If you are somebody who likes to experiment at home and make everything from scratch, then something you might want to try making at home is butter. Now, most people aren’t going to try making their own butter at home, because they think it’s too much work.
However, this really isn’t true. The simple reality is that making your own butter at home is actually quite fast and easy, especially if you have the right tools. Yes, here we are talking about using a stand mixer.
Of course, we aren’t going to provide you with instructions on how to make butter like they did 300 years ago, using a butter churn. Nobody has time for that anymore, but you definitely have a few minutes to spare for making butter with a normal stand mixer.
Stand mixers are very convenient tools, and most of us have them standing around in our kitchen, so we may as well use them for cool projects like making our own butter. There is also the fact that when you make your own butter, you know exactly what ingredients are in it.
This is unlike store-bought butter where you just don’t know what kind of ingredients and preservatives, especially poisonous chemicals, are in it. When you make butter at home, you get to use all of your own ingredients of your choosing, and this means that you know exactly what’s inside of it.
There’s also the simple fact that homemade butter tends to taste much better than store-bought butter, so it’s definitely worth a try. So, today, we’re going to provide you with step-by-step instructions on exactly how to make butter in a stand mixer. We’re going to provide you with all of the best tips for the very best results.
How to Make Butter in a Stand Mixer: Step by Step
As you were about to see, making your own homemade butter with a stand mixer is very easy, and right now we’re going to provide with step by step instructions on exactly how to do so. Let’s start out by gathering all of the materials and ingredients that you will need to make butter in a stand mixer.
Step 1: Gather Your Materials and Ingredients
The first step in this process is of course to gather all of your materials, so first you’re going to want to set up your stand mixer and bowl. Be sure to use the whisk beater attachment here.
The whisk is by far the best type of attachment used for making your own homemade butter, as it’s going to allow a lot of air to be incorporated into it, which will result in creamy and light butter.
However, you will then also need the flat beater, a fine mesh sieve, a spatula, cloth, a pouring shield, and yes, some whipping cream. What is really cool is that this homemade butter requires only one ingredient, and that is whipping cream. All you need to make your own homemade butter is four cups of heavy whipping cream.
Make sure that you do get heavy whipping cream, not something like table cream. You need all of the fat in that heavy whipping cream, as this is what is going to allow for very thick and creamy butter.
Table cream or anything with less than 35% fat won’t thicken into butter. Now, you can always add salt to the mix for salted butter, although this is completely up to you. If you are making salted butter, add just two teaspoons of salt to the whipping cream.
Step 2: Start Whisking
With your wire whisk accessory attached to your stand mixer, add the heavy cream into the bowl, and then start beating. However, before you do, you want to attach the pouring shield or guard to the bowl, so the whipping cream doesn’t splash back out at you as you are making butter.
You can start your stand mixer, but make sure that it’s on the lowest setting. If it’s on the highest setting at first, you’re going to make a mess.
Start with the lowest setting, and as it starts to get thicker, you can increase the speed until you get to the highest setting. In case the whipping cream starts to splash out, just clean it up using a towel or cloth.
Step 3: Watch for Separation
You will notice that the whipping cream will go through three steps as you beat it. First, it’s going to form soft peaks and then it will form stiff peaks. If you were making normal whipped cream, when it forms stiff peaks is when you would usually stop beating.
However, we are making butter, which means that you need to get to the third stage, which is when the butter solids separate from the buttermilk.
Therefore, keep beating the whipping cream on the highest setting until you see the buttermilk separate from the butter solids. Once this happens, you can stop the stand mixer and get rid of the buttermilk.
All you need here are the butter solids. With that being said, buttermilk does have many uses, so you can always save it to make something else with it.
Step 4: Press It
You are now going to use that fine mesh sieve, or even something like cheesecloth, to press any excess buttermilk out of the butter. This is very important to do. You do not want any of the buttermilk left in the butter. The more buttermilk you can remove from the butter, the longer it is going to last.
Therefore, take your butter and put it into the fine mesh stand, or the cheese cloth, and then use the spatula or any other such picture utensil to press it out. Press it very well, because once again, you want to remove as much of that buttermilk as possible.
Step 5: Rinse Your Butter
You now want to rinse the butter to remove any remaining buttermilk and contaminants. Therefore, you first want to clean the bowl of your stand mixer. Once the bowl is clean, put the butter back into it. Now, want to add about 75 milliliters of extremely cold water.
You now want to whip the butter in the stand mixer for roughly 10 seconds, just long enough to wash it, to get rid of any buttermilk that remains. When you see the water become cloudy, you want to pour it out.
You need to repeat this process a few times until the water stays clear. Once the water stays clear, you know that there is no buttermilk left.
Step 6: Add Flavor (optional)
If you are looking to make some flavored butter, now is the time to add the flavors, such as herbs and spices, and then mix it all together. You should now have 100% delicious homemade butter that is ready to spread on bread, biscuits, bagels, and anything in between.
How Long Does Homemade Butter Stay Good For?
If you used fresh ingredients and you properly store your homemade butter, it should last for around three weeks in the fridge. However, an important point to consider here is how much buttermilk is left in the butter.
The more buttermilk you are able to remove from your homemade butter, the longer that butter is going to stay good for. If you leave a good bit of buttermilk in your butter, chances are that your butter is only going to last for about a week in the fridge, because that buttermilk will become sour.
How to Store and Preserve Homemade Butter
Once again, the most important factor here is to make sure that you remove as much of the buttermilk from the butter as possible. Other than that, the only thing that you really need to do is to put the butter inside of some plastic wrap or parchment paper.
Also, of course, this is a dairy product, so make sure that you store it inside of the fridge. Do not leave it at room temperature or else it will sour.
Why Make Homemade Butter?
Just in case you are wondering why you would ever make your own homemade butter, let’s take a quick look.
- Believe it or not, making your own homemade butter is more cost-effective than buying butter from the grocery store.
- Making your own homemade butter will provide you with an opportunity to use some of those accessories on that brand-new stand mixer that you got yourself.
- Homemade butter always tastes better than storebought butter, not to mention that you can flavor it however you see fit.
- With homemade butter, you know exactly what is in it. You don’t have to worry about any dangerous preservatives or chemicals, because you’re using all of your own fresh ingredients.
Conclusion
There you have it folks, everything you need to know about making your own butter. As you can see, it’s quite an easy process and we recommend checking out this cool little project.
Read also: Best Stand Mixer Bread Recipes