Homemade Cultured Butter

Homemade cultured butter

Today I want to talk about butter. As someone with a mild intolerance to lactose I am very grateful that butter was not something I had to restrict or limit in my regular diet. No pie crust or butter cream frosting ever had to be sacrificed for my inner health. But I never gave any thought to making my own. The notion did not ever occur to me that it could really be a simple process that pretty well anyone could make at home. I will admit the use of my Kitchen Aid with the whisk attachment helped make this process minimally physical. I do think one day it would be fun to make it the good ol’ fashion hand churned way but for now I will share my experience using the helpful appliance.

If you know anything about me you know that if I can culture or ferment something I will. I am kind of obsessed with beneficial bacteria and the process of change using only the environment around me. Sourdoughs, vegetables, wild fermented wines and vinegar’s are almost always a constant on my kitchen counters. Living with digestive disrupt motivates me to find the most nutritious, natural, digestible way to eat foods. And fermenting is probably the best place to begin on a digestive healing journey. I’ll tell you a little secret too, it’s easy! It may seem intimidating at first but it is probably one of the most flexible, natural processes to happen in a kitchen.

But back to butter! And how does all this fermenting talk fit into it all? Well butter could be made simply by churning cream until it breaks. Meaning the fat separates from the liquid. Some of you may even have experienced this by over whipping your whipping cream. That’s how simple it is. It happens to people by accident! Anyways, I wouldn’t want to make just regular butter when I could make cultured butter obviously! So I got hunting for information.

Using whipping cream to make homemade cultured butterMy main curiosity was what I could use as a culture starter. It seems like kefir is a popular choice to get cultured butter going but that is not a thing I make or have kicking around. But I had just happened to make a big batch of my 24 hour fermented, lactose free, yogurt. (I promise to share more about that soon!) So I did some hunting around to see if that would be a suitable starter and found that it should work. Off to the store to get myself some heavy cream.

I bought two 500 ml bottles of 36% whipping cream sourced from Avalon Dairy, B.C’s oldest dairy producer. When I compared the cost of buying this cream to the cost of what I would normally spend on organic, grass fed butter it was still cheaper. Once I realized how much butter I was able to make it was an even better deal. And that’s not even considering the fresh buttermilk I was going to get out of it too! So financially it was a good idea along with being healthier!

Using homemade plain yogurt as a culture starter for homemade cultured butter

The first step to having your own homemade, cultured butter is to begin the culturing process. To do this whisk a 1/4 cup plain yogurt into a liter of whipping cream. I recommend using high quality cream and yogurt with minimal ingredients. If you use something loaded with preservatives, stabilizers etc I can not promise you will end up successful. Whisk this together so the yogurt is mixed well with the cream in a jar. Cover the jar with a coffee filter or towel, something to keep dust and bugs out. Place in a warm area of your kitchen, out of direct sunlight, for three days (two days may be a better idea if it’s summer or you live in a warm climate).

Three day ferment on the counter to make cultured butterAfter the three days your cream should be slightly thickened and have a slight tangy, sour smell. It may have developed a skin on the top and this shouldn’t be worried about. It’s time to chill your cream and tools before mixing. I placed the cream in the fridge and the mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the deep freeze for about 2 hours. After the two hours scrape the cultured cream into the cold bowl. Attach the bowl and whisk attachment into the mixer. Turn the machine on and increase speed to medium/high. Not so fast that the cream is spattering everywhere but close. Now watch. It will seem like it takes a while to see any change but once the change starts it happens fast. If you’re not careful you may end up wearing some along with the kitchen walls.

Whisking some homemade cultured butter          The separated fat from buttermilk while making cultured butter

It will go through a process of changes. The first will look like whipping cream, if you can believe it, which will then move onto more of a frosting texture. Then as you watch it will start to separate. You’ll want to begin to slow the mixer down as this is when things gets wild with the sloshing. Once the whisk is filled with most of the butter and the buttermilk is separated in the bowl stop the mixer. I lined a chinois sieve with a clean dish towel. (tip: don’t use a towel with a lot of fluff to it. You will end up with fluff all over your butter)

Straining the buttermilk from the fat while making cultured butterPour the buttermilk through the towel and sieve and scrap all the butter out of the whisk. Then squeeze the bulk of the liquid out of the butter. I ended up with about 500 ml of buttermilk. Now buttermilk goes rancid before butter does so it’s important to get as much buttermilk out of the butter as possible. To do this you must wash the butter. Take a large bowl and add ice and water to it. Then using your hand, knead the butter in the ice water. You can try doing this with a spatula but I found using my hand worked the best. Change the water as it becomes cloudy and replace with clean. Continue this until the water no longer gets cloudy.

Homemade cultured butterOnce you’ve removed as much buttermilk as possible it’s time to shape your butter. Use a piece of parchment paper and shape your butter into a brick. I wish I could give you a weight as to how much butter this made! But alas I was so excited I forgot and much of it was eaten up before I got a weigh in. I would guess it to be about 1/2 to 3/4 lb of butter. That’s 227 to 340 grams. Along with the 500 ml of buttermilk.

Cultured Butter

Supplies

  • large jar
  • hand whisk
  • kitchen aid with whisk attachment
  • chinois sieve
  • cheese cloth or clean kitchen towel
  • bowl or 1 litre measuring cup for straining
  • large bowl for ice bath
  • parchment paper

Ingredients

  • 1 litre whipping cream
  • 1/4 C plain yogurt

Whisk together cream and yogurt in a large jar. Cover with cheesecloth or towel. Leave in warm part of kitchen out of direct sunlight for 3 days.

After the three day ferment, place jar in fridge and kitchen aid bowl and whisk in freezer for 2 hours.

Once chilled scrape cream into bowl and beat on medium/high speed until fat separates from liquid. Gradually reducing speed as separation occurs.

Strain buttermilk and butter through a cheesecloth lined chinois sieve into a large measuring cup. Squeeze all liquid from butter.

Wash butter by kneading in an ice water bath, changing water until no longer cloudy.

If desired knead salt into butter.

Using parchment paper shape into a brick.

There you have it! Your very own homemade, cultured butter! Use it like you would butter you purchased premade. If you like a salted butter then knead some salt into it after washing, before shaping. I have used the butter on toast, in waffles and bread. I have not made anything like pastry or cookies with it. I did read that because the fat content may vary, depending on what cream you use and how well you wash it, it may not behave as expected in some recipes. I can not comment on that but I like to believe that people were making pies etc long before they could pop over to the store and buy a pound of butter. It’s a risk I’m willing to take. If you do I’d love to know how it goes!

Homemade cultured butter with fresh homemade sourdough

Good luck getting buttered! x

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