Homemade Butter
Ben Starr and Jennie Kelley from Frank stop by Good Day to make homemade butter. Add in herbs, spices or fresh or dried fruits or vegetables for a delicious meal.
Homemade Butter
Making fresh butter at home is shockingly easy, yet few people do it. The richness of fresh-churned butter is exceptional, and once you try it, you might not go back to store-bought! And once the butter is churned, it can be accented with virtually any herb, spice, fruit, or vegetable you wish, to make an impressive compound butter that's great for smearing on homemade bread or dolloping on a steak or any type of side dish.
In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl with a hand mixer), add 1 pint heavy cream.
Begin mixing the cream with the whisk attachment, bringing it up to medium high speed. Beat until the cream thickens into whipped cream, then continue beating. The cream will become stiff and "chunky." Watch the mixer constantly at this stage. Soon the buttermilk will begin to separate out from the butterfat, and you should immediately slow the mixer speed to medium low. The buttermilk will begin sloshing around as more of it separates. Once the solid butter has mostly separated out and stuck together, stop the mixer.
Remove the butter from the buttermilk with your hands, pressing and kneading it together. Do this under a stream of cold water in your sink to help prevent the butter from softening too much, and to help rinse out the buttermilk. Once the butter is rinsed, it can be placed into a clean bowl. At this point you have unsalted sweet-cream butter. Add up to a teaspoon of kosher salt and knead it into the butter, depending on how salty you want the butter. (Unsalted butter is used for cooking, salted butter is used for spreading on bread and garnishing dishes.)
To make a compound butter, add finely chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme, tarragon, or basil), spices (freshly ground black pepper, smoked paprika, cinnamon, etc.), or even fresh or dried fruits or vegetables.
Fresh butter can be stored at room temperature for several days so it remains soft. (It doesn't hang around very long!) For longer-term storage, keep it in the fridge and remove it 2 hours before serving so it softens up.
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