a simple real food recipe :: homemade butter… yum!

Just call me Paula Dean… I LOVE butter!!! Butter on my popcorn. Butter on my pancakes. Butter to cook my chicken. Butter, butter, BUTTER! I won’t get into the debate about butter over margarine because butter will win every time! Haha… I love me some butter!

Ok… I think you get the drift. I love butter. Moving on!

Why is butter so expensive? I’m not talking the cheap butter you get at your local grocery store. I’m talking REAL butter. The one in which the butter fat is separated from the butter milk. No other ingredients (except maybe a little salt). No preservatives. No “coloring.” Seriously, who thought to add coloring to butter? Butter is beautiful in its natural form!

Did you know that making your own butter is incredibly easy? All you need is heavy whipping cream. In my case ORGANIC heavy whipping cream. I used my Kitchenaid Mixer for this but you could use a hand mixer. OR if you are feeling really ambitious, you could shake it in the carton as you dance around the house. Just to warn you though, that may take you a while! haha… but you’d burn all your calories before actually eating the yummy butter you are about to make!

So here we go! Follow the simple steps below and let your taste buds go wild!

PS. Special thanks to The Everyday Chef for inspiring me to try my hand at making homemade butter!

For this recipe, I used 2 pints of Organic Heavy Whipping Cream. Throw it all in your stand mixer using the whisk attachment (you could do this with a handheld mixer as well I believe). Start your mixer on a speed 4 and walk away… this will take a little while.

Now you may be tempted to stop mixing the cream when you see it start to look like whipped cream (YUM!). Unless you have a pie you are intending this for, keep going!

After about 10 minutes, you will start to notice the butter milk separating from the butter fat.

Once it looks like this… move to the next step.

Use a cheese cloth (or you can just squeeze it with your hands) and strain the rest of the milk from the butter.

To preserve the butter, you need to give it a cold water bath. Use water as cold as your hands can handle and work the butter under the water for a minute or so. Drain the water and complete this step at least 4 times total. You will notice the water will start to be less cloudy the more you do this.

When you are done, you can mix in a little salt if you want… and VOILA! You have a beautiful lump of butter and delicious buttermilk! Be sure to use the buttermilk and don’t let it go to waster 🙂

ENJOY!