How to make fresh butter in 15 minutes

If butter is a regular item on your shopping list, you might be surprised to know that it's not that difficult to make at home.

Inspired by childhood memories of shaking a jar of cream until it started to form butter particles (and the exhausted arms that went with it), we thought it was time to have another crack at making butter ourselves to see if the remembered magic was real.

For this slightly more grown-up version of butter churning we enlisted the help of a trusty bench-top stand mixer. But even with our milkmaid caps on and mechanical assistance, we were surprised to find that in less than 15 minutes we had freshly churned butter in our hot little hands and salted to perfection.

It's a gorgeous weird science to watch the cream whip past stiff peaks and into clotted clumps that then ooze butter milk.

If you don't believe that it's as easy as pouring cream into the mixer and turning it on, check out the video above.

Ingredients

500ml thickened cream
pinch of salt, optional

Preparation method

1. Pour 500ml thickened cream into a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
2. Set speed to medium and whip until stiff peaks form.
3. Continue whipping until cream forms clotted clumps and buttermilk begins to separate (we recommend using the splash protector at this point to stop any flying buttermilk).
4. Once butter has separated from milk pour into a sieve over a bowl and squeeze out any excess buttermilk (reserve the buttermilk for pancakes if you like)
5. Form the butter into a ball under a cold running tap (to stop it melting).
6. Sprinkle with salt to taste (go easy) and knead to combine.
7. Shape back into a ball and enjoy on fresh bread!

It's a fun one to give the kids a crack at… now all you have to do it make the bread.