Homemade bread gets even better with homemade butter!
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Making your own butter is actually very simple. We all know what happens when you beat cream for too long. After that curdling stage you only need to continue a while longer and in the end you will get butter. Our first attempt at making butter was a deliberate one and it turned out as planned. Lovely fresh butter, a plain version and a version with a hint of coarse salt.
To make it a little bit more exciting and to get a butter with a bit more depth of flavor, we decided to try making ‘cultured butter’ with fermented cream. This fermented version is the one we share with you below. We recommend you to do the same, because taste wise, it makes the butter so much more interesting.
Before the dairy industry raised its giant head, most butter was made with cultured cream. Fresh cream would be allowed to sit out overnight so the milk could settle and the cream could rise to the top. During these unrefrigerated hours, the micro-organisms in the milk caused it to sour slightly, taking on a nutty flavor. This lovely thick cream was then churned into butter.
We believe the better the quality of the cream, the better the butter. If we could lay our hands on some organic Jersey cow cream we would love to give it a go!
Ingredients for the cultured butter
Makes about 300 g butter
1000 ml fresh cream
100 ml organic full fat yoghurt*
20 ice cubes
*Because of pasteurization, cream bought in stores today does not contain lactobacillus cultures needed for fermentation. This is why you need organic yoghurt with active lactobacillus cultures to get things started.
Step 1
In a jug, combine cream and yoghurt, stir, cover and leave to ferment for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature. Transfer to the fridge and leave it for 4 to 6 hours so it gets completely cold again.
Make sure you have about 20 ice cubes ready for the taking in your freezer because you are going to need them tomorrow.
Step 2
Preparing in advance
If you are going to use butter paddles like we do, you need to put them in cold water about one hour before use.
Take the cream from the fridge. Pour into the bowl of your standing mixer with balloon whisk attached (alternatively you can use a hand mixer). Mix at medium speed until you reach a whipping cream consistency.
Now for the fun part. Normally you would stop at this stage, but be brave and keep on mixing. You will notice the cream going through several stages.
First, the whipping cream will curdle, then it will stick to the sides of the bowl. Next, some liquid will separate from the cream. When you reach this stage, slow down your mixing. This is the stage when suddenly the solids and liquid of the cream will separate completely. Mixing too fierce will cause a big mess with liquid splashing all over the place! Continue on low speed until you have a big lump of butter sticking in your whisk (see picture) and a bowl full of milky liquid (this is effectively what they call buttermilk). The whole process will take about 10 to 15 minutes depending on your mixer.
Step 3
Prepare a bowl by filling it with very cold water and adding about 10 ice cubes to it. With a spatula, remove the butter from the whisk and put it in the cold water bowl. Next we have to cleanse the butter to remove any leftover milky liquid. For this you need to knead the butter with your hand in the very cold water. The cold water will turn white from the milky residue. Throw away the cold water and repeat this kneading process two to three times, adding ice cubes if needed, until the water stays clear. This way the butter will keep longer, if you skip this cleaning step the butter will only keep for a few days in the fridge.
Step 4
If your butter is still cold and firm enough you can continue with the shaping. If the butter is getting too soft, put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up. You can shape the butter any way you like. If you shape the butter by hand, make sure to wet your hands first or else the butter will stick. You can make beautiful butter curls with the aid of butter paddles. You can also use the paddles to easily mold the butter into a brick shape. The butter will not melt and not stick to the soaked wood of the paddles.
Wrap the butter in a piece of greaseproof paper and store in the fridge. If you have done your job well, the butter will keep for a few weeks in the fridge (or you can store it in the freezer). But the butter is too good to end up in the back of the fridge, paired with your own crusty loaf, it will be gone in no time. Slap on the butter and enjoy!
In our shop we have a small amount of butter paddles for people who are inspired to make their own too.
Pete says
As well as using yogurt, you can use Kefir to culture your cream which provides a wealth of beneficial cultures and a different flavour.
I use milk Kefir grains to produce my own Kefir which also makes an interesting overnight loaf substituting for yeast as a raising
Khana Ghar says
This is awesome !! Thank you for sharing
www.youtube.com/chann…_a4MrFYJ1A
The Gourmet Grocer says
One thing good about homemade buttter is you can be sure you are consuming healthy butter. This is the best homemade butter tutorial I’ve read!
Dalia Kaplan says
hello
i think i found a home, for my home bake expermental
thank you
Dalia Kaplan
Margareth says
I actually happen to have a creamery that sells raw jersey cow milk right next to me. I will have to find out tomorrow if they sell the cream.
If I am able to buy the cream, would you recommend that i use it to make the croissants with the recipe you have provided?
Thank you for making the most beautiful site I have had the pleasure of using!
Margareth
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Margareth, thank you for your kind words. We would advice to eat it on a piece of toasted bread first. You could use it for croissants but it all depends on how practiced you are at this stage in making them. Often your first try at making croissants ends up in a bit of a disappointment.
Johannes says
That looks really tempting! When would be the moment to add sea salt and how much?
Thanks in advance…
Greets
Joanna says
I wish I had seen this before I ventured into butter making the other week, what a lovely clear post! And now I need some butter paddles, (was just on my way to your shop when I stopped here) as I tried doing it with two heavy small wood boards and it was a bit tricky! I fermented my cream with kefir, so similar to using yoghurt, kind of fun but very messy and involved a trip to the wine shop to buy a bag of ice at the last minute. But lovely to have fresh home made butter. Everyone should try it !
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Joana, thanks! Our next project is to get some kefir!
RVW says
Thanks for this. I’ve just mixed the yogurt and the local cream together!
Theoretically, the buttermilk left over would have active lactobacillus cultures, right? That could be used, I think, to create a starter of sorts for future butter making. I might just have to experiment…
RVW
Weekend Bakers says
Hello RVW, we never used the left over buttermilk. We tried it as a beverage however we did not care much for the taste.
Ted Walsh says
Feeling inspired to make some butter now!
Are you using single or double cream for this?
Thanks
Weekend Bakers says
You can both use single or double cream. However the higher fat content in double cream will give you a higher butter yield, so I would advice to use double cream. The cream we can get here in the Neherlands has a fat content which sits between your single and double cream. Give it a try it is very fulfilling to make your own butter!
Elvira says
Excellent! Thanks. Butter here i come. And im going back to cheese. I miss making cheese.
Thanks again guys.
Weekend Bakers says
Can you tell us which cheese you used to make? Sounds great.
AmsterBiter says
Oh, I am overjoyed that you are following a path similar to mine (from bread making and baking to exploring milk related products)! This might be of interest for you: the Brouwmarkt in Almere sells the cheese ferment to start your own culture (kaaszuursel in Dutch). Then you don’t need to use yogurt for any of these projects, you nurture your culture in pretty much the same way you do with your sourdough starter. I also got rennet from them (lebtremsel) and I’m currently trying to improve my skills to get a better homemade mozzarella (it’s not the easiest cheese to get right but it is delicious).
Weekend Bakers says
This kaaszuursel sounds like something we have to investigate. Thank you so much for sharing your tips. We would love to try and make our own mozzarella. Till now we only made sour cream and Indian paneer, so there is a lot to discover.
We also make (water) kefir and have used it in bread baking too, but not enough to say something very useful about it other than that it worked and produced a good loaf. I guess you have heard about or no doubt own the book ‘wild fermentation’ by Sandor Katz?! Lots more to ferment, if only there were more hours in the day!
Happy fermenting!
Ed & Marieke
AmsterBiter says
There is a lot of local and relevant information at the zelfkaasmaken forum if you are interested in exploring. There are many sites in English with excellent information but the reason I regularly check the Dutch site is because it contains info about historical Dutch cheeses and methods of cheese making (in addition to the more international stuff, of course). One reason you are among my favorite bloggers is because of how much research you’ve done in Dutch flours and locally produced grains (as a matter of fact, I discovered you guys months ago when I bought a banneton at the same mill you purchase from). The zelfkaasmaken forum, in a sense, is an extension of what you do with bread and baking but applied to cheese, documenting Dutch processes, milks, farms, etc. There is so much to learn from and so little time! *sigh*
Happy fermenting and experimenting for you as well!
Weekend Bakers says
Thanks for all the extra info and your enthusiasm! We are definitely going to take a look at the cheese forum. And historical Dutch cheeses, that sounds intriguing. Do not know much about that!
Great you are also able to visit De Zandhaas. I guess you have also seen our flour experiment comparing flour from different mills?! www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ent-mills/
Zandhaas is still a firm favorite and happy we live close enough to go and buy our flour there.
Hope to do some more experimenting soon….
Marieke