How to Make Whipped Butter

⭐ Why You’ll Love This Recipe 

Have you ever noticed how restaurant butter always tastes better? More often than not, it’s because the butter has been whipped! Pancake houses and steak houses typically serve whipped butter, giving the traditional spread extra rich flavors and a fluffy, spreadable texture.

Learning How to Make Whipped Butter is easy. Milk is whisked into regular butter until all of that air transforms the dairy-rich spread into a mix that’s light and fluffy. You don’t need any special equipment or fancy ingredients - an incredibly easy recipe!

Just like compound butter, whipped butter is the perfect canvas for customizing with savory and sweet flavors. For example, you can whisk in raw honey to make whipped honey butter or roasted garlic to make whipped garlic butter. There are endless customization ideas, and you can find even more below!

One taste and you’ll want to use your homemade whipped butter on everything. It’s a delightful spread on crusty sourdough slices, on top of steaks and mini pancakes, or spread on your blueberry muffins in the morning. Once you see how easy it is to make whipped butter, it’ll surely become a staple in your kitchen.

Looking for more helpful how-to guides? Check out my collection of how-to guides and these guides for more restaurant staples like How to Make Caramel Sauce, How to Make Brown Butter, Homemade Almond Butter and How to Make Fresh Ricotta!

🍴Ingredients

All you need are 2 ingredients to upgrade a regular stick of butter into a luscious batch of whipped butter:

• Unsalted butter - I recommend using quality, grass-fed unsalted sticks of butter for a fresh, clean slate of flavor.
• Milk - Whole milk or heavy cream will smooth out the whipped butter and add an extra layer of richness.
• Optional Garnishes: Sea Salt, fresh herbs, maple syrup (for sweetened butter), parmesan cheese, or roasted garlic are wonderful additions!

⚒️ Equipment 

• Standing mixer - Or a hand mixer. No matter which electric mixer you use, it’s a key tool in saving you time and effort.
• Large Mixing Bowl- The bowl from your standing mixer will work perfectly! Otherwise, use a medium-sized or large mixing bowl.
• Airtight containers - For storing your whipped butter in the fridge.

📖 Step by Step Instructions

Once you try making whipped creamy butter once and discover just how easy it is, you’ll never settle for regular butter again. Here’s how it’s done:

Step 1: Bring ingredients to room temperature. Pull your butter and milk from the fridge and let them sit on the kitchen counter for at least 30 to 45 minutes or gently microwave at 20% power in 20 second intervals. Room temperature ingredients are a breeze to work with and blend together with ease.

Step 2: Whip the butter and milk. Whip the softened plain butter in a bowl with the room temperature bit of milk until the two transform into a light and fluffy consistency. Once you've reached soft peaks and a smooth texture, use the whipped butter mixture right away on a piece of bread or store it for later.

👩🏻‍🍳 Expert Tips

• Yes, you can over whip butter. It will take a couple of minutes to whip the butter even with a stand mixer, but if it’s whipped past a certain point, the fluffy peaks fall flat and the mixture may become thin and greasy.
• Buy butter in bulk! This way, you always have a stick to make whipped butter, clarified butter, ghee, brown butter, compound butter, and the best baked goods. 

⏲️ Substitutions & Variations

Whipped soft butter doesn’t have to only be served plain. Upgrade the tasty spread with any of these sweet or savory flavorings:

Savory whipped butter

• Add fresh parsley, dill, tarragon, or chives to make herbed whipped butter. You can use dried herbs as well!
• Whisk in finely minced pickled garlic or black garlic and a pinch of salt.
• Give your whipped butter a smoky kick with paprika.
• Make it even hotter with cayenne, chili powder, or red pepper flakes.

Sweet whipped butter

• Whisk in honey, cinnamon, and brown sugar and spread on warm dinner rolls
• Add a burst of citrus with fresh lemon or lime zest.
• Use dried fruit, like raisins or dried cranberries, mixed with warm spices.
• Add pumpkin pie spice!

Ways to use whipped butter

• As a luscious topping on seared steak and seafood.
• Spread over slices of sourdough homemade bread, garlic bread, pesto and black pepper focaccia, or olive and sun-dried tomato focaccia.
• Spread on a slice of dessert bread like banana warm bread or raspberry pecan babka.
• Brush a layer of whipped butter on salted honey Hawaiian rolls, waffles, sourdough french toast, or pancakes.

💭 Recipe FAQs

❄️ Storing and freezing

To store: Keep freshly whipped butter refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 1 week. 

To freeze: You can also freeze your whipped butter in an airtight container for up to 1 year. It will lose some of the initial bounce and fresh, fluffy texture once thawed, but a quick whip in the standing mixer should fix this. 

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