Mmmm Butter

After depleting the butter I purchased over the holidays, I decided it was time to tackle the butter making process. Here's what I did:

Pour 1 quart of raw cream into the KitchenAid mixer (whisk attachment), and set it on speed 4. I covered the bowl with a dampened cloth (to prevent buttermilk from flying in the whipping process), and I let it rip for about  30 minutes or so. I used the KitchenAid because my previous attempts in the food processor and blender did not work well. The food processor base become too hot and the butter that was forming became melted, and the blender just wasn't mixing the cream at the top as well as the cream at the bottom.

After the butter formed and the buttermilk was visible like so:

I began the process of rinsing the butter. I poured off the butermilk and rinsed with water repeatedly until the liquid that was poured off was clear.

Then I poured some water in, ran the mixer for 30 seconds to wash the butter some more, and then began pushing the butter together to squeeze out any remaining buttermilk.

Once I was satisfied that I had gotten out as much buttermilk as was physically possible, I separated out the butter into 2 ounce portions (4 tablespoons), wrapped it in parchment paper, and then froze it.

1 quart produced 1 pound of butter.