Homemade Butter (Stand Mixer Method)
Got leftover heavy cream? Throw it in your stand mixer bowl and whisk it on high until it separates into butter and buttermilk. It's so easy to make and a great way to not let food go to waste.
Ingredients
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1 bowl ice water
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Remove heavy cream from fridge and let stand at room temperature for 30-60 minutes to encourage separation.
- Pour heavy cream into stand mixer bowl, fitted with whisk attachment. Place bowl guard/pouring shield on bowl to prevent splashing.
- Gradually increase mixer from lowest to highest setting. This should take 20-30 seconds. After about a minute or so it will look like like whipped cream. Keep going at full speed — after about 3 minutes it will separate. The butter will collect inside the whisk and the buttermilk splash around in the bottom of the bowl.
- Spoon any lumps of butter out of the buttermilk and smush them onto the butter in the whisk. Pour the buttermilk into a separate container and set aside. You can use it for baking, drink it, or freeze it for later.
- Fill a bowl with 3 cups of water and a few ice cubes. Use a spatula to knock the butter off the whisk into the water. Swirl the butter around, then start gathering the pieces together on a paper towel. Change the ice water a few times as needed until it runs clear. Then smush and fold the butter firmly against the walls of the bowl to press out any additional buttermilk.
- Wrap the butter in several layers of cheese cloth or two layers of paper towels and squeeze to remove any additional moisture. Flatten the butter into a disc between two paper towels, then fold back into a ball and repeat, until the paper towels aren't picking up any moisture.
- Place the butter back in the mixer bowl and beat on medium with the paddle attachment. Add salt or any desired herbs to taste and beat again to combine.
- Wrap butter well in an airtight container and chill.
RECIPE NOTES
- If you don't have a bowl guard or shield for your mixer you can stretch plastic wrap over the bowl and cut a hole in the middle for the whisk attachment to fit through.
- If you live in a very warm or humid environment, use cold heavy cream right out of the fridge. If the butter still hasn't separated after 5-7 minutes and you're in a humid/hot environment, the butter is likely melting into the buttermilk — refrigerate the bowl for 10 minutes and you should see the butter chunks starting to separate and solidify!
- Store homemade butter in the fridge in an airtight container. How long it lasts depends on how well you've rinsed the butter — it can stay good for up to 2-3 weeks if you've rinsed all the buttermilk out. If you haven't rinsed it thoroughly, it will probably start to sour after about a week. Basically, if it smells like sour milk, don't eat it. Wrapped well in the freezer it will stay good for up to 3 months! I do not recommend storing homemade butter in a butter bell at room temperature.