How to make butter by: Chica This post may contain affiliate links and we may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking them.

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Believe it or not, it's super easy to make real butter at home, in about five minutes. You even don't have to be Laura Ingalls Wilder to do it. All you need is a little heavy whipping cream, a pinch of salt, and a baby food jar, and you'll end up with sweet, creamy butter that makes a tasty treat.

This is actually a wonderful rainy day activity for the kids (or "snowy day" if you're stuck inside all winter). They'll enjoy it and it'll keep them busy. I remember learning this trick in Kindergarten, and the results are almost as amazing to me now as they were then.

Start by putting about 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream in a clean baby food jar and securing the lid tightly. Make sure the jar is no more than halfway full, so that the cream has plenty of room.

The temperature of the cream needs to be between 50-60 degrees F in order to churn, so let it sit on the counter a bit to warm up. Trust me -- don't try to make butter from cold cream, or else you'll be wasting your time (and muscles) shaking forever until it warms up enough to actually churn. Test with a thermometer to be sure you're in the right range.

Then shake the jar vigorously back and forth.

As you shake, you'll notice the cream go through several fascinating stages. Feel free to open the jar and take a peak whenever you notice a new texture. It will be fascinating to the kids and will give their arms a break from shaking, too.

The first change you'll see is that the cream gets thick and smooth. It will coat the sides of the jar completely and won't feel like it's moving much inside. At this point you have whipped cream. (You could actually stop here and add a little powdered sugar and eat it on dessert, but we're going to keep going... we're making butter today.)

A little more shaking and soon the whipped cream will get grainier and stop coating the sides of the jar. It will still be quite floppy, though, and not firm.

Keep on shaking it, and you'll see it start to firm up and get quite lumpy and thick. It will start to take on a consistency like ricotta cheese...

... and then like cottage cheese. It will get lumpier and chunkier as you keep shaking.

Then all of a sudden you'll hear splashing when you shake. The fat in the cream will lump together into a ball of almost-butter and the leftover milk will start separating out. The transformation happens in just a few seconds and is really neat to experience.

Keep shaking for a minute or so to be sure you've got all the butter formed, and then dump it into a bowl and see what you've got. Look at that. What was once cream is now butter and milk!

Pour the excess milk out, then take a spoon and press on the butter to release as much of the trapped milk as possible. Continue to drain any milk away as you work the butter. You can also add cold water (then drain it off) to rinse away any remaining milk. This will help your butter stay fresher longer.

Then add a pinch or two of salt to perk up the flavor of the butter, and stir it well.

Your butter is ready to eat! One quarter cup of cream will yield about a tablespoon of butter.

So the next time you have a little leftover cream and don't know what to do with it, try making butter. Or, if you're out of butter and need it for a recipe and happen to have cream on hand, you can make your own. And imagine the reaction from your friends at a tea party or baby shower as they butter their bread and you tell them "Oh yes, I made that butter myself!"

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