How to make butter

I'll show you how to make butter from heavy cream with just one ingredient in a mason jar, mixer, or hand. It is so easy and so much fun to make your butter from scratch!

Butter is made by beating heavy cream past the point of whipped cream until the solid parts of the cream separate from the liquids. It is then washed in cold water and sometimes flavored with salt or herbs.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Equipment
• Storage
• How to make butter

Ingredients

• Heavy cream - use heavy cream with a high-fat percentage (at least 35%) when making butter from scratch. You can't use milk because it doesn't contain enough fat.
• Salt - this is totally optional, but to give the butter a little more flavor and to help it preserve, you can add one teaspoon of salt to the butter after washing.

You can use any amount of heavy cream to use this recipe but keep in mind that it takes 2 cups or 500 ml of heavy cream to make 1 cup of butter.

You can find the complete ingredient list and instructions on the recipe card below!

Instructions

Using a mason jar

You can make homemade butter in a few different ways. The easiest method is to use a mason jar. All you need is a jar and some heavy cream. Like making butter with a whisk, this can be a workout since it can take up to 10 minutes to make butter this way!

This is the best method if you want to do this activity with children. It doesn't matter what size jar you use because you can adjust the amount of heavy cream. You should fill about half the jar with heavy cream so that there is enough room for the butter to form.

Using a whisk

You need a large bowl and a hand whisk for the whisk method. As I mentioned above, this can be an arm workout. It will become very difficult to keep mixing before the butter forms, but I promise that it will pass, and you'll end up with delicious yellow butter.

It is normal for the butter to form a ball inside your whisk. Leave it there until you are ready to wash.

Using a mixer

This has to be the easiest method. Add the heavy cream to a large bowl just like we did for the whisk method, and use a hand mixer or a stand mixer with the whisk attachment to beat the cream.

Start mixing the cream at a low speed, and when the cream starts to thicken, increase the speed. After a few minutes, you'll notice that the solids will separate from the liquids and hear a slushing sound.

Whichever method you use, you will have to wash the butter. Separate the solids from the liquids by using a fine sieve or cheesecloth. You can keep the buttermilk to use in other recipes like pancakes or kaiserschmarrn.

Put the butter into a bowl of cold water and press it with your hands into a ball. You repeat this step 2-3 times until the water is clear.

You can now add some salt or herbs for delicious garlic butter to your butter and press it into a container or wrap it in some clingfilm or parchment paper.

Equipment

• Standmixer, mason jar, or whisk, depending on the method you will use.
• A sieve or some cheesecloth to strain the milk and filter out all the solid parts.
• Large bowls to whisk the heavy cream in and wash the buttermilk out.
• Measuring cups.

Storage

Homemade butter will keep for 1-2 weeks depending on how fresh the heavy cream was and if there is any buttermilk left. This is why it is essential to keep washing the butter in cold water until the water is clear.

You can also freeze the butter. Just wrap it in some clingfilm and place it in the freezer. It will keep for more than a year. When you are ready to use it, take it out of the freezer and let it thaw in the fridge for a few hours.