Making homemade butter is surprisingly simple and easy, especially if you have a KitchenAid Mixer.
Here we were, sitting in our PJ’s watching Alex Guarnaschelli on her show, ‘Alex’s Day Off’ and she just “whipped up some homemade butter”
Of course she did. She’s an awesome chef. But after watching her make it, we said to ourselves… “That’s it?” Thus began our humble quest to make homemade butter. Yes, it was that easy.
You’re just setting two ingredients in a mixer and letting them get friendly with each other. And in a few minutes, you’ll have butter. Talk about easy.
After some impatience on my part, we had success. After the cream and sour cream get super friendly, the butter curds will separate from the butter milk. You should have something that resembles the above image.
Next comes the straining. You will need to line a strainer with cheese cloth to contain the butter curds, then pour the contents of the mixing bowl into the strainer to separate the buttermilk into a bowl. Gently squeeze out any excess buttermilk, but be careful not to apply so much pressure that the butter begins to seap through the cheese cloth.
Finally a sprinkling of sea salt and freshly cracked pepper…
Enjoy by slathering a thick layer onto lightly toasted sourdough and revel in the fact that the calories don’t count because it is homemade. That’s how it works, right?
Unless you’ve had homemade butter fresh out of the mixer, I cannot describe it in such a manner that will do it justice.
So light, creamy, indulgent. And it will keep in your fridge for a long time.
Butter
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, gradually whip the cream and sour cream together.
- Increase the speed of the mixer and continue whipping until the cream separates and the mixture thickens.
- Use a rubber spatula to gather up the butter and remove it from the bowl.
- There will be some liquid that is a natural result of this process. That liquid is actually buttermilk.
- Gather the ball of butter together into a double layer of cheesecloth or a thin kitchen towel and plunge it into the ice bath to wash any buttermilk off the surface.
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Pack the butter into a bowl or roll it into a ball or log shape using plastic wrap.
- Use immediately or store in the refrigerator.
Butter – you’re doing it right. Ooh I bet there are so many ways to flavor this!