Easy Homemade Butter Recipe
Homemade Butter is so simple, you’ll wonder why you never made your own butter at home before. With only 4 ingredients, you’ll be “churning” every day!
Churn away, foodie friends!
This Homemade Butter Recipe is ready in just 5 minutes using your blender, heavy cream, ice water, and salt. You’ll wonder why you never made butter at home before!
Seriously. Homemade butter is the bomb! And who can say they make their own butter? YOU! Now everyone, bust out their wooden butter churner. (I am 100% kidding.)
Butter is one of those things I just can’t get enough of. I’ve been known to hoard the butter dish at restaurants. Hubby knows to ask for two right when we sit down. If not, he isn’t getting any.
It truly is the most simple thing on the planet. It is simply milk or in this case, heavy cream, that is churned.
Make sure you PIN Homemade Butter!
Making it at home means no additives and no preservatives. You have total control over everything including whether or not you are adding salt and how much. What is not to love?
Most of us are eating cow’s milk butter but you could make butter out of different kinds of milk if you wanted to try a different flavor. Think of it like eat a goat cheese or a sheep’s milk cheese instead of a traditional cow’s milk cheese.
It also means you can make your own compound butter. Compound butter is a butter with anything else added to it other than salt. They are great for spreading on bread, topping your favorite steak, making garlic bread…the list goes on and on.
Add anything from fresh herbs or garlic to lemon or lime zest and/or spices. You can even throw in some dried fruit or nuts to your homemade butter and complement whatever you serve it with.
So how does it all work, butter without the churn? Let your food processor or your blender do the work.
Okay, ready for some knowledge? When the cream is agitated (spun around in the machine,) it breaks the membranes around the fat granules.
These separate and then join together to form clumps. Those clumps are butter!
Are you having your “aha” moment yet? Homemade Butter is then seasoned with salt and ready to go. Simple as that.
I like to use cheese salt, but if you don’t have that on hand, use Kosher salt or fine sea salt. Or you can be like the fancy restaurants and just served unsalted butter with your choice of coarse salt on the side.
If you go the unsalted route, you can also use your homemade butter for all your baking needs as well.
Use the leftover buttermilk to make:
I’d give you a list of recipes that use butter as recommendations… but that would be most of my recipes.
I love butter. Real butter. Not margarine.
But do check out my extensive list of compound butters.
So get on the butter train and start “churning”!
Questions you might have about how to make homemade butter:
Can I freeze butter? Yes! Wrap tightly in aluminum foil or plastic freezer wrap, or place inside a heavy-duty freezer bag.
Frozen salted butter will keep at best quality for up to 12 months, unsalted butter will stay at best quality for about 6 months.
Also, the fresher the butter, the better is freezes.
How long does homemade butter last? The short answer is 2-3 weeks.
However, the shelf life depends on how well you extract the buttermilk. If a substantial amount of buttermilk remains, it will sour within a week, because it is, well, buttermilk.
Is homemade butter better? This really depends on the quality of the ingredients you use. Pay attention to the quality of cream you are using as well as the type of salt.
Is homemade butter cheaper? The honest answer is probably not. Large butter companies get cream at a cheaper price than you will at the store.
But it is so satisfying to make your own and it tastes great!
Can homemade butter go bad? Yes, unfortunately. Adding salt helps to preserve it some, but it is fresh cream so it can go rancid.
Can I leave homemade butter out? Just like store bought butter, the FDA doesn’t recommend leaving it out for longer than 2 hours.
Can you use homemade butter in baking? Yes! Why couldn’t you? Some even beleive that since it isn’t perfectly smooth (down on the molecular level) that is produces even better pastries.
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Homemade Butter
Ingredients
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon cheese salt or Kosher Salt
- Ice Water
- Desired add-ins
Instructions
- Place heavy cream in food processor or blender. Hit blend and watch your appliance do the work. You will see the mixture changes in both consistency and color over about 2-3 minutes.
- Continue to mix until cream separates into butter and butterfat. Drain off butterfat. Discard or reserve for other recipes like White Chocolate and Raspberry Pancakes.
- Add 1/2 cup ice water and continue to blend for 30 seconds. Drain off water. Add additional 1/2 cup ice water and repeat. Drain.
- Remove from food processor or blender and fold in cheese salt by hand. Mix well or else you will get a mouth full of salt at some point. Add other flavors as well- fresh herbs, citrus zest, dried fruit bits or other spices.
- Refrigerate until ready to use in any recipe that requires butter!
- If you’ve tried this recipe, please come back and let us know how it was!
How much butter does this recipe make?
Hi Deb! The actual amount varies based on your cream- different ones are going to have varying water contents and butterfat ratios. Mine generally makes about 1 cup.
I made butter by accident. I wanted whipped cream, but let the cream too long, it turned out butter. If you want your butter to last and taste good for many many days, the trick is to really wash out the remainder of the buttermilk. So you keep rinsing and rinsing until the water turns out totally clear.
When adding the ice water, am I supposed to include the ice cubes?
Hi Ninja, just the cold water.
How long will the butter last in the fridge? Can it be froze? Can I use the leftover buttermilk for frying chicken or is that different from store bought buttermilk? I never realized how easy it is to make butter. I can’t wait to try this. 🙂
Hi Jae! You can use your leftover buttermilk from the chicken, all the same thing! It generally lasts about a week- it can probably last longer, but since you aren’t using any preservatives other than salt, I wouldn’t take the chance.
I like the whipped consistency of this butter. I have made butter in the past with my kids when we put the ingredients in a jar and shook it. That takes a long time though. This looks so much easier!
What a fantastic idea! I had no idea I could make my own butter. I am pinning this to make! How long does it keep and how do you store it?
How easy is this! I never ever thought to make homemade butter, but I’m definitely going to give it a try. You make it sound so EASY and that’s my favorite type of recipe. Thanks so much for sharing. Pinned
I just recently made my own Almond Butter. Now I’ll try making “just” butter. Surprised about the ice water. I would not have known that!:) Pinned and SU’d. Did you link this one up at #theWeekendSocial. I’d love to see it there!
http://thekitchenchopper.com/indexBlog.php/theweekendsocial-45-recipe-diy-crafts-linky-and-15-soup-recipes-to-keep-you-warm/
So I didn’t even know you could make your own butter! How cool!
That sounds really easy and really fun to make. I am thinking spicy butter might be on the menu soon.
This is awesome. I just tweeted it so I can remember to make some butter of my own.
I’ve never seen anything like this before. I’m going to give this a try. Thanks!
Woah! I didn’t realize how easy it was to make your own butter. Now I want to give it a try!
I have never made butter but I’ve always wanted to! Thanks for the recipe! This would be a fun project to do with my kiddos!
This is amazing!!! I definitely will be making this
What a great idea! I have churning pictures and a lot of time needed in my mind for making butter. Who knew it could be so simple??
Seems pretty simple to make. I don’t use butter anymore but I will be sharing this idea
Wow never knew butter was so simple to make. Thank you for sharing.
I would love to make my own butter. I would make garlic butter.
Oh now this I have to try! We go through lots of butter I would love to make my own!
I can think of many recipes using the blender butter. Can’t wait!! 🙂
I have to try making this. I love trying new things and making my own butter would be fun.
Make my own butter?! Yes! That sounds like a great idea. Thanks for the recipe.
I sure wish my mother knew this one when we were growing up.We always churned and churned and churned!
I’ve never made butter. Thanks for the tips!
No way!!! Holy cow! I absolutely had no idea you could make butter in the blender. Thanks so much for sharing! I can’t wait to try it!
Ooh I’ve heard of making butter like this. I’m not brave enough to try.. Seems easy though 🙂
I had no idea making homemade butter was this easy. I am going to put cream on my list and try to make some of my own.
This is interesting, I never thought to make butter like this before. Sounds interesting, so much so, that I have to try this out. I think it would be a fun family kitchen night idea!
I had no idea I could make my own butter – and it’s so easy, too! How awesome is that?