Making your own rich and creamy homemade butter with only 1 ingredient (!) is so easy you’ll wonder why you never tried it before. Now if you want to make that butter even more special make proper old-fashioned cultured butter for that classic tang and fabulous flavour.
When you tell people that you often make your own butter they tend to scoff and say ‘why not just buy the stuff’.
Well, like most things you make yourself homemade butter just tastes better and it actually works out cheaper than store-bought butter.
The reason it’s cheaper is that you get the benefit of having that wonderful buttermilk as a by-product of this whole homemade butter scenario, result!
What is the difference between butter and cultured butter?
If you use just cream and whisk into submission and eventually butter that is simple one-ingredient butter.
However, if you add a spoonful of live yogurt to the cream and let it sit overnight at room temperature it will make the cream just slightly sour.
This gives it some beneficial bacteria (think all those Yakult adverts and a healthy gut etc) and this is what makes cultured butter.
Way back in history all butter would be classed as cultured butter. In that, the creamy milk was just slightly soured before churning it into butter.
Why? Because to make it worthwhile to bring out your butter churn you needed quite a lot of creamy milk and this could take a couple of milkings from the family cow.
Why make cultured butter?
Because it tastes great with that slight tang to it. It’s good for you too. It is hardly any extra effort just adding a spoonful of yogurt and leaving the cream overnight.
Accidental butter
I’m sure many of you have had this happen when you are whipping cream in the food mixer and get distracted.
Next thing you know your lovely peaks of fluffy whipped cream have turned into something that looks like scrambled eggs.
Oops, you’ve just accidentally made your first homemade butter, or very nearly!
Ingredients for making homemade butter
For simple homemade butter you just need 1 ingredient, double/thickened cream. That’s it.
Throw in a little salt for taste and to make it last a bit longer and that’s the entire ingredient list.
Ingredients for cultured butter
Double cream/thickened cream and a spoonful of plain live yogurt. And that salt if you fancy.
How to make homemade cultured butter
- Mix the cream with the yogurt and let it sit in a jar in the kitchen (not the fridge) overnight
- Pour this into your food mixer and let it whip right past the usual whipped cream stage till you get that scrambled egg look and a big clump of golden yellow butter is attached to your beaters and a pool of liquid is at the bottom of the bowl.
- This is buttermilk, do not throw this out as it is invaluable for cooking and baking and you are going to get more of it very soon.
- Line a sieve with cheesecloth/muslin and drop in the butter, pull up the sides of the cloth and squeeze out as much buttermilk as you can.
- Now take the butter out and press it onto a wooden board squishing as much of that liquid out of it as possible. Fold it on to itself and keep squishing. Then pat the butter dry with a clean piece of muslin.
- The more liquid you can get out of your homemade butter the longer it will last.
- Now add some good quality sea salt (I used Malden Salt) if you want a salted butter. The salt doesn’t just add flavour it will also help to extend the life of your butter.
- Pat the butter into the shape you want wither with old-fashioned butter pats as I have or just press it into a bowl or jar.
Making basic homemade butter
Forget the yogurt but make sure that your double cream is at room temperature and not straight from the fridge.
Your cream should be at 20C/68F for best results. The butter will come together much quicker and be easier to work with.
Follow the rest of the steps listed above.
How much butter does this make?
I used 600ml of double cream and a teaspoon of yogurt and I got approximately 250g of butter. That’s the size of the average pack of butter in the shops here in the UK.
I made mine into two bars of butter and froze one right away.
How long does homemade butter keep?
It will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks and of course you can freeze homemade butter just like any other butter for up to 3 months.
How to use homemade butter
You just use this butter like any other. Spread it on your toast, slather it on to a baked potato.
Use it for cooking and baking.
How to make butter curls
Like the fancy curls of butter that used to be The Thing back in the day when I would go for high tea with my parents back in my youth. Those dainty scrolls of butter on the tiny shilled dish would fascinate me.
Luckily it is super easy to make butter curls. Simply freeze the butter first then using a small knife with a serrated blade run the knife along the top of the butter from one end to the other.
You want to just dig the knife into the butter about 1mm and drag it along the top of the butter block.
It takes a couple of tries then you will get the knack and have delightful butter curls that look so pretty on a tea table.
Flavoured butter
You can add extra flavours to your butter with herbs, spices and more. Check out my homemade pesto butter. Just remember when you make flavoured butters to label them clearly in the freezer.
Check out my super delicious recipe for pesto butter that goes perfectly with everything from steaks to ‘garlic’ bread.
Buttermilk
Remember that buttermilk you saved from making your butter? Well put that in a jar in the fridge. I got about half a cup of buttermilk from making my own butter. It will keep for up to 2 weeks. Enough time for you to come up with a few recipes to use it in.
Or you can freeze the buttermilk and whip it out when you want to make some amazing buttermilk scones.
Looking for more super easy larder basics to make yourself? Then check these out before you go;
How to make your own yogurt + video
How to make homemade almond milk
How to make your own sugar free nut butter
Easy to make Labneh (yogurt cheese) + video
How to make your own Greek style yogurt
Finally, if you do try this recipe don’t forget to leave a comment/star rating below as I just love to hear from readers. Want more Larder Love? Then follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter and sign up for my newsletter too of course.
Homemade Butter and Cultured Butter
Ingredients
- 600 ml double cream heavy /thickened cream in USA
- 1 tsp live yogurt
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Mix the cream with the yogurt and let it sit in a jar in thekitchen (not the fridge) overnight
- Pour this into your food mixer and let it whip right pastthe usual whipped cream stage till you get that scrambled egg look and a bigclump of golden yellow butter is attached to your beaters and a pool of liquidis at the bottom of the bowl.NOTE This is buttermilk, do not throw this out as it is invaluable for cooking and baking and you are going to get more of it very soon.
- Line a sieve with cheesecloth/muslin and drop in the butter,pull up the sides of the cloth and squeeze out as much buttermilk as you can.
- Now take the butter out and press it onto a wooden board squishing as much of that liquid out of it as possible. Fold it on to itselfand keep squishing. Then pat the butter dry with a clean piece of muslin. NOTE ; The more liquid you can get out of your homemade butter thelonger it will last.
- Now add some good quality sea salt (I used Malden Salt) if you want a salted butter. The salt doesn’t just add flavour it will also help to extend the life of your butter.
- Pat the butter into the shape you want wither with old-fashioned butter pats as I have or just press it into a bowl or jar.
How to make butter curls
- Freeze your butter so that it is solid to start with
- using a small serrated knife push it into the butter about 1mm at end of block and drag it towards yourself, it will pull up a line of butter creating a curl – this can take a wee bit of practice!
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