A few years back, we were whipping up a bowl of cream and got distracted. When we turned back to the mixer, the whipped cream had gone past the point of fluffy peaks and was now a grainy, watery mess. We dumped it down the sink in disgust, but now we really wish we hadn't. Why? Because that was actually the beginnings of butter!
Whipping cream is a suspension of fat globules and water-based liquid. When you start to whip it, air is incorporated into the cream while the mechanical action of the whisk actually strips away the outer surface of the fat globules. The combination of these two things is what turns cream from a liquid into a solid.
If you keep whipping the cream beyond the point of wanting to put it on your ice cream, structure eventually becomes so destabilized that the separate fat globules start to form together into a solid mass. At first you'll just see tiny "seed" grains, and then larger and larger masses will form. This mass - butter! - forces out the watery liquid, and the original suspension of fat and liquid is broken. Drain off the liquid (or save it for baking) and you have fresh butter!
How quickly and effectively this separation happens depends on the fat content of the original cream. If your intention is to make butter, try to find a cream that is at least 35% fat, and ideally, unhomogenized. Creams with less fat content will take longer and produce less butter.
Have you ever made butter at home, intentionally or unintentionally?!
Related: Make Butter By The Pound in the KitchenAid!
(Image: Flickr member Robert S. Donovan licensed under Creative Commons)
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When I was a kid we used to make butter in the blender. Easy peasy. The only remotely difficult part is kneading the residual buttermilk out of the butter.
I actually made butter in my Kitchenaid stand mixer last night--on purpose! I used Shatto brand cream (a fabulous local dairy in Kansas City) and the results were amazing. I put it on homemade bread, and voila--heaven. I was telling a friend about it and she asked if I thought it would save money vs. buying butter at the store. I don't think I could beat our local store's sale prices, but on the other hand, I think you end up with a much higher quality product, plus I was able to save the buttermilk for making biscuits later this week. I think I'll stick to store-bought butter for baking, but this will have to come out again when I make homemade bread.
We make butter all the time in our house. In fact, I just made butter this weekend for my fiancé's birthday cake. He's lactose-intolerant, which makes baking hard, but with the help of lactase drops (like the pills, only you put them directly into the product), I make lactose-free, sweet-cream butter. Delicious!
Ha ha! I just did this by accident yesterday.
It was in my food processor with the whip attachment and it took only 1 min. to turn into butter!
Whoops!
I just added some cinnamon flavor and called it cinnamon butter.
On pumpkin waffles - Yum!
I saw a more hands on version of this where you basically put cream in a jar with a lid and shake it for like 15 minutes. Maybe the workout you get from making it would offset eating it right after.
I made butter using Jennifer McLagan's recipe from her "Fat" cookbook. 2 cups heavy cream, let sit out till it gets close to room temperature, put in stand mixer with whip attachment, whip on medium-low for 15-20 minutes. Remove fat globs from bowl and off whip, strain and rinse under cold water until water runs clear to remove whey, then make a ball out of butter and knead to squeeze out last bits of whey.
TipsyMongoose,
We did that when I was in first grade. We all sat around in a circle took turns shaking the jar of cream, while our teacher read to us from one of the Little House books. Then, she cleaned and kneaded the butter and we all had some on homemade bread she'd brought.
Did you really throw it away!?!?! The whey is delicious as an add-on in vegetable soups, and the butter....well....homemade butter, what can I say.
We made butter in girl scouts with the jar shaking method but my paternal grandmother made all her family's butter up until probably the mid-50s with a churn that you rocked back & forth.
we made butter by shaking cream in a jar for 'pioneer day' in fourth grade. it was tiring and, to a 9 year old, not worth the effort.