Homemade Butter

I was stumbling through food recipes the other day and found this remarkably simple recipe for homemade butter.  I couldn't believe that it was this easy, so I tried it myself.  Sure enough, in less than 5 minutes, I had butter.  As the original site says, you could flavor this pretty much however you want (garlic, honey, chili pepper, etc.).  For us, half the fun was just watching the cream go through its different stages in the Cuisinart!

Homemade Butter

Ingredients:

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (do NOT get table cream)

Directions:

1. Pour cream into food processor.  Attach the lid and turn power on.  Cream will go through several stages (soft, firm, whipped, etc.) before suddenly separating out into butter and buttermilk.  The entire process takes 3-5 minutes.
2. Drain butter, reserving liquid if you'd like (it's buttermilk!).  For best results, press butter down into strainer to get as much liquid out as possible.  Store in airtight container.  Butter will keep for longer if you store it with a layer of water on top.  Just dump the water off, use the butter, and put fresh water on top each time.

Notes:
I stopped the Cuisinart once during the whipped cream stage to scrape down the sides.  If you're not sure if it's been on long enough, keep mixing it.  It will be very clear when it suddenly becomes butter.

Comments

[Butterball]

Be still my heart! So much easier than the cream in the jar thing!
THX!!!!

[Karly]

I've been meaning to try this!

[Michelle]

Making butter IS fun. I used to do it with my preschool students - poured a little cream in a baby food jar w/ a pinch of salt. The kids shook the heck out of the jar and voila....butter! My daughter's class made their own butter for their Thanksgiving feast this year too. It's so much fun!
http://oneordinaryday.wordpress.com/

[aleta]

Oh too funny! I actually blogged this yesterday too, but did the manual churn method. I don't have a very good food processer. =)

[Jocelyn]

Wow, can't wait to try this. How long will it keep if you do the water-on-top thing?

[Judah]

Jocelyn, I'm not sure how long it will keep (yesterday was my first time making it!), but I've read that it should keep for about as long as regular butter as long as you get all of the buttermilk off of the butter before you store it.

[leslie]

Very cool!!

[Jennifer]

I love this idea, brilliant! We will do this this week for sure.

[Kay]

If you want to keep it longer, rinse the curds a few times. Just drain the butter, add clean water, blitz a few times and drain again. Keep doing this until the water stays clean.

You can also do this with a handmixer, of course.

You can also wrap some in wax paper and freeze it!

Just sayin':)

[stephchows]

huh. wicked cool!

[Christina]

I think I only made butter once, but it wasn't in a food processor. How easy is this!

[jkelber]

Thanks Kay! And thanks for having the original recipe that inspired this post in the first place. :)

[Kay]

You're welcome!

[gaga]

I've never thought of using the food processor for making butter. What a great idea, much easier than by hand!