Has anyone made their own butter with a KA or other mixer?

[jennyema]

If so, how did it come out and what type of cream did you use?

 

[marmalady]

IN a cooking class I was assisting with, some of the students let their heavy cream for a whipped cream go too long, and we ended up with butter - the instructor was pretty cool about it, just scooped it out, packed it in a crock and let it chill til we ate, and served it with some crusty bread! And privately gave the students what-for, for flirting when they should have been paying attention, lol!

It was just regular supermarket heavy cream - it whipped up very light in color and texture, and was very sweet; some of the students thought it would have been a little better salted.

 

[leigh]

We (actually, my mom 97% of the time!) made our own butter when I was a kid. For a while we had a paddle churn; don't know what became of it, but by the time I was in high school we had "graduated" to a Sunbeam Mixmaster. It worked great as long as we remembered to cover the bowl with a piece of waxed paper before we turned on the mixer. If we forgot, the butter still formed just as quickly, but there were splatters everywhere :roll: . I've since made butter using supermarket whipping cream, and it came out fine. I haven't tried churning the ultra pasteurized cream, though. The next time I churn I'm going to add a few drops of lemon juice or some buttermilk or yogurt to the cream, to see if I can replicate the taste of the butter we used to make. Salt, definitely. Washing, absolutely and without fail!! As follows:at the end of the churning, i.e. when the butter has formed, gather it into a clump, pour off the buttermilk--which save for other uses--and then fill the bowl with COLD water. Use a butter paddle or wooden spoon/spatula and work the butter around to get out the buttermilk. Drain the bowl and repeat. Repeat again. If the water is not clear, keep repeating until it is. Then work the butter to press out as much water as possible. Sprinkle with salt and mix well. Plop onto a plate or saucer and make it pretty. Cover and refrigerate or use at once and refrigerate the leftover butter--if there is any!!

Almost forgot: you can use a blender, too. Just watch it closely because things happen really fast.

 

[jennyema]

THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT INFO Marm and Leigh

Then work the butter to press out as much water as possible.

Do you do this with the paddle or by hand?

 

[leigh]

THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT INFO Marm and Leigh

Then work the butter to press out as much water as possible.

Do you do this with the paddle or by hand?

With the paddle. Use it to get the butter together into some sort of ball and then press the butter against the side of the bowl, again using the paddle. To get out even more water, break the ball into pieces and work the pieces around a bit, turning them over etc., then re-form the ball and press it again. You use the paddle to mix in the salt, too.

 

[Audeo]

I mix the salt (if any) with the whipping cream before beating. Other than that, I use the same method described so well by leigh.

I'm rarely without BOTH butter and cream, so knowing how to do this (so easy!) has saved me a trip more than once to the store for butter. Interesting idea, leigh, to add a bit of buttermilk for flavor -- I agree!

There is only one time when I couldn't get the cream to form into butter and I now look back thinking of marmalady's post under a separate thread admonishing the dairy folks to Stop Fiddling With Our Cream!! The stuff wouldn't whip at all.

 

[Claire]

Didn't you all have to do this in school as a kid? One day we had to all bring in clean mayo (or similar) jars, and the teacher gave us all some cream, and we shook the jars until we made butter. Hubby says he did so as well. He's 8 yrs older than me, so we're talking the 50s and 60s. I don't know if it would work with grocery store cream of if the teachers got it from another source. Funny, we were just talking about it recently, and how fun it would be to try to make our own butter just for the experience.

 

[GB]

Claire I remember doing that in school in the 70's with store bought cream. I remember being amazed like it was a magic trick.