How to make butter in a blender

A better, faster, and easier way. 

This is an easy and fast recipe for making homemade butter from scratch and all you need is pure cream and your Vibe Blender. Making butter in a blender may not be nostalgic, like this old fashioned ‘shake cream in a jar’ method but it gets the job done really fast and the butter comes out just as wonderful.

Making butter is a delicate but fast process in a high-speed blender. Getting it to the whipped cream stage takes approximately 20 seconds, soon after it will become grainy and separate into globs of butter and watery buttermilk. Depending on the fat content of your cream, the total blending time should be around a minute. Then it’s time to wash the buttermilk out of the butter. These steps are no different from the traditional hand method we employ here.

Start with the best cream you can buy. If you’d like to make cultured butter, you can also ferment your cream in a yogurt maker before you begin. Cultured butter has a slightly tangy flavour which sets it apart from regular butter. Watch how to culture cream here. An extra bonus of making cultured butter from scratch is that you’ll end up with real fermented buttermilk in the process! Save the fresh buttermilk for baking and use it in pancakes, muffins, or bread. 

Freshly made butter is very soft and creamy. You can transfer it to a glass storage container or wrap it up in baking paper and let it firm up in the fridge. Kept on the counter, homemade butter will keep up to a week. Cultured butter will last longer. 

Troubleshooting blender butter

• Use cream straight from the fridge so it’s nice and cold. With a high-speed blender you run the risk of heating up the cream and then it won’t turn into butter. 
• If you are using cultured cream, make sure the cream has chilled for at least 6 hours.
• The quantity of cream must cover the blender blades. Start with a minimum of 400ml. You can blend more but only ever half fill the jug or you might have some trouble getting it to churn without overheating.
• If your whipped cream turns to liquid, it has overheated in the blender. It’s not wasted. Put the blender jug in the fridge and try again when the contents are chilled.  
• If your homemade butter went rancid really fast, you most likely did not rinse off enough of the buttermilk. Storing it in the fridge will help to extend its life. If you would like the butter to remain spreadable it is be best to only leave a small amount out of the fridge at a time.  Store the remainder in a 450ml Luvele Fresh glass vacuum container.

INGREDIENTS

400ml pure cream (or cultured cream) or more
¼ teaspoon of fine salt (optional)

METHOD

1.   Pour the cream into the Vibe Blender jug then secure the lid on.
2.   Choose ‘smoothie’ mode and toggle the speed to the lowest setting.
3.   Blend on low for 20 seconds to produce whipped cream with stiff peaks.
4.   Remove the filler cap and insert the Tamper. Without the Tamp in the jug an air pocket will form around the blades and stop the cream from progressing into the next churning stage.
5.   Set the speed to high now and blend for 20 seconds rotating the tamp in an up and down motion effectively scraping the sides and pushing the cream down into the blades.
6.   Stop and open the jug to check in on the consistency.
7.   Running at high speed the sides of the jug get completely coated. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides.
8.   Butter solids separate from the liquid (buttermilk) when it’s done, and contents of the jug will look like a grainy white liquid soup.
9.   If the separation process hasn’t happened, blend again for another 20 seconds.

10.  As soon as the separation has occurred and butter milk is present, no further blending is required.
11.  Pour off the buttermilk (save it for pancakes!) You can pour the contents out into a sieve over a bowl or leave it in the jug and just pour off the buttermilk.
12.  Next you’ll need to rinse the butter of all the remaining buttermilk. Use very cold water for this step. Either refrigerated water or iced water.
13.  Remove the blender jug from the base and treat the jug as a mixing bowl.
14.  Pour 1-2 cups of water in. With a spatula, squish the butter against the sides of the jug until the water becomes cloudy. Pour the water out then add more fresh cold water to the butter repeating the same rinsing process. Paddle the butter with a spatula and rinse 3 times.
15.  Scoop the butter out into a large bowl. The consistency should look more compact and resemble butter now.

16.  Add some more cold water and do another two rinse and churn cycles or until the water runs completely clear. If any milk is left in the butter, it will spoil quickly. The shelf life really depends on how well you extract the buttermilk.
17.  Salting the butter is optional. If desired, sprinkle with salt and knead in with a spatula. Taste it. If you find it too salty, give it one final rinse.
18.  After you are done rinsing and salting you can place the butter in a glass container or turn the butter out onto baking paper and press into shape. Wrap the butter then refrigerate to set.
19.  Homemade butter will keep for 2-3 weeks in the fridge, but if you need it softer, to remain spreadable it is best to only leave a small amount out of the fridge at a time. Homemade butter will spoil quickly if left out at room temperature for too long.

If you make this, or any of our recipes, we would love to see your creations. Leave us a comment, or tag a photo using #luvelelife on Instagram.

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