a great butter alternative

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easy homemade butter

Anyway, a couple of months ago, I started making butter. Omgoodness, where has this easy recipe been all of my life? Homemade dairy butter can be made in about 10 minutes. You will love how easy this is to make!

The ingredient list for homemade butter couldn’t be simpler: cow’s milk in the form of heavy cream. Yep! That’s it! Unless you want salted butter and then it’s a two-ingredient recipe. We’ll talk about that in a bit.

room temperature butter

Let’s chat about leaving the butter out on the counter. Many people do not like to do this because they are concerned the butter will spoil if it is at room temperature. We have left our butter out on the counter for years and have never had a problem with spoilage. 

Using a butter crock is a great option if you are concerned about leaving this buttery spread out on the counter. I’ve got several butter crocks linked later in this post.

The tools are just as simple: a stand mixer or a hand-held mixer and a large bowl of ice water.

And you will need a flour sack towel. This can get a little messy without it!

step by step how to make butter at home

Let’s go over the simple steps to make this delicious traditional butter.

1. Pour one quart of heavy cream into the bowl of your stand mixer. If you are using a hand-held mixer, pour the heavy cream into a large bowl.
2. Turn the mixer on low and then work up to a medium speed.
3. Continue to increase the speed but don’t go to the highest setting. I keep mine set between medium and high.
4. After a couple of minutes, the heavy cream will turn to whipped cream. At this point, you could stop the whipping process, add a little sugar and serve the homemade whipped cream on your favorite dessert or in a cup of coffee.
5. Continue to whip the heavy cream until you start to see a color and consistency change. The milk solids will start to separate from the liquids. 
6. Continue to whip the butter for a minute or so then stop the mixer.
7. Stop the mixer and using a silicone spatula, press the solids up against the side of the bowl, keeping the liquids at the bottom of the bowl. The liquid is buttermilk. Don’t discard this, I have a secret to share with you about buttermilk!
8. Remove the yellow butter and place it in a dish of iced water.
9. Squeeze the butter in the water to rinse out all of the liquids.
10. Periodically freshen the ice water with fresh water. Continue to massage the butter in the ice water until the water stays clear. You can also wrap the homemade butter in a flour sack towel or cheesecloth. This can help to hold the homemade butter together while you are squeezing it through the ice water.
11. Shape the butter into a log and wrap in parchment paper.

the perfect homemade butter

One quart of heavy cream will produce approximately one pound of butter. Plus you have the leftover liquid which is buttermilk! 

Here’s the secret that I learned from Lisa at Farmhouse on Boone: you can add it to your homemade Greek yogurt to make the yogurt extra creamy. This is my favorite idea for using the buttermilk. The sweet creamy texture the buttermilk adds to the Greek yogurt is amazing!

You can also chill the buttermilk and drink it or use it to make buttermilk biscuits for the homemade butter!

Watching the fat content separate from the heavy cream is fascinating. The whole process only takes about ten minutes and the creamy texture comes together literally happens before your very eyes!

Since I don’t bake very often, making butter at home is another great reason to use my vintage Kitchen Aid mixer. I found this amazing mixer in perfect working condition at a yard sale for only $13! It’s one of my favorite finds of all-time!

We store our butter in the freezer wrapped in parchment paper after cutting it into sections about 1/5th of the whole amount.

FAQs

• What is the difference between cultured butter and uncultured butter?
• Cultured butter is made with cream that has been fermented with bacteria, which gives it a slightly tangy flavor. Uncultured butter is made with cream that has not been fermented.
• What is the best way to make butter?
• There are two main ways to make butter: by churning cream or by shaking cream in a jar. Churning is the traditional method, but it can be time-consuming. Shaking cream in a jar is a quicker method, but it may not produce as much butter. IMHO, using a stand mixer is the best way to make homemade butter.
• What equipment do I need to make butter?
• If you are churning butter, you will need a butter churn. If you are shaking cream in a jar, you will need a jar with a tight-fitting lid. If you want to speed up the process, use a stand mixer or hand-held mixer. You will also need a strainer to remove the buttermilk from the butter.
• How long does it take to make butter?
• It takes about 10 minutes to make butter by churning cream. Shaking cream in a jar can take anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, depending on how much cream you are using.
• How do I know when the butter is done?
• The butter is done when it has separated from the buttermilk and has become a solid mass.
• How do I store butter?
• Butter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
• What can I use homemade butter for?
• Homemade butter can be used in any recipe that calls for butter. It is also delicious on its own, spread on toast or crackers.

I would love to know if you try making your own butter! 

unsalted butter

BTW, you will notice I didn’t add salt to my real butter. I prefer unsalted butter when cooking or baking. You can add just a hint of sea salt if you want to enhance the natural flavor of my favorite dairy recipe. (maybe that’s an exaggeration – ice cream is high on the list of best dairy foods!)

dairy-free butter recipes:

• Homemade Dairy-Free Butter That’s Just Like Store Bought
• A Guide to Butter Substitutes
• Simple Vegan Butter
• The Pioneer’s Recipe for Ghee