Food & Fitness

Butter Recipe!

Because I am very fond of sharing, here is the butter recipe that I used, complete with “after” pictures (I didn’t think to do a “before” shot of the whipping cream sitting in the food processor. Maybe next time). There’s a surprising number of butter recipes on the Internet if you start looking around, and this one seemed the most straight-forward. I’m not much of a cook so I tend to go straight for simplicity when it comes to recipes!

How To Make Butter

Fill a food processor with 2 cups of whipping cream and blend for an extremely long amount of time; I blended it for a good half an hour. First it’s supposed to become sloshy, then frothy, then it turns into soft whipped cream, which becomes gradually firmer and more coarse. Mine didn’t get very coarse, but I’m uncertain as to if that’s because my whipping cream had stabilizers in it (the recipe said preferably without stabilizers), or if I didn’t blend it enough, or if I blended it too much. More experimentation on that front will be required to extract the reasoning for the lack of coarseness.
After the cream gets quite firm, the whirring changes to sloshing and you can see a distinct separation between the butter globbed around the outside and the buttermilk in the bottom of the food processor. Drain the buttermilk. Then add 1/2 cup of ice-cold water to the butter and blend it for a little while; drain the water and repeat a couple more times until the wash water is clear. Once that’s completed, dump the butter into a bowl and knead it with a potato masher to squeeze out all of the excess water; drain it in between the mashing. And it’s ready! I rolled mine in waxed paper and keep it in the fridge, but you can also put yours in a butter crock. Mmm, large hunk of butter.
You can also add a few pinches of salt before working it, but I kept mine salt-free. It might add a bit more flavour, so depending on what you’re planning on using the butter for (either as a flavour enhancer or just for use in baking etc), that might be a better option. I don’t eat much butter in the way of on my bread and that type of thing but I tried some of this butter on banana bread and it was pretty good- you could definitely still use this just like regular butter.
The butter slices really nicely and is perfect for baking with. I haven’t tried using it in cooking (such as frying or something), but if/when I do I’ll let you all know how it turns out! So this is what my butter looks like:
All rolled up in wax paper:

A nice big lump of butter:

And (somewhat) unwrapped:

I was running late this morning, or I would have also taken a photo of the vanilla ice cream I made, too. I will be sure to do so in the near future! Unfortunately the no-bake peanut butter cookies are all eaten so the next time I make a batch of those I’ll photograph it for you all.

I was feeling quite camera-happy, so in addition to photographing the butter, my cat Sage and I decided to pose for you all! Enjoy.

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68 Comments

  29. the Bag Lady

    OMG, you ARE as cute as your namesake calf!!! If I had known you were blonde, I’d have picked a lighter coloured calf. Oh, well!

    Oh, and the salt in butter isn’t just for flavour – it also acts as a preservative – helps your butter keep longer. You know, too, don’t you, that you can cut it in half (or quarters, whatever works for you) and freeze some of it so it will keep longer!

    And, funny you should mention the ice cream today – I just finished making some of it!!

    Love your kitty, too!

    reply to comment→
  32. Crabby

    I have enough portion-control problems with butter not to even think about trying to make some myself!

    But good for you for taking that on.

    And love the photos especially the double eyes.

    reply to comment→
  33. Kelly T

    I rememeber we made butter once in elementary school, and miss dairy pennsylvania came and talked about the importance of farming. I wanted to be her so bad, she was so pretty in her sparkly dress and tiara. looking back on it: that poor girl. she represented cows.

    reply to comment→
  34. Sagan Morrow

    Thanks all! My kitty is very photogenic so I’m sure that she will pose for us again in future posts:)

    Ashley- oh yes, I must keep some mystery!

    Bag Lady- what would I do without you? Thanks for letting me know about the salt! I will remember that for next time. And I didn’t even think about freezing half of it. I will have to remedy that. How long does your butter usually keep for?

    Crabby- my portion controlling is pretty good when it comes to regular butter. Its PEANUT butter that gets to me (I’m totally one of those spooningPBfromthejar people).

    Kelly- thats hilarious! (Also I want a tiara).

    reply to comment→
  35. WeightingGame

    We used to do this (albeit a much less advanced form) in kindergarten – we would bring in empty medicine bottles (SO unsafe!) and our teacher would fill with sweet cream and then put on a record and we would all dance around, shaking our little containers until the cream started to solidify a bit. I can’t believe I remember that!

    This post reminds me of last night’s Top Chef, where they had to make a quart of mayo by hand in, like, 3 minutes!

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  37. geekgirl

    Holy crap, I leave blogland for a few days and when I return, I find you’ve made butter??!!! Wow. That’s hardcore homemade.

    And you and Miss Kitty-cat are a-freakin-dorable.

    reply to comment→
  64. Sagan Morrow

    Leslie- that sounds like fun! And that is some intense mayo-making.

    Lisa and GeekGirl- thanks! Wouldn’t have dreamed of making butter had the Bag Lady not suggested it.

    Scrumpy’s Baker- meeee too. Animals are too cute.

    Bag Lady- hmm. Well if it starts to go bad then I’ll be cooking up a storm to use it all up!

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  65. Stephanie Quilao

    Aw! The kitty is precious. Does kitty like homemade butter too? Mine used to love ice cream. Speaking of ice cream, I’ve been wanting to make some with rice milk. Looking for a good but cheap ice cream maker where I can make sorbets too.

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  66. Sagan Morrow

    Stephanie- my kitty would probably love the butter if she could sneak some. She likes all food! I’d be really interested in making sorbets too. I need to get myself an ice cream maker. Let me know if you find a good sorbet recipe!

    reply to comment→

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