Making Butter - With a Mixer

 This week whipping cream was on sale at our grocery store, something that rarely happens, and so I thought I would make some butter to have on hand for the upcoming holidays. Butter goes on sale here occasionally for $3/lb and I just bought whipping cream for $1.94/litre.  I used 1.5 litres and I ended up with 1 1/3 lbs of butter and 1 full quart of butter milk. I use the buttermilk in place of milk in my bread recipe. So, I guess the savings aren't wildly wonderful, but, there was a little savings and it only takes about 20 mins to make butter with your mixer. Here's how I do it;

First, I pour the whipping cream into my mixer. I have a Bosch and love it. I have had a Kitchen Aid, but for a serious baker, it just couldn't hold up.  In the picture below, the cream is just at the thick cream stage.

After the whipped cream stage, the cream starts to break down again. You can see in the picture below that there is a lot of liquid.

About the 10 minute mark, the buttermilk really starts to separate and the butter starts to form into small clumps.  Then all of a sudden, you have 2 things in your mixer, which is the buttermilk and the butter.

At this point, I strain the buttermilk into my quart jar. Then I start squishing the butter against the side of the mixing bowl with a wooden spoon to get out the rest of the liquid. I also add about 2 tsp of salt to the butter, which will get worked in as you squeeze the buttermilk out of the butter.  I run cold water over the butter to help rinse the liquid off.

When I have as much of the liquid out as I can, I form the butter into smaller serving sizes.  For this I use my Pampered Chef dry/liquid measuring cup. I set it at 1/2 cup and squish the butter in, then I push it out onto plastic wrap, wrap it up and freeze it.  We only use butter on special occasions as it is just out of our budget to use everyday. So, 1/2 cup is a great size for a treat. When they are frozen, I put them all into a ziploc bag in the freezer.

I was able to get four 1/2 cup portions and one 2/3 cup portion and a quart of buttermilk for $3.  It's a good thing to keep in mind if you happen to find whipping cream on clearance.  Butter is easy and so yummy to make!

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