Homemade butter

My eldest daughter came home from school on Friday full of tales about how they had made butter at school and asking if we could make some at home.

I have been wanting to make my own butter for ages now and just haven’t got round to it.  I have been hunting for the perfect butter pats and nearly bought these, but then didn’t, but I will next time I pass the shop.

So we set to it to see how easy it is to make your own butter.  The eldest had made hers in a jar at school – pouring the cream in and then shaking and shaking until it turned into a solid block.  She wanted to do it this way again but she wanted to do it straight away and I didn’t have a sterile jar.  So we did it in the KitchenAid instead.  It was very easy, very quick and deeply satisfying.  We have enjoyed the butter on our bread, on pikelets and on our toast all weekend.

400ml of double cream yields 200g butter and 150ml of buttermilk.  I am not sure it works out much cheaper to make your own butter, but I will make sure I use up any odds of cream in this way from now on. The buttermilk will be used to make some scones later today.  If I had my act together better over the weekend I would have made the scones then and enjoyed them with the butter. You could also use the buttermilk in soda bread or waffles.

I added sea salt to the butter as I like my butter slightly salted, if you prefer yours unsalted then by all means leave it out.

400ml double cream
scant ½ tsp fine sea salt

Method

Place the cream and the salt (if using) in a mixing bowl and whisk. The mixture will begin to look like this.

Continue whisking and in no time at all the butter will clump together and separate from the buttermilk.

Place the butter onto a board and squash with a wooden spoon (or butter pats) until all of the buttermilk has been squeezed out.  If you don’t do this, the remaining buttermilk will turn the butter sour.

Then using two spatulas (or butter pats) shape the butter into a block, or something resembling a block if you are aged six.

Enjoy your butter and that smug glow you will have developed.

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28 thoughts on “Homemade butter”

  1. And … I even have my own butter pats at the ready! They’re antique ones hanging up for decoration, but I may give ’em a scrub and put ’em to their proper use now you’ve told me how!

  2. Children have so much fun making this, I sometimes forget that it also makes a wonderful butter that is better than supermarket brands. This is my first visit to your blog so I took the liberty of browsing through your earlier posts. I’m so glad I did that. I really like the food and recipes you’ve featured. You’ve created a lovely spot for your readers to visit and I’ve enjoyed the time I spent here. I’ll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary

  3. Ahh, I remember doing that in primary school and not really enjoying the shaking the jar business. In the mixer though? I could really like making my own butter doing that.

  4. What lovely yellow butter it is too. I’m impressed that butter making is now on the school curriculum. I hope they will be doing the bread to go with it next. When I was young we used to get Jersey milk fresh from the cow from a woman in the village. She made her own butter and clotted cream. We also made our own butter and clotted cream (occasionally) from her milk – it was my job to shake the jar. Haven’t tried making it since, except unintentionally by whisking the cream to much – doh!

    1. I was impressed that they had been doing it at school too. She was really enthusiastic about it all when she got home, which was lovely. That story about the lady with the jersey cow is lovely. My gran used to have a jersey cow and I can remember the taste of the raw milk – so very different from the pasteurised version.

  5. I remember making butter back in primary school when we went on our farm visit – i was very excited by the idea of making my own butter. Thanks for the reminder ;0)

    1. I love how this has brought memories flooding back for people. I must have gone to a very boring primary school indeed because I don’t remember doing such exciting things.

  6. Hi
    I am going to give this a try as my daughter missed that one. So what are the ingredients, do I need double cream, butter and buttermilk?

    Sarah x

    1. Hello my dear! Just put some double cream in a bowl and whisk until it turns to butter. Then pat out all the butter milk, otherwise it will turn sour. Then enjoy. Hope she likes doing it.x

  7. Hi,
    Made your butter at the week-end and it turned out great, made scones with the buttermilk which also turned out great, so light.
    Had toast for brekky with my homemade butter and yes, i do feel smug about it 🙂 many thanks

  8. I read this post the day before yesterday and was inspired to make some butter. So I made one batch and it was AMAZING! I don’t think I’ll ever use normal butter again! Fantastic. I use the leftover buttermilk in banana bread. It’s so much tastier. Thanks so much!

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