Homemade Butter in the Food Processor

Before trying this batch of butter, the last time that I had fresh homemade butter was in grade three when half of our class got to bake a loaf of bread and the other half got to shake a jar full of cream until it turned into butter. I was placed in the butter-making half  and was pretty excited about it. Obviously we couldn't all shake the jar at the same time so we just passed it around and shook it until our tiny arms got tired.

In retrospect, the kids who got to make bread had the better deal.

I've been testing out a Cuisinart Elite Collection 12-Cup (3 L) Food Processor and I was super excited (like grade-three style excited) to discover via Pinterest that it's easy to turn cream into butter with it. *insert clapping of hands and squealing*

Maybe it has to do with my childhood obsession with pioneers and the Little House on the Prairies book series..

 

Anyways,

So this beautiful machine comes with a big bowl and a smaller bowl that fits inside it. Since the cream will be whipping up quite a bit before it curdles I opted to use the big bowl fitted with the chopping blades. It got filled up with whipping cream to about 1/3 - 1/2 full. Then I pressed "On" and watched the cream first whirl around, then whip up. It sloshed around inside for a bit then it began to curdle.

 

While it was churning the cream I got a container full of ice water ready to rinse the butter with. You want it to be really cold so that it rinses away the buttermilk and not the curdled pieces.

 

When the cream was really curdled I stopped the food processor..

 

.. and used a spatula (the food processor comes with one) to scoop out the butter and buttermilk into a strainer lined with a clean cloth. Normally I would use cheese cloth but I was all out. I find these j-cloths work just as well for straining tasks.

Then I had my lovely and talented photo assistant squeeze the cloth so that I could take a picture of it happening. If you don't need a photo just go ahead and squeeze the buttermilk out yourself.

 

The squeezed butter gets returned to the food processor bowl to be rinsed with the ice water. Giving it a good rinsing will help your butter keep for longer.

To rinse you pour in some ice water through the feed tube until the butter is almost covered. Then you press pulse 5 or 6 times. Lift off the lid and carefully pour away the cloudy water. Repeat this three or four times (more if you are making a lot of butter).

 

There are a number of different methods for getting the water out of the butter after rinsing. I just put mine on a board and pressed and squeezed it. It helps to hold some ice cubes for a few seconds to make sure that your hands are cold and not melting the butter too much.

Once the majority of the water is squeezed out (don't worry about getting every little drop) you can use the small bowl of your food processor, or the big bowl depending on how much butter you made, to add salt and flavors to your butter.

I'm not normally an un-salted butter kind of girl when it's not for baking, but this butter tastes fantastic unsalted. Homemade butter on homemade bread = the best toast that I've had all month/year/ever.

Any butter that you aren't going to use in a timely fashion can be shaped into a log, rolled up in parchment paper and frozen for later use.

 

Cuisinart has given my readers the chance to win their own butter making machine (ok, it does so much more than that, but the butter is pretty cool) by sponsoring a Mother's Day Giveaway with me. You can enter to win this Cuisinart Elite Collection 12-Cup (3 L) Food Processor  by entering on this giveaway post

I had originally started out with the plan to just test one or two recipes with my food processor. Maybe see how well it thinly sliced onions and grated cheese (thumbs up by the way. I'm never slicing onions any other way again).  However, it was so much fun playing around with it that I've still got a few more food processor posts to go before the giveaway ends! Not to mention a pinterest board dedicated to food processor recipes. (It's a group board so if you have some tasty food processor recipes to pin just let me know and I'll add your name to the board so that you can pin things too).

 

Comments

[Vincci]

That looks *so* good - must try this!

[Lindsay]

I've literally never wanted a food processor more than I do right now.

[Paula]

That's one beautiful looking machine and one gorgeous batch of delicious butter.

[Amy Jo Schenewark]

Your lemon tart has had so many repins from my pinterest! Thank you for your delicious recipes! I would love to do that with butter...I have no food processor, and six boys, so it would be VERY handy!

[Babs]

Perhaps the last thing I would have thought of making in a food processor was butter. I will have to try this. Much easier than the old butter churn method.

[Michelle VT]

I love the idea of making butter at home to serve on homemade bread. Plus, I could really use a food processor!

[Lisa @ The Gonzo Gourmet]

I have that same childhood experiment of making butter by shaking a glass jar. I also share your love of all things Little House related (I've got my 6yo started on the books, although some of the butchering scenes are rather alarming). Good to know there's a better method for making homemade butter!

[PIE-314]

Did not know that you had to rinse butter! Learned something today!

[Russell at Chasing Delicious]

Who knew our blogs and we are twinsies! Happy belated bday to you both! And now I want homemade butter.

[Becs @ Lay the table]

I had no idea you had to rinse it! I've nearly had some disasters with cream several times where I've pretty much made butter by being too vigourous with the ol' mixer though!

[LP @dishclips]

Thanks for the lesson. This is great!

[Jessica @ bake me away!]

Yum, I bet this tastes amazing! I thought that if you whipped cream long enough it would just turn to butter, but didn't know about the straining and rinsing. Must try it soon! I almost never use the little bowl of this processor because both bowls get dirty and I am a lazy person who doesn't want to wash another thing.

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[business]

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[Tulasi]

I didn't think it was possible to make butter at home. Thanks for sharing this recipe. I'll give it a try.