Make Butter With a Food Processor in Two Minutes

When most people think of the process of making butter, they think of hard work, churning, whipping or shaking a jar for a long time. This article will show you how to make butter from scratch in roughly two minutes using a food processor. As a bonus, you also get fresh buttermilk for your pancakes or waffles, or happy lactose-tolerant feline friends!

Steps

  1. Warm the heavy cream to room temperature. You can leave it in the container while it warms, or in a large bowl.
  2. Prepare the food processor. Wash and dry the food processor bowl and blade before you begin.
  3. Place the cream in the bowl of the food processor. Add any other ingredients you wish to use if you are making fancy butter, such as garlic, parsley, cumin, curry powder or other spices to suit your taste. Keep in mind, however, that if you put spices into the cream, they will also transfer to the buttermilk and your pancakes and feline friends may not like that.
    • Do not overfill the food processor bowl, otherwise the cream may spill out during churning.
  4. If you like your butter salty, add salt to taste. A teaspoon of salt per pint of cream is usually enough. If you like your butter unsalted, omit the salt.
  5. Turn on the food processor to churn the butter, preferably at low speed. Watch as the cream solids separate and congeal into butter. It should take no more than two or three minutes, and should look like the picture when it is ready (this one has spices in it).
    • The cream will go through stages, usually indicated by changes in the sound coming from the food processor bowl. First it turns very creamy and looks like ice cream. The churning noise will become rougher, and the cream will abruptly turn solid when the butter separates from the buttermilk.
    • Stop the food processor and taste it. If it tastes like butter, you're done.
    • If it still tastes like sweet cream, run it another one or two minutes.
  6. Drain the buttermilk. The liquid that remains after the butter congeals is fresh buttermilk that can be used in any recipe that calls for it.
  7. Squeeze any remaining buttermilk from the butter.
    • Wash your hands thoroughly.
    • Fold a large piece of cheesecloth in half and place the butter in the middle. Fold the sides up into a bag.
    • While holding the closed end of the bag with one hand, knead and squeeze the butter to force out any remaining buttermilk. This step is important––if you don't remove as much of the buttermilk as you can, the butter may turn rancid in one or two days.
  8. Place the butter into a container. A bowl or square mold will do. Press it down firmly with a large spoon or spatula. This may cause more liquid to come out of the butter. Drain the liquid before storing.
  9. Cool in the refrigerator. The butter will be immediately ready to use, but as with any dairy product, it needs to be refrigerated when not in use.

Tips

  • The best blade to use to churn the cream is either a mixing blade or a paddle blade. A cutting blade will not work well because it is straight and will not churn the cream as effectively.
  • Remember to remove as much liquid as possible from the butter, or it will not last long!

Warnings

  • Do not feed raw buttermilk to your cat if it is lactose-intolerant as it will give the cat diarrhea. The way to find out if your cat is lactose-intolerant is to give them a small bowl and see the effect on their stool. Cultured buttermilk has had the lactose almost completely removed from the buttermilk by bacteria, a process which is not covered in this article.
  • Always use fresh, good quality heavy cream that's been kept refrigerated.
  • Avoid using unpasteurized products unless you own the cow, coaxed the milk out of it yourself and are using the cream immediately to make butter. Unpasteurized dairy products can contain Salmonella, E. coli and/or Listeria bacteria that can make you and your loved ones very sick, and even cause death.[1]

Things You'll Need

  • Heavy cream (1 pint will produce about 1/2 pound of butter)
  • Cheesecloth
  • Food processor with a mixing or paddle blade
  • Bowl
  • Salt and other spices, to your taste (optional)

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Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ FDA: The Dangers of Raw Milk: Unpasteurized Milk Can Pose a Serious Health Risk, http://www.fda.gov/Food/ResourcesForYou/consumers/ucm079516.htm

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