How To Make Butter In Your Food Processor

This is a fun and really quick way to make homemade butter using the blade attachment in your food processor.

I've been asked many times how to make butter, and I'm happy to inform you it's not only easy, but you are actually making two valuable ingredients at the same time, butter and buttermilk, and both of them come from just one ingredient, cream!

How to make butter in a food processor

What you'll need.

• a sieve or colander
• some cheesecloth or a clean tea towel or something similar
• a bowl to collect the buttermilk
• around 1 litre of ice-cold water.

Ingredients

• 1 litre pure cream (35% fat) without thickeners
• Salt to taste, if making salted butter (1 - 2 teaspoons for 1 litre cream)

Method

Make sure all of your equipment is scrupulously clean before beginning. 

Pour the cream into your food processor then turn the machine on and let it run.

The cream will turn into whipped cream, then start to look curdled and finally, the butterfat will separate from the buttermilk. You can tell when it reaches this stage as there will be a change in the sound of the motor of your processor and liquid will begin sloshing about inside. 

At this stage it's time to take it out of the food processor and drain the buttermilk away from the butter using a sieve. Save the butter milk for later (you can freeze it too). 

Place the butter into a bowl and begin working it with a spatula to continue releasing the buttermilk. Continually pour off any liquid and keep working it until there isn’t much liquid left.

Pour some of the ice-cold water over the butter and begin working it in to wash out any remaining buttermilk. As the water turns milky, drain it off (don’t keep this liquid) and pour more ice cold water into the bowl. Continue to do this until the water remains fairly clear.

Place the butter into the centre of the cloth, bring up the sides and twist to expel any remaining liquid. Once it has stopped dripping, remove it from the cloth and mix in salt if using.

Pat into a block shape or press into a container. 

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 7 days.

RECIPE NOTES

• You can also portion your butter and freeze it for up to 5 months.  Salted butter will freeze well for up to 9 months.
• If you would like a more spreadable butter, beat the butter, put it back into your food processor together with a tablespoon or two of olive oil or vegetable oil and beat until thoroughly combined.

Cultured Butter

Making cultured butter is simply an extension of the method above with an extra ingredient to 'culture' the cream.

Ingredients

Either 2 tablespoons of live (probiotic) yoghurt or cultured buttermilk.

1 litre of pure cream

Method

Pour the cream into a sterilised glass jug or jar (see how to sterilise equipment here) and stir in the yoghurt or the buttermilk.

1. Put the lid on and leave for 12 - 24 hours at room temperature. This will culture the cream, the longer you leave it, the stronger the flavour of the butter will be.
2. Chill the mixture for 2 hours (this will allow the butter granules to form more easily)
3. Follow the steps to make butter above.
4. Don't forget that if you want to bake with the leftover buttermilk, add the salt at the end.

The buttermilk from this batch will be cultured buttermilk. It has an increased acidity which is the type of buttermilk used for recipes that call for it in baking recipes.

• You can also use some of this cultured buttermilk to culture your next batch of butter.
• The buttermilk will last in the fridge for up to 5 days but also freezes well for up to 3 months.

I hope you enjoy making butter, and if you're looking for something to serve your butter with, try these HOMEMADE CRUMPETS...they're super easy to make and are so much nicer than store bought crumpets.

If you have a go at making your own butter, I'd love to know what you think.

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