Making butter and buttermilk is as simple as throwing one ingredient into a stand mixer and letting it do the work for you!
Is your area currently experiencing a buttermilk shortage? I didn’t know until recently that mine is. You can’t find buttermilk at the store within about a 2 hour radius. It blew my mind. (I wrote this post early 2023)
BUT that’s ok! I have the solution for the both of us and it’s super easy to make!
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Tools You’ll Need
- Stand mixer (or food processor or blender)
- Glass jar with a lid
- Mesh strainer
- Canning funnel (optional)
- Butter dish or food wrap (plastic wrap will work too)
Ingredients
- 1 qt. Raw cream or heavy whipping cream
Measurements
1 quart of cream will make:
Butter – approximately 14 oz of butter
Buttermilk – approximately 2 cups of buttermilk
Directions
Stand Mixer Directions
Put your mixing bowl into the fridge for about 1 hour to make it cold. I’ve found this helps the cream whip up faster.
Pour your cream into your cold stand mixer bowl with your whisk attachment.
Turn it on to medium high (I start out at a level 6 on my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer) and whip until it thickens up. If you turn it on too high too early, it will make a huge mess! BE WARNED.
Once the cream has thickened and gotten fluffier, it should be safe to turn your mixer up higher (I normally don’t go any higher than level 8).
This picture shows what the cream looks like just before it separates into butter and buttermilk.
Continue whipping until the cream separates into a chunky consistency and a liquid. That’s butter and buttermilk!
The process length will depend entirely on the amount of cream you’re starting off with.
For example, a pint will probably take about 10 minutes from start to finish, but 6 cups of cream took me about 30+ minutes.
Now that your butter and buttermilk has separated, it’s time to get your hands dirty.
Reach into the bowl and grab as much of the butter as you can and give it a squeeze. Squeeze out as much of the buttermilk as you can.
Once you have collected as much of the butter as you can from the bowl, set aside and strain the buttermilk through a mesh strainer in to a glass jar to get all the last little bits of butter out of the buttermilk.
Seal the buttermilk tightly in a glass jar with a lid and refrigerate.
Buttermilk step is done! See how simple?!
Last step for the butter, rinse the butter hunk in cold water to get any last bit of buttermilk liquid out of the butter. This helps keep the butter from going bad faster.
Butter is now done too!
Store the butter in either a butter dish or food wrap for the fridge to use immediately.
Freezing Options
Butter
If you’re wanting to freeze your butter, roll into a log, wrap in plastic wrap and then wrap in a layer of aluminum foil.
I haven’t tested how long it will last with that method (we go through butter relatively quickly around here) but I would use within 3-6 months.
Buttermilk
Items you’ll need
- Glass jar with lid or freezer bag
- Cookie sheet
- Marker
If you’re using the glass jar method:
Place buttermilk in a glass jar. Make sure there’s enough room for the liquid to expand. Place in the freezer on a cookie sheet WITHOUT a lid. This is important because your jar could shatter. Once it’s frozen solid, add your lid and label/date the jar.
If you’re using the freezer bag method:
Label the freezer bag with the name and date, then pour into a freezer bag and try to get as much air out of the bag as possible. Then, lay the bag of buttermilk flat on a cookie sheet in your freezer and freeze until solid.
DONE!
I hope this super simple tutorial will help you on your butter and buttermilk making adventure!
Let me know in the comments below if you’ve ever made butter/buttermilk before or if you try after reading this post!
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