How to Make Homemade Butter

For some, butter is a mealtime staple. It melts over hot mashed potatoes, flavors dinner rolls and dresses up veggies.

And did you know you can make it from scratch? It’s a lot of fun to make at home, especially if you’re with kids who like to jump, shake and wiggle. Make their energy productive!

You can also use an electric hand or a stand mixer to simplify the process. 

Either way, here’s what you’ll need to make your own butter:

Ingredients In Butter

• Refrigerated, cold heavy whipping cream
• Optional: Sea salt or other flavorful additions like lemon zest, chopped herbs or honey

The main ingredient for making butter is refrigerated, cold heavy whipping cream, which provides the fat that separates from the liquid during churning to form solid butter. Using cold cream helps the process move smoothly and prevents over-whipping. You can also customize your butter with optional additions like sea salt for flavor, or ingredients such as lemon zest, chopped herbs, or honey to create unique, flavored varieties. These extras enhance both taste and aroma, making your homemade butter even more versatile.

Homemade Butter Recipe Tips

Making butter at home can be a fun and rewarding experience. One quart of cream usually yields about a pound of butter and two cups of buttermilk, giving you plenty to enjoy in various recipes.

For the “Shake It Up” method, it’s a great hands-on activity, especially with kids, and can be surprisingly satisfying to watch the butter form from cream. Using a jar allows you to control the process and see the transformation firsthand.

The electric hand or stand mixer method is faster and ideal if you prefer less physical effort. It also produces consistent results, and you can easily experiment with adding flavors like sea salt, herbs, honey, or lemon zest once the butter has formed.

No matter the method, washing the butter with cold water helps it stay fresh longer, and flavoring is where you can really get creative.

How Long Does It Take To Make Butter?

The time it takes depends on the method you choose. Using the “Shake It Up” jar method, expect about 15 to 30 minutes of continuous shaking for the cream to separate into butter and buttermilk. With an electric hand or stand mixer, the process is faster, usually taking around 10 minutes to form butter clumps, with a few extra minutes to press, wash, and knead the butter. Overall, including optional flavoring and washing, making homemade butter can take roughly 20 to 40 minutes from start to finish.

Making Butter From Cream: Two Methods

“Shake It Up” Method

1. Pour your cream into a 40-ounce jar. Leave about a quarter of the jar empty so there’s enough space for the cream to move around.

2. Begin to shake, shake, shake it!

3. After five minutes, you’ll notice the cream thickens. After another 5 to 10 minutes, it will feel as if there’s no more room in the jar. But keep shaking! After 15 to 30 minutes of non-stop shaking, you’ll see the butterfat separate from the liquid.

4. Once this happens, pour everything from the jar into a bowl.

5. The butter will clump together, and the watery milk pools into the bottom of the bowl.

6. Pour that liquid, or “buttermilk,” from the bowl. Put it aside for cooking, baking and even drinking.

7. Use a rubber spatula to press the butter against the bowl, squeezing out as much of the remaining liquid as possible.

8. Add about one-half cup of ice water to the butter, then press the butter and water against the side of the bowl. This part of the process, called washing, helps keep the butter from spoiling. Pour off the cloudy liquid and repeat the process two or three more times until the water becomes less cloudy.

9. Continue to knead the butter against the side of the bowl until all liquid is pressed out.

10. Optional: flavor the butter with a little sea salt, or add lemon zest, chopped herbs, or honey. You could also cut the butter into fun shapes with holiday-themed cookie cutters.

11. Now it’s time to package it. If you’d like, you can wrap it in parchment paper because the butter won’t stick to the parchment. Then place the parchment in an airtight container to keep it fresh.

12. Refrigerate the butter up to one week or freeze it up to six months.

Electric Hand Mixer Method

1. Pour cream into a bowl.

2. Turn hand mixer to medium speed and blend.

3. As you blend, you’ll start to see the cream transform. First it will become fluffy whipped cream, then it will gain stiff peaks.

4. After that, the cream separates into soft clumps of butterfat and liquid. Soon the butter clumps together, and the watery milk pools to the bottom of the bowl. It takes about 10 minutes.

5. Pour that liquid, or “buttermilk,” from the bowl. Put it aside for cooking, baking and even drinking.

6. Turn your mixer back on and blend for a few more minutes to extract more liquid. Pour it out as before.

7. Use a rubber spatula to press the butter against the bowl to squeeze out as much remaining liquid as possible.

8. Add about one-half cup of ice water to the butter, then press the butter and water against the side of the bowl. This part of the process, called washing, helps keep the butter from spoiling. Pour off the cloudy liquid and repeat the process two or three more times until the water becomes less cloudy.

9. Continue to knead the butter against the side of the bowl until all liquid is pressed out.

10. Optional: flavor the butter with a little sea salt, or add lemon zest, chopped herbs, or honey. You could also cut the butter into fun shapes with holiday-themed cookie cutters. 

11. Now it’s time to package it. If you’d like, you can wrap it in parchment paper because the butter won’t stick to the parchment. Then place the parchment in an airtight container to keep it fresh.

12. Refrigerate the butter up to one week or freeze it up to six months.

Now that you've made your delicious homemade butter, try it in our recipes Air Fryer Butter Roasted Turkey Breast and Pumpkin Bread With Brown Butter and Sage.