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!
What's In This Article
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.
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.
What is the History of Butter?
It is believed that the first batch of butter was purely accidental. Someone was riding on a horse with milk and the agitation from riding “churned” the mixture making butter. Salt, a naturally occuring substance, was one of the few seasonings used and so salt was added for flavor, but also to help preserve the mixture.
Since then, it has been used for medicinal purposes, in religious ceremonies and of course, for cooking.
Butter can vary greatly depending on geographic location because they cows making the cream (highest fat content milk skimmed from the top after milking) are eating vastly different diets. You’ll see the most notable differences between American and European butters.
European butters are usually darker yellow, churned longer and have a higher butter fat between 82-86%. American style is a little paler and closer to 80% fat. You’ll also see differences in smoke point, texture and consistency. American butters are usually labeled AA, A and B butters. This also has to do with quality- AA is the best with a higher fat content, least amount of water and longest churn.
Cultured butter just means that the is is made with cream that has sat and cultured (like yogurt) and now has a tangy flavor.
Compound Butters (Flavored Butter)
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.
The leftover liquid is homemade buttermilk.
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, like this Orange Sage Homemade Compound Butter.
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.
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!
This was fun. Always something I’ve wanted to try. My notes will be that it took me way more than 5 minutes, but that was most likely user error as I only had a hand blender to use and I forgot that I had thrown in a sip’s worth of half half to avoid throwing it away. Lol I decided to add honey to it and it tastes GREAT!
Glad it turned out well!
What is the purpose of the ice water?
It chills so the molecules arrange correctly. Without it, it won’t separate properly.
I’ve made butter with a hand mixer and also with a jar churn, my late Dad taught me to make butter oh about 50 years ago (I was 9)
I used a hand mixer and it took quite a bit more than 2-3 minutes; more like 6-7. I didn’t give up though, and it did finally work. It seems a bit milder than store-bought; I don’t usually buy or use salted butter, but I think I will salt it next time. And now I have the buttermilk to make creme fraiche! Can’t bring myself to buy buttermilk because I have so few uses, but I do love creme fraiche.
Thanks for coming back with the feedback! Hand mixer won’t have as much horse power as a blender, so that doesn’t surprise me. Good to know though!
Do you have to use salt? I normally buy unsalted butter. Thanks!
You do not.
Is heavy cream the same as heavy whipping cream. I don’t believe I have ever seen heavy cream in stores.
Hi Susie- there is usually a heavy cream and a heavy whipping cream and they are just slightly different by the fat %- you can use either. I’ll update the post to let others know. Thanks for asking!
I have made this several times and used my Kitchen Aid mixer and the whip attachment. It is super fast but you really have to keep an eye on it at the end. Once the liquid starts appearing it separates very fast and if you don’t turn it down it will throw the buttermilk everywhere.
That’s a great idea! I’ve never tried it with my KA! But yes, it happens fast and you have to keep an eye on it.
This is a question. Can you use goat’s milk instead of whipping cream to make the butter? Would the process be the same? And can you freeze any of the two butters?
Thank you.
Hi Karen, you can always try it- but I am not familiar with using goat milk and if it is the same consistency as cow milk- you’d need goat cream to make the butter. Butter is freezer friendly.
This takes about 1 hr to make it doesn’t’ take 5 min
Hi there- I’m not sure what happened for yours to take an hour, but it certainly doesn’t. We make it regularly and have had many others make it too. What type of blender were you using?
Made this butter last weekend, it turned out great! As I was making it I thought for sure I’d end up with nothing more than whipped cream. But pushing past the whipped cream consistency it got firmer and firmer, and then very quickly the water separated from the cream/butter. For those who say they only ended up with whipped cream, they need to keep on blending. Also, I love salt, so I added the full teaspoon…was too salty. Next time I’ll use 1/2 teaspoon.
Thanks for the feedback (and the backup 🙂 ). Also try using coarse sea salt versus fine salt or iodized. They also make a cheese salt that works magically for butter. Glad to have another butter and salt lover!
Made this tonight and it came out incredible! And I made it unsalted. Thanks for the share!
Woohoo! Thanks for coming back to let us know! We are kind of obsessed with butter over here 🙂
No liquid separated when blending my heavy whipping cream. Is it butter or just whipped cream?
It’s butter- maybe you didn’t mix it long enough? I’ve never had problems and I make it regularly.
Made this today, turned out perfect. Creamy and smooth, delicious.
Awesome! Glad you loved it, Sharon!
Using your recipe now Neither my blender nor food processor has a button labeled BLEND. I opted to use the blender. I have it on SMOOTHIES and high. Nothing seems to be happening. It is a little thicker, but it’s been five minutes. What do you recommend. My buttons read LOW or HIGH, then three pulse speeds, then MILK SHAKE/PUREE, SMOOTHIE/CRUMB, OR ICY DRINK/CHOP. What should I do? I’m in the middle of the recipe and can’t stop
Sorry I’m just getting back to you! I had family visiting for the weekend and actually made this recipe today too. Use the low or medium function.
Great recipe, might just add 1/2 t. Salt next time, but definitely awesome.
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!
Thank you for the butter recipe… Very easy and good.. 💜💜
Thank you, Monica!
I just made this with my Pampered Chef Cooking Blender. Wasn’t sure which setting to use so I used Custom 1 and it worked out great! Simple recipe, and delish! I will be making it again real soon!
Awesome! Thanks for the feedback!
I can’t believe how easy it is to make butter! I had my grandson do it with me. it was an easy and fun project. The results were very tasty too.
Yay!!!! We love to hear that!
Can you add things like garlic onions jalapenos during the last rinse process? Can not wait to try, doing it tomorrow. I only have access to a inexpensive blender is that ok to use?
Yes!!!! The blender just needs to be able to give enough agitation to get the milk solids and buttermilk to seperate. You really won’t know unless you try. You can check out all of my flavored butters here: https://www.savoryexperiments.com/flavored-butters/
Is evaporated can milk or fresh cream requested for making homemade butter?
Cream yes, but it will not work with evaporated milk.