DIY Butter

I'm really not a big butter person. When I do use butter it's very minimal. My husband on the other hand is a huge fan of the stuff. For him everything taste better with more butter.

So when I decided to try and make my own, I had to rely on his expertise and get his opinion for this post.

Blender Butter
You Will Need:
1 cup heavy cream
ice water
blender
strainer

Directions:
You want to start with the cream at room temperature…it will go a lot faster that way. Pour the cream into the blender. Add salt to taste if desired. I used about a 1/4 teaspoon. Blend on medium-high speed for 3-5 (or more) minutes. How long this step takes will be highly dependent on your blender. It could take up to 10 minutes in an older blender.  Just keep an eye on it and when the butter starts to separate into butter and buttermilk stop the blender. Let the cream sit for a minute or two as the butter rises to the top. Pour the buttermilk off into another container. This next step is highly controversial in the butter-making world…to RINSE or not to RINSE! Rinsing the butter is supposed to make it last longer without spoiling (which is a good thing), but MY experience with butter is that it really doesn’t last that long around our house. Especially when you’re just making what is essentially one “stick”. But I decided to play if safe and did the rinsing thing because it’s really not much more work. All you do is add cold water to the blender and pulse for few seconds, then drain the water. Repeat this process until the water runs clear. Mine never really ran CLEAR, but after 6 or 7 times I figured that was good enough.Spoon butter into a strainer to drain. At this point you can pack your butter into molds or form it into a log like I did. Stick it in the refrigerator to chill.

 When my whipping cream was just about room temperature I poured it into the blender and turned it on full blast. 

 It was only about 2 minutes later that I had this.  I was surprised at how quickly things separated.

I put a strainer over a bowel then dumped the entire contents of the blender onto the strainer. I used a fork to smash the butter a bit and was able to get a good amount of buttermilk out.  

From the original directions it sounds like rinsing the butter may not be necessary but I decided to go ahead a do it. So I put the butter back into the blender, added water, gave it a quick pulse, poured the water out then repeated. 10 repeats later my water still wasn't clear and I was losing patients, so I figured that was good enough. 

I slapped my butter into a little container and let it chill in the fridge.  I had about the equivalent of one stick of butter

 The Verdict: Like I said before, I'm not a butter person so I had to get my husbands opinion on this one.  I had him use it for a few days then asked him what he thought.  He wasn't a fan for a few reasons. It was rock solid so he couldn't spread it on anything.  If he tried to leave it out to soften, it became to liquidity.  He said it didn't cook well and it didn't taste like butter at all, in fact it didn't have much of a taste, even with salt.

The curiosity got to me and I decided to make another batch and try it myself.  I agree with everything he said.  I tried to put it in my Butter Bell to see if that would keep it at a soft spreadable consistency, but it just kept falling out.

I'll be sticking with the store bought butter.