Kids are always fascinated with learning how to make butter, and this time of year always seems like the perfect time to do it. With all the holidays meals coming up, children always love being able to add their homemade butter to the festive foods! Making butter is also a great classroom activity. Kids can add it to their classroom Thanksgiving feasts!
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I can remember making butter when I was a fourth grader. That’s one of my favorite memories from my elementary school years (along with observing caterpillars become butterflies and sledding down our hill at recess during the snowy winters)!
It’s really simple to do as a classroom activity or at home and you’ll need just a few materials. (This post contains affiliate links.)
How to Make Butter
Pour some heavy whipping cream into a small container with a lid. We filled our glass jar up about half way. Let the heave cream come to room temperature. (This will help it turn to butter more quickly.)
Begin shaking your cream in the jar by hand. (Kids might slowly tire of all the shaking so it’s a great small group project where they can keep taking turns.)
After a few minutes you will notice the cream thicken. It has become whipped cream!
Keep shaking. Soon you will hear liquid sloshing inside the jar again. The cream is separating.
Keep shaking. Soon you will hear sloshing and feel something banging on the sides of the jar as you are shaking. You now have buttermilk and a ball of butter in your jar.
Pour out the buttermilk. (You can save it to use in baking later!) If you are just doing this in a classroom, the butter is actually fine to eat at this point. The kids can sprinkle some salt in it and try it out on some bread or crackers.
If you’re at home or near a sink, place the butter in a small bowl and slowly pour some ice water over it. Use a small spoon to press the remainder of the buttermilk out of it. Pour out the water and continue a few more times.
Add some sea salt, and it’s ready to eat!
It was actually SO good, that I decided to look online to see if there was any equipment that would speed up the process so we could do it at home all the time. I found this butter churn with a crank that would be fun to try, although it’s a bit pricey. I also read you can do it in a mixer. We may try using ours next time to make a bigger batch!
Have you made homemade butter before? Have any tips or suggestions to add- I’d love to hear them!
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I loved doing this at Thanksgiving and Christmas with my boys. There were a couple of differences. We used a plastic container, and put a marble inside. Not sure why other than that’s how we were taught to do it. It’s a great way for them to make a contribution to the holiday meal.
You can totally use a stand mixer, did it with my 10 year old last summer. Word of warning, put a thick towel over the ENTIRE top of the mixer bowl, it will splash everywhere! When they say it is messy, they aren’t lying.
We also added fresh garden chives to the butter when adding the salt. And be sure to add the salt. I think our could have used a little more to actually make the buttery flavor come out. It is really fun and we will be doing it again.
I am madly in love with chives- We are definitely going to be trying that out next! Thanks for all the suggestions and tips!
I’ve found that by adding marbles or ball bearings helps make the butter faster.theistic
I’ve never tried that! We’ll have to try it next time.