I had wanted to try making my own butter for such a long, long time, but just never got around to it.
Then a recipe I saw in a magazine back in 2013 inspired me to finally give it a try ... and it couldn't be easier - using your stand mixer!
But first a bit about my obsession with butter and cheese and fresh milk..
Whoever said that chickens are the 'gateway drug' to homesteading sure wasn't kidding! Since raising chickens and having an unending supply of fresh eggs, I had been yearning for a cow, so I could make my own fresh milk, cheeses and soaps.
My husband unfortunately never agreed with me that we need a cow, so I had started looking around trying to find some fresh milk to buy to turn into all kinds of homemade dairy products.
Well, it turned out it's illegal to buy raw milk in Virginia. Instead, farms sell "shares" of a cow which entitles each shareholder to a receive a set amount of milk each week from that cow.
Since technically you own the cow, that falls within the legalities of state law and is actually a pretty neat loophole!
I figured I could actually get away with buying a "cow share" since that would not result in an actual cow in our backyard that my husband would be sure to notice...
But somehow I felt like I really wanted to get to know the cow supplying us milk....and like our horses, watching a cow grazing in the back pasture just seemed right to me. But year after year, my husband continued to refuse to understand why we needed a cow!
Homemade Butter and Buttermilk Biscuits
So there my dreams of fresh milk, cream and cheese had sort of stalled - until the latest issue of Grit came out. There was an article about making homemade butter from store bought cream!
I didn't need a cow after all! And because I was going to use store bought cream, I could skip the first two whole pages of instructions that detailed exactly how to get the milk out of the cow. How easy was this going to be! I kept reading....
The article offered four methods of churning the butter: using a stand mixer, food processor, by hand, or by jar shaking. Clearly 'by hand' and 'jar shaking' sounded a bit labor-intensive, so I decided to go with the stand mixer method.
Cautioned it may take a bit longer, I was fine with that since the mixer was going to be doing all the work. Turns out that butter is a LOT easier to make than you might think. And it's pretty darned delicious!
I love mixing in tasty add-ins to my butter as well. Garlic, chives, herbs, spices like cranberry or ginger, cranberries and honey are all good choices. In fact, this Cranberry Honey Butter recipe is a favorite of mine!
Scroll down for printable recipes for the butter and buttermilk biscuits.
The flavor combinations are endless when you make your own butter. In addition, you have the choice to add salt to your butter to make it salted, or you can omit the salt to make unsalted butter.
So let's start with the basic butter recipe.
Homemade Butter
Yields 1/2 cup of butter: the equivalent of one stick of butter PLUS one cup of buttermilk
1/8 teaspoon salt
Chill your mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the freezer for at least an hour before starting.
Pour the heavy cream into the chilled bowl and beat on medium to high speed in your stand mixer until the cream whips up to stiff peaks and then completely disintegrates, starts to turn yellowish and the buttermilk is sloshing around in the bottom of the bowl. This will take about 15 minutes.
Drain the buttermilk (and save it to make the biscuits below!) and beat the butter for another minute or two to release a bit more liquid.
Drain again, using a fine mesh strainer and pressing on the butter to release as much liquid as possible, reserving the remaining buttermilk. You should have just about a cup of buttermilk.
Move your butter into a clean bowl and cover with cold water, then knead it with your fingers, then drain it. Repeat the process two more times, until the water runs clear. Pat the butter dry with paper towels.
At this point you can add some salt, herbs or other seasonings, if you wish.
Form the butter into a log or spoon it into a small dish or ramekin. The butter will last refrigerated for two to three weeks.
After I made the butter, it seemed a shame not to put the cup of fresh buttermilk to good use, so I went ahead and made a batch of buttermilk biscuits to enjoy with our fresh butter.
Buttermilk Biscuits
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl, then using a pastry cutter incorporate the butter, and then pour in the buttermilk and mix with a wooden spoon or your fingers until the dough is just combined. The dough will be fairly sticky.
On a lightly floured surface, pat or roll the dough out to a 1/2" thickness, then cut out 8 biscuits using a 3" biscuit cutter or the rim of a drinking glass. Arrange them on the prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown on top. Let cool slightly, then split in half and enjoy with more of your fresh butter.
Just like baking with our fresh eggs yields far superior results than using store bought eggs, making butter and biscuits with fresh ingredients proved no different.
The butter is light and creamy. It tastes so pure and fresh. Rich and so light, it was pure heaven to spread the homemade butter on biscuits warm from the oven.
I am definitely going to continue to make my own butter, and my resolve to get a cow (or two) has been renewed.
After all, I talked my husband into chickens, ducks and a corgi, oh and most recently geese... so how hard can it be to convince him that we now need a cow?
It's those chickens, I'm telling you ... they ARE the gateway drug!
