What’s the Fastest Way to Make Homemade Butter? Testing 3 Methods

I tried making homemade butter three different ways. Here’s what actually worked best.

So, I recently discovered how easy it is to make homemade butter with nothing but whipping cream and a stand mixer. (Read the original butter-making post here.)

I’d been blissfully happy with this process until one day curiosity struck, and I thought, could there be a better way?

So I decided to test making butter in both a blender and a food processor.

I figured it would be about the same as making butter in a stand mixer, but with a lot less mess and a much smaller amount made.

Boy was I wrong.

Let’s find out what I discovered.

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Method 1: The Stand Mixer

Making homemade butter in a stand mixer is easy, yes. You just pour the cream in, run the machine and wait for the cream to whip and finally break.

However, it can get a little messy as the cream sloshes around in the mixing bowl.

Having a splash guard or draping a damp tea towel over the mixer does help but unfortunately adds another thing to clean in addition to the bowl, paddle, and most likely, the mixer itself!

To keep splashing at a minimum, you must start slow and work your up in speed.

As the machine goes faster, it gets louder.

And this continues on for several minutes until the cream breaks and you magically get butter.

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My old stand mixer was really noisy. My new stand mixer is slightly less noisy.

I do like that a stand mixer can whip a large batch of cream into butter. For reference, I have a 6 quart bowl, but only whipped 2 cups of cream in it in the photo above. You could easily triple or quadruple the amount for that large of a bowl.

And if I’m using the butter in a recipe right away—making cookies, for example—then I often don’t clean out the bowl and paddle. I just drain off the buttermilk, measure the butter and proceed.

Conclusion: Making butter in a stand mixer is great for large batches but is the messiest of the methods tested in this post.

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Method 2: The Food Processor

I had high hopes for the food processor. I saw comments in a Facebook group I’m in praising the food processor for making butter fast.

So I decided to try this one out as well.

Now, I have no idea why, but I tried using the dough attachement. I don’t have a good reason for this. I never use the thing, but I thought today was a good day to try it out.

THAT was a huge mistake.

The dough attachment took forever to whip the cream.

I later removed half the amount of cream, thinking the processor just needed more room to whip the liquid around. Nope.

Then I swapped the dough attachment for the regular blade.

Same thing. The liquid just sloshed around and the processor shook like it was experiencing an earthquake. I didn’t notice the cream getting any closer to the whipped cream stage, so I had very little hope that it could make it to the butter stage.

I actually did not finish making butter in the food processor. I know from others’ experiences that it can be done. I unfortunately didn’t have the patience to do it.

For me, it was taking too long. And then I got annoyed by all the extra dishes I’d made for myself to clean.

Conclusion: The food processor takes too long to turn cream into butter, at least in my experience. Let me know in the comments if you’ve had a different outcome and think I should try this again!

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Method 3: The Blender (the Vitamix, specifically)

OK, so now we get to my favorite method for making butter.

One little thing you should know before we move on: I very recently upgraded my 10-year-old Ninja blender to a Vitamix. So I can’t guarantee these results will occur with just about any blender as the Vitamix is way more powerful than my old Ninja. Plus the blades are different.

Unfortunately, I no longer have my Ninja to test it out. If you have one, and you try making butter, will you please let us all know how it went in the comments?

So where was I? Oh yes…

Frustrated by the lack of butter magic happening from my food processor, I dumped the extra cream into my blender and ran it side-by-side with the food processor.

Keep in mind, the processor was running non-stop as I was setting up the blender and transferring the cream.

I did not have high expectations for the blender.

The food processor really dampened my enthusiasm.

However, I figured I had nothing to lose and only more dirty dishes to gain, so I set the blender to low and turned it on.

Slowly, I increased the speed and noticed within seconds that the cream was getting thicker and thicker. Could it be…?

Less than ten seconds later, the cream broke and turned into butter.

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I cheered. I literally cheered.

I was so shocked by how little time it took for the blender to make butter. I immediately transferred the still-liquid cream from the food processor to the blender and ran the blender on high.

Ten seconds later, I had more butter!

Altogether, the process took a little over a minute.

Conclusion: A Vitamix makes butter super fast and is the simplest of the three appliances to clean.

The Winner

The clear winner for me is the blender. Even though I can only make smaller batches of butter (I have a 48 oz container), it takes such a short amount of time that I can easily make several batches in the amount of time it would take for my stand mixer to work.

I do acknowledge that a blender is even louder than a stand mixer, but it’s only for a minute versus the 5+ minutes of mixer noise.

Lastly, the blender is the easiest of the three to clean. All the splashing is self-contained, and the blender cleans itself with a little dish soap and warm water, and running on high for a couple seconds.

How to Make Butter (Using Any Appliance)

Just in case this post has inspired you to make your own butter (which I hope it has!), here’s a quick run-down on how to do it at home using any appliance you have.

1. Pour heavy whipping cream into your appliance’s container. Leave several inches at the top for the cream to expand.
2. Run the appliance on low speed, increasing slowly as the cream begins to thicken and splash less and less.
3. Continue whipping the cream on high speed until it separates into solid butter and liquid buttermilk.
4. Strain the mixture in a colander set over a bowl.
5. Rinse the solid butterfat in cold running water until the water runs clear.
6. Salt the butter and store both the butter and buttermilk in the refrigerator. Enjoy!

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Recapping the Methods and Conclusions

So, what did we learn from this experiment? Let’s recap.

I tried making butter in a stand mixer, food processor, and blender.

From my experience, the blender was the fastest and cleanest way to make butter. It took less than 2 minutes to go from heavy cream to butter and buttermilk using my blender.

The second best way to make homemade butter from heavy cream was by using a stand mixer. It’s large bowl (mine is 6 quarts) allows you to make a big batch of butter in one go. Because the bowl is open at the top, it can get messy from all the cream splashing around at the beginning. A kitchen towel or splash guard will help keep splashes contained but unfortunately is just another thing to clean.

My least favorite (and unsuccessful) way to make butter is by using a food processor. It did not work for me.

So what do you think about my experiment? Have you had the same experience? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

And if you’re ready to turn that homemade butter into herb butter check out this post or make a stunning butter board for your next get together.