Keyword butter from cream, cultured butter, dairy from scratch, homemade buttermilk
Prep Time 20 minutesminutes
Total Time 20 minutesminutes
Room-temperature cream churned in a mixer until it breaks into butter and buttermilk, then rinsed and salted. A cultured version too.
Ingredients
1quartroom temperature cream
1/8teaspoonmesophilic starter culture (if you are making cultured butter)
Sea salt (optional)
Directions
Take the cream out of the fridge a couple of hours ahead so it comes to room temperature (it turns to butter faster).
Cultured butter only: stir the starter culture into the cream and leave it at room temperature for 24-48 hours, or until it thickens and smells pleasantly sour. Skip this for sweet cream butter. If the cream smells bad or grows mold at any point, throw it out.
Pour the cream into a food processor or blender, filling it no higher than the "full" line. Churn until the butter "breaks" (yellow fat pulls away from the liquid buttermilk), after it moves through thickened, whipped, and chunky whipped-cream stages.
Pour off the buttermilk and keep it for baking.
Rinse the butter in ice cold water, pressing it with a wooden spoon to squeeze out any buttermilk left.
Pour off the cloudy water, add fresh cold water, and repeat until the water stays clear (usually 3 or 4 rounds).
If you like, mix in salt to taste.
Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and shape into a log or brick.
Notes
Keep in the fridge for several days (about a week or two), or wrap tightly and freeze for long-term storage.