Making homemade butter is easy, taking only 10-15 minutes, and yields a superior taste compared to store-bought. You just need well-chilled heavy cream (at least 30% fat, without thickeners).
Whip the cream until it separates into solid yellow curds (butter) and white liquid (buttermilk). Strain out the buttermilk, then crucially, rinse the butter under very cold water, squeezing repeatedly, until the water runs completely clear. This step removes residual buttermilk, extending the butter’s shelf life to 1-2 weeks in the fridge. You can then add salt or flavorings. The leftover buttermilk is excellent for other recipes like pancakes.
If you’ve never made your own butter, you’ll see—it’s really easy! I’m not going to pretend that I always make it myself. But when I have the time, when I’m having guests over, and when I want to put some nice salted butter or flavored butter on the table, it’s really nice to make it from scratch.
Actually, butter is simply cream that’s whipped until the solid part separates from the liquid part—buttermilk. The whole process really takes no more than 15 minutes, and the taste is nothing like the store-bought kind. In this article, I’ll share my recipe for homemade butter and all my tips for storing it properly or flavoring it.
Recipe Card
Homemade Butter
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Petit déjeuner
Cuisine Française
Servings 1 Butter about 12 oz/ 350g
Calories 3420 kcal
Print Recipe
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Take the well-chilled heavy cream out of the refrigerator at the very last moment, then pour it into a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.
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Whip the cream on medium speed. It will first form soft peaks. Continue whipping (about 10 to 15 minutes) until it separates clearly into yellow curds (the butter) and white liquid (the buttermilk).
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Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to collect the buttermilk.
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Rinse the butter under a trickle of very cold water, gently squeezing it with a spatula or your clean hands, until the water runs off completely clear. Squeeze it one last time firmly to remove any remaining water.
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Add a pinch of salt if you like, then shape the butter by hand or press it into a mold.
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Wrap them tightly in a sheet of parchment paper or close the lid on your container. Store in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.
Save it for other recipes (pancakes, crepes, smoothies, etc.).
Calories: 3420kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 29g | Fat: 363g | Saturated Fat: 231g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 16g | Monounsaturated Fat: 92g | Cholesterol: 1137mg | Sodium: 2210mg | Potassium: 956mg | Sugar: 29g | Vitamin A: 14788IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 665mg | Iron: 1mg
What Kind of Cream Should You Use to Make Butter?
As I mentioned in the introduction, to make homemade butter, you only need one ingredient: cream. But be careful—not just any cream will do; you need heavy whipping cream with at least 30% fat content. Below that, there isn’t enough fat for the butter to form, and you’ll just end up with whipped cream that never turns.
Above all, check the ingredients and avoid creams that contain thickeners, carrageenan, or stabilizers: they may prevent the fat from separating from the buttermilk.
One last important detail: take the cream out of the fridge at the very last moment. Just like with whipped cream, the cream needs to be very cold so that it whips up quickly and separates more cleanly afterward.
As for the amount, allow about 1 liter of heavy cream for every 350 g of butter.
Jar, Hand Mixer or Stand Mixer: Which Method Should You Use?
So the idea is to whip the cream until it turns into butter. And there are a few different ways to do that:
- With a stand mixer (like a KitchenAid) with the whisk attachment (my favorite method, since it’s the fastest): allow about 10 minutes on medium speed. You may want to cover it with a dish towel, since it tends to splatter a bit after a while.
- With a hand mixer: start at low speed and gradually increase the speed. But here, too, cover your mixing bowl with a dish towel, being careful not to let the mixer get tangled in it. This also takes 10 minutes.
- In a jar, by hand: Pour the cream into a glass jar that’s half full, close the jar tightly, and shake until butter forms. Allow 10 to 20 minutes. This is perfect when you only want to make a small amount.
Homemade Butter: The 3 Stages to Watch For
You’ll see—once your cream is nice and cold and your equipment is ready, you can start whipping it.
- Step 1: After about 5 minutes, the cream thickens and turns into whipped cream. At that point, keep going.
- Step 2: The whipped cream will turn yellow and become grainy—that’s normal—just keep beating it.
- Phase 3 : Suddenly, you will see that a liquid will form (it’s whey or buttermilk) and the solid part will gradually solidify, it’s your butter that is formed. Then it will stick itself together to form a ball.
Is your butter not forming? If, after 15 minutes, your cream hasn’t thickened or your whipped cream is firm but you still don’t see any lumps, there are two possible causes:
- Either the cream isn’t rich enough. In that case, it’s going to be hard to fix…
- Either it got hot while you were beating it.
In that case, put your container in the refrigerator for 10 minutes, then try again. The cold often helps the layers separate again.
Why You Should Always Rinse Your Butter
Now that you’ve made your butter, there’s one step that many recipes skip: rinsing the butter under cold water. But it’s this step that will help your butter last longer. How to do it:
- Rinse the butter under very cold water, squeezing it with a spatula or your hands to remove as much buttermilk as possible. The water will turn white.
- Continue until the water runs clear. This is a sign that there is no buttermilk left.
- Next, I recommend wrapping it in a sheet of parchment paper or transferring it to a butter dish with a lid. Put it in the fridge right away.
If your butter is thoroughly rinsed and squeezed dry, it will keep for 1 to 2 weeks in the fridge.
Salted or Flavored Butter: How to Season It
Once you’ve rinsed the butter, you can salt it and add herbs to flavor it.
- Salted butter: Salted butter always contains a maximum of 3% salt (I recommend using sea salt or fleur de sel), so that’s about 10 g of fleur de sel per 350 g. By the way, salting your butter helps it keep a little longer!
- Garlic and herb butter: perfect for spreading or melting over meat.
- Lemon butter: made with lemon zest, a tiny bit of lemon juice, and a little thyme if you like. Perfect with fish.
- For the holidays, you can try my Christmas butter.
If you want to see all my ideas at once, check out my homemade flavored butters.
Note: If you add herbs, your homemade butter won’t keep as long—more like 4 to 5 days in the fridge.
What to Do With the Leftover Buttermilk
Don’t throw it away—it’s very high in protein and contains almost no fat (since all the fat from the cream is in the butter).
You can use it:
- To substitute for milk in pancake batter, muffin batter, or crepe batter.
- In a smoothie to add protein.
- To tenderize meat, soak it (chicken, beef, pork) in buttermilk; the acidity will make the meat more tender after cooking.
Frequently Asked Questions About Homemade Butter
Can you make butter from UHT milk or cream?
No, you can’t make butter from milk because it doesn’t have enough fat; you really need cream with at least 30% fat content. As for UHT cream—the kind you find in the dry goods aisle at the store that has a long shelf life—it works in theory, but it produces butter with a slightly milder flavor than raw or pasteurized cream. Personally, I don’t recommend it either.
Can you freeze homemade butter?
Yes, you can definitely freeze your homemade butter! Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then place it in a freezer bag. It will keep for up to 3 months. Take it out and put it in the fridge the night before to let it thaw slowly.
How much cream for 250 g of butter?
You’ll need about 50 to 70 cl of whole cream to make a 250-gram block of butter. The yield actually depends on the fat content: the higher the fat content of the cream, the more butter you’ll get.
Is homemade butter more economical?
To be honest, I did the math, and considering the price of the cream and the amount you need, you have to admit that it’s not necessarily cost-effective compared to a stick of butter. But the quality of the butter you get is incredible—perfect for eating on its own with a good baguette or for using in the kitchen to make delicious dishes like a beurre blanc sauce to serve with your fish.
How long do you have to whip cream to make butter?
If you’re using a food processor or an electric mixer, you’ll need to whip the cream for about 10 to 15 minutes to make butter.
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