Have you ever made Homemade Butter? If not, I bet you never realized just how easy it is! All it takes is a one (maybe 2) ingredients to make fresh easy homemade butter that you can flavor however you’d like!
So how do you make butter from scratch?
Butter is just heavy cream that has been whipped past the point of whipped cream and separated into the butter fats and the butter milk. It’s that simple!
The easiest way to make homemade butter is with a hand mixer or stand mixer. If you have strong arm muscles and about 30 minutes, you can also make this by shaking the cream in a mason jar. My kids (Coco and Ash) thought this was fun for about 5 minutes then gave up and gave the jars back to me LOL.
Can you make butter from milk?
Unfortunately no. Butter has to be made from heavy cream or heavy whipping cream. Milk does not contain enough fat to make butter.
I choose to make butter the easy way – in my stand mixer. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can add your cream to a bowl and use a hand mixer or even use a blender. To start making the butter, you’ll add your cream to the mixer or bowl and start mixing on medium low and just keep it going.
As it thickens (and gets less “splashy”) you can increase the speed to medium high. I’ll take you through the steps the cream will go through so you can make sure you’re on the right track.
As you begin beating the cream, it will first start to thicken and almost look frothy then turn Into a thick whipped cream. If you want to make a really yummy whipped cream, all you have to do is add in a couple tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract! But, lets keep going for the butter!
If you’ve gotten to the whipped cream stage, you’re almost done. Just keep beating! In just a few more minutes you’ll have butter! You’ll notice the mixture getting “splashy” again and the liquid start to separate from the solids. The solids are your butter, and the liquid is your buttermilk! 
Once your cream has separated like the photo above, you can turn off your mixer. You’ll want to strain the mixture into a bowl. You can reserve the buttermilk for other recipes (like these Caramel Apple Pancakes) or discard if it you won’t be using it. After straining the butter, run the butter under cold water while moving it around with a spoon. This will rinse off all of the excess buttermilk and give you a longer shelf life.
If you want to add seasonings or salt to your butter, you can do it at this point. Just mix it in with a fork or spoon and enjoy!
How much butter does cream make?
The cream almost always separates in half. It might vary slightly depending on the fat content of your cream, but if you use 2 cups of cream, you’ll end up with close to 1 cup of butter and 1 cup of buttermilk.
Once your butter is strained and rinsed well, you can store it in an air
What to make with your left over buttermilk:
Easy Homemade Butter
Equipment
- Stand Mixer, hand mixer, or mason jar
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon salt (leave out for unsalted butter)
Instructions
- Add your heavy cream to a bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.
- Beat on low speed then increase to medium as the cream thickens and makes less of a splash.
- You'll notice the cream will turn to whipped cream. Keep beating past this step to make butter.
- The cream will then separate into a liquid and chunky solids. The liquid is your buttermilk. The solids are the butter.
- Strain the everything over a bowl to catch the buttermilk if you plan on keeping it.
- While the butter is still in the strainer, rinse it with cold water while stirring it. This will remove any excess buttermilk and give you a longer shelf-life for you butter.
- You can now add in the salt, or any other seasonings you'd like!
14 Comments
Susan Dubose
February 28, 2021 at 9:09 pmOh my goodness it worked!!! I’m so excited to try it on my homemade bread!
Coco and Ash
March 1, 2021 at 12:45 pmAwesome!!
Martha Savard
December 18, 2021 at 2:09 pmI use the dough hook to beat the water from the butter. Diligence in water removal is required.
Beekite
March 12, 2021 at 4:27 amA great guide. You shared very wonderful article with us. Thank you for sharing it. Really love this reading.
King P
November 6, 2021 at 11:32 amThank you for sharing these directions. I didn’t know butter was so easy and simple to make! I tried it for the first time and, for a first timer, I think it turned out pretty good. Straining the buttermilk out was the hardest part, but its still not bad. 5 stars!
Jason
December 3, 2021 at 11:14 amGonna try it today or tomorrow. Thanks for the tips. Does the salt have to wait until the end?
Coco and Ash
December 4, 2021 at 5:32 pmI would wait until the end and adjust for taste as needed 🙂
Jason
December 4, 2021 at 5:48 pmTried it today. Kept the salt until the end. It’s seems like nothing is ever going to happen and then the changes come fast. Going to make another batch Monday.
Julie
December 19, 2021 at 3:01 pmSuper easy – I had almost 4 cups of whipping cream that I was able to save! Thanks for a great explanation and easy recipe.
I was able to make mine in a food processor.
Julie
February 4, 2022 at 8:14 amWe did the shake-it method in Girl Scouts about 30 years ago. Because there were so about 10ish of us, we only had 2 (jars? cartons? don’t remember what the troop leaders put it in, and I’m not sure they believed it would work) and passed them around.
Pro tip: definitely a great way to keep your kid entertained on a snow day, when quarantined, pr from general boredom.
Rachel
February 11, 2022 at 1:33 amYou mention extending the shelf life but I don’t see mention of what the shelf life is, how long is it good for?
Coco and Ash
February 11, 2022 at 10:11 amYour butter should be good for about 3-4 weeks if you rinse it well 🙂
Lanny
April 1, 2022 at 11:51 amNo one mention the TASTE – does it taste good?
Karen
April 5, 2022 at 10:17 amDoes it have to be refrigerated or can it be left on the counter?