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Making Spreadable Butter in the Thermomix
I love being able to make my own butter and butter spreads! Most bought butter spreads have additives, preservatives and colours in them, and often contain vegetable oils. By using a good quality pure cream to make your own butter, then adding a good quality oil, you can have a delicious butter spread that’s free from all the ‘nasties’ at a fraction of the cost. You’ll get the best savings by buying your cream in bulk. We buy cream in 2 litre bottles from our local biodynamic dairy, and you can often find 2 litre bottles of pure cream in the supermarket also.
With the Thermomix, making butter is a cinch. It usually takes about a minute, maybe two, to change from pure cream into butter and buttermilk. It costs less than buying pre-made butter, and if you make it into a butter spread (adding oil and water and whipping it up), it costs even less! I think most people now know that margarine is not a healthy choice, so this is a good alternative to margarine if you’re wanting something that is spreadable from the fridge.
This spread works well in most recipes that call for butter – cakes, biscuits, scones, breads… My mum uses extra virgin, cold-pressed olive oil in hers, but some people find the taste too strong. I usually use macadamia oil or high-oleic, organic, cold-pressed sunflower oil.
Here’s how I make my butter spread in the Thermomix:
Note: You can find fine sea salt for this recipe in my online store here!
Making Spreadable Butter in the Thermomix
2014-07-12 18:57:27
Ingredients
- 600g pure cream
- macadamia oil, olive oil, or high-oleic cold-pressed sunflower oil
- filtered water
- sea salt/himalayan salt (opt.)
Instructions
- Insert the butterfly and measure in the cream.
- Whip on speed 4 until it separates into butter and buttermilk. It will start to bump around, so stay near your machine and turn it off after a couple of seconds of 'bumping'. It usually takes only a minute or two, but I have had older cream take up to 5 minutes.
- Strain the buttermilk by pouring it through the strainer/rice basket into a bowl. Squeeze the butter well with the spatula (against the side of the bowl) to get out as much of the buttermilk as you can. The buttermilk is lovely to bake with in scones, breads, cakes and pancakes (if you can have dairy), so don't throw it out!
- Remove the butterfly from the bowl and pour about 500g icy cold water over the butter. Mix it on speed 4 for a few seconds to rinse it. Strain the water off into the sink, pressing the butter against the side of the bowl with the spatula and pouring through the strainer/rice basket again. The butter needs to be rinsed twice, or until the water is clear (see below). If you leave any buttermilk in the butter, it will turn sour more quickly.
- Give the butter a good squeeze to get rid of any remaining water. This can be done with the spatula, squeezing the butter against the side of the bowl; or you can wrap a piece of muslin around the butter and squeeze it; or you can just use your hands.
- Now make sure the bowl is empty, and weigh the butter back in so you know how much you have. Then add in that much oil and water.
- Eg: If you end up with 300g of butter, add 300g of oil and 300g of water. Also add a little salt if you like. I add a bit less than a teaspoon of salt to this amount of butter, oil and water.
- Insert the butterfly, and whip the butter, oil, water and salt on speed 4 for about 20 seconds, or until well combined. Pour into a container (preferably glass) and keep in the fridge.
Quirky Cooking https://www.quirkycooking.com.au/
This butter spread will last a few weeks if kept refrigerated, and is easy to spread straight from the fridge.
Comments 89
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I’ll have to bookmark this. We finally got a Vitamix, and so far it has been used for snow cone ice.
I hope it works for you! Can you whip in the Vitamix? It’s great to be able to make your own butter.
I love this post so much, I’m going to add a link from the butter page on my blog.
I make a similar version ( ‘cept I use flax oil) and have been meaning to blog talk it, but now I can relax, take a nap, and just point people to this lovely page! Seriously awesome.
Thanks Jo 😉
Oh, thank you Helene!! 😀 Flax oil is a good idea – I’ll have to try that some time!
Have a nice nap! 😉
Jo x
This worked perfectly. Thank you, we enjoy the butter but its just too hard to spread and this you can use straight from the fridge.
I found your blog while looking for spelt bread recipes. All the recipes look delicious. I just have to figure out how to get my hands on a Thermomix or something similar! I live in the U.S. and have not found anything about them being available here. It looks like a truly awesome tool to have though, and the foodie in me loves kitchen tools that make tasty food. Lovely writing, keep it up!
Thanks C.M.C.! If you would like to know about getting a Thermomix in the US, you can get them from Mexico or Canada. Here’s some links for you:
http://www.easycooking.ca/
http://www.thermomixcanada.ca/
http://www.vorwerk.com/mx/thermomix
Hope that helps! 🙂
Hi Jo, thanks for this recipe. My TMX is about 2 weeks old and I’ve been cooking up a storm – loving it! Was just wondering if you’ve tried freezing this spread. I have 3 containers full and there is no way we will finish it all in a few weeks so I’ve popped two in the freezer. I’m just worried it may split when it’s defrosted. Do you think it will freeze well?
Thanks
Robin
Hi Robin! That’s great you’re having fun with your new Thermomix – isn’t it great?!! Yes, I’m sure this butter spread will be fine frozen – I freeze butter and it’s no problem.
Jo 🙂
Thanks Jo!
Hi Jo, love your website, have been browsing for a couple of days now!! Going to make butter today, just have a quick question… I have got some cream in the fridge with a use-by date of today, so what kind of life will that give me for the butter??? Just curious!!!
Thanks Jo
Sam
Hi Sam, your cream will be fine to use. I often use cream from the ‘throw out’ section of the supermarket – the butter lasts just as long because you’re getting rid of the milk, which is what goes sour. The butter is just the fat. Make sure you rinse it really, really well, and it will last just as long as usual.
Jo 🙂
So does 600mL cream give approx 300g butter? Just doing my sums to compare prices. Havent tried it yet, but want to.
Hmmm, wonder if I could use liquid coconut oil for the oil?
Ang, it depends on the freshness of the butter – usually about half the amount becomes butter.
Cat, I’m sure you could, but it would just end up a bit more solid once refrigerated. 🙂
Just wanted to let you know that not only did I use thickened cream, but it was long life also – and still worked!! Thanks for this great recipe.
OK, I need some help. I was really looking forward to making my own butter, but it has been an abject failure! After 3 minutes it was looking promising, but hadn’t separated, I put it back on for a bit longer and a bit longer but no luck. It ended up just reverting back to complete liquid. I used pure cream with 45% fat and use by date 12/01/12. Any suggestion as to what went wrong? I can’t imagine Australian pure cream is any different to any where else.
Oh no, Vicki!! Did you have the cream really cold out of the fridge? Hmmm, not sure why that happens sometimes. Just try again sometime with another brand of cream. The very best I find is the organic non-homogenised Mungali Milk cream, which we can buy in bulk two litre bottles here, but don’t know if you can get it anywhere else, it’s local. I have used Paul’s pure cream and it always seems to work too. Maybe it was just a funny batch. Here’s a link to a discussion on butter making on the forum – maybe you can get some more help there? http://www.forumthermomix.com/index.php?topic=3977.0
Thanks Jo. I’ve just had another go, using Gippsland double pure cream, which is so beautiful & thick, it’s almost butter before you even start. Far more successful this time although now I’ve used grapeseed oil and I have a strong suspicion the flavour is going to be too strong. Ah well, try, try again.
I’m so glad it worked!! I use grapeseed oil and don’t find it too strong, but I guess it depends on taste, and how much you use. 🙂 Have a great Christmas!!
hi there i need 300 grams of buttermilk can you give me some idea how much cream i need to mix in the Thermomix to get that amount of buttermilk… so excited i can make butter at the same time?
I would use 600g of cream – you’ll usually get about half butter, half buttermilk (depending on the cream). Have fun! 🙂
Hi Jo,
Do you get Mungalli cream? I am in Townsville but we can only get Misty Mountains in cream, but would love to be able to get an organic one. Cheers 🙂
Hi Bree, we can get it at IGA in 2 litre bottles. The Misty Mountains one is thickened, so not so good for butter – I think it has sugar in it too. Ask your local health food shop if they can get the Mungali one in for you! 🙂
Hello Jo
I made up some butter strictly according to your directions and ended up with 500 grams, and because I wanted it to be spreadable, added 500 grams of water and 500 grams of grapeseed oil. The result seems almost too soft and very oily. Do you think that the 1:1:1 ratio is correct?
Hi Max, yes, it will be very sloppy when you make it, but put it in the fridge and it will harden to a margerine consistency. If you don’t like it so oily, you can cut down the ratio, and just add a little oil and water – it will just be harder if refrigerated. 🙂
Thank you Jo
I have made some with a 2:1:1 ratio and the result is much better (to my taste anyway)..
Hi Jo, I’m a big fan of the melrose omega 3 spread but i find it prohibitively expensive n hard to find. Do you know of any way the thermomix could magically make something similar that is dairy free and my kids n hubby might recognise as butter? I currently spoon flax oil onto toast but the rest of the family are fussy…
Just had teh exact same experience as Vicki. Used Paul’s pure cream cold from the fridge just never separated. How “bumpy” should it get in the tmx? Should it be obvious when it has separated? Can I chill this cream and try again…
I don’t like cream and now have a massive bowl of it in my fridge! Husband will be happy.
I have made butter quite a lot in the thermomix but was always frustrated at how hard it was to spread once refridgerated. This recipe is just perfect and it spreads straight from the fridge! Yipee! Thanks Jo
Kristen, sometimes the cream takes longer to separate – you can definitely hear it bumping once it does separate – if you leave it your Thermomix will start to jump around! Might’ve been an old batch of cream or could’ve needed longer to whip. 🙂
Kelly, I’m so glad you like it! 🙂
Hi Jo,
thanks for this recipe – although I have to say I found the oil overpowered the taste of everything when I made it. I used Grapeseed Oil, too…. I guess it is just a matter of taste, but imagine the recipe will work with less oil, just that it won’t stretch as far and will be a bit firmer?? It looks divine… KW
Hi KW, I’ve had this made with olive oil for years and the taste didn’t bother me, but I love olive oil and even have that straight on toast with garlic! If I want it to taste blander, I use macadamia oil. I know not everyone likes that flavour though, so yes, just cut down the amount of oil and water (keep those two the same) and make sure you add salt. As someone above said, they preferred the ratio to be 2:1:1, so maybe try that?
J 🙂
thanks so much yet again jo 🙂 i have been making butter for quite a while now and not had a problem except for the spreading. its great to know it needs to be rinsed. makes sense really! oil to make it spread… lookout im on fire now!
Made this a number of times as well and the only failures I have had have been with the Paul’s pure cream, it just won’t seperate, it nearly gets there and the just liquifies again. I gave up after 8 minutes.
It looks like butter and tastes like butter but no butter milk 🙁 must just be the brand.
Hubby bought cream the other day and it was thickened cream and that seperated nicely.
Anyway I now have 600ml of over mixed cream or under churned butter – any suggestions of what I can use it for?
I would love to know of anywhere in Perth that sells organic cream at a reasonable bulk price. I can buy organic butter for 6 bucks for 250 grams or organic cream for 8
Does anyone know of where you can buy organic cream in Melbourne in bulk?
hi Jo,
have just discovered your blog, and am in love!!
i am looking to make a dairy free spread, we have nut butter etc, but was hoping to have one that looks like just butter.
any ideas? i see someone posed a similar question up in the posts, but darned if i can find your reply!!
Am in love with your blog!
Hiya jo could I use vegetable oil as I have a big thing in the cupboard of it. And I usually use my grapeseed for baking 🙂
maggie
Just wondering where you’re located as I’d love to buy cream striaght from a local dairy too but finding it difficult to source one.
oh, so glad i’ve popped in and found my exact question! I too would prefer to buy a big bottle of cream, rather than the Pauls Pure which is pretty expensive and I don’t think will work out cheaper than the Mainland butter I usually buy.
Mine works really well with pure cream.
Lucky to have Jo’s detail explanations to have confidence moving on.
Thank you very much.
Hi Jo, i would really like to make my own butter. We are dairy and soy free due to allergies. Do you have any suggestions on what we could use?
Thank you
Thanks for the recipe, Jo. My kids didn’t like the taste of olive oil but I have had great success using avocado oil instead. I also halve the amount of oil and water and still get a spreadable blend.
Jo, Do you have any recipes for the buttermilk that is left after making the butter? I love making butter, but don’t like wasting the buttermilk…I have a stash of it in the freezer waiting for a fantastic whole food thermomix recipe to use it up!
Hi Jo, I live in a small mining town in SA. We do not have any organic cream around these parts (ive exhausted all avenues) I was just wondering if there was a way I could make cream from my organic milk? then make butter from the cream? or straight from milk to butter?
Thanks 🙂
I just add 100gm of extra virgin olive oil to my butter and it makes it spreadable.
why do you have to add water ? other recipe’s don’t add water and oil
You don’t have to if you want pure butter, but this is a spreadable butter.