Butter

Vita + Shek July 23, 2022

This recipe is taken from this website. The original article offers a great explanation of exactly why this recipe is so precise, and why it works so well.

Ingredients

For 1 cup (220g) of butter
Soy Milk1/4 cup + 2 tsp (70g)
Apple Cider Vinegar1 tsp (5g)
Coconut Oil 11/2 cup + 2 tbsp (130g)
Olive Oil1 tbsp
Salt1/4 + 1/8 tsp
Liquid Soy/Sunflower Lecithin1 tbsp
sub 2 1/4 Lecithin Granules
Xanthan Gum1/4 tsp
sub 1/2 + 1/8 tsp psyllium husk powder

Process

The timing of this process is quite critical, especially if it's hot outside, as oil and water will separate if given a chance as liquids.

  1. Prepare the Oils

    a. If you need to, first melt your coconut oil (just barely) by putting it in a hot water bath.

    b. Mix the oils together until they are evenly distributed

    c. If you live in a place where coconut oil is liquid at room temperature then put the oils in the fridge so that they can partially solidify

    d. Keep checking on the oils every 15 - 20 minutes and stir/mash to break any clumps

    e. The time to make the butter is when the mixture is thick but stirrable. 2

  2. Curdle the buttermilk

    Mix ACV and Soy Milk together until it is a uniformly curdled mixture, and let sit for 5 - 10 min

  3. Blend

    Put everything in a blender and blend away for 20s x2, pausing to scrape the sides 3

    You don't want to do this for too long as it will heat up the oils, making it more likely to separate before it has a chance to freeze.

  4. Pour and Store

    Pour the butter into a container - a mould, a glass jar, a bottle if you really want - and place it in the freezer immediately 3

Notes

1

You can use Refined Coconut Oil for a milder flavor, but I prefer unprocessed cold-pressed coconut oil

2

If the oils become too stiff such that there are large clumps (or it's just one solid mass) then you will need to thaw it a little and mash the clumps.

3

If it's really hot outside then it can be a good idea to put your containers and blender jar in the freezer about 10 minutes before using them

Simple 4-ingredient variation

The best part of this recipe is that you can can play it very fast-and-loose, and still end up with a great result

For starters, you can entirely omit the emulsifiers (Lecithin, Xanthan Gum/Psyllium Husk) if you don't care about stability at lower temperatures. This is only really important if you are baking with this butter. They do slightly change the texture on your tongue, and make it more spreadable, but that isn't always worth the hassle of buying two special ingredients that you will use in very small quantities, or the chore of cleaning anything that touches liquid lecithin.

For the rest, these proprtions work quite well:
Soy Milk1/3 cup (80g)
Apple Cider Vinegar2+ tsp
Oil (50% - 90% coconut oil)1 cup
Salt1/2 tsp

Without the lecithin and xanthan gum, mixing together the oil and water gets a little more tricky. You will have to fold/whip the soy milk into the oil mixture when it is semi-solid as it will not mix well when it is too cold, and will separate if it is too warm and doesn't quickly freeze again. Try to keep it as cold as possible while still mix-able, and freeze it as soon as it comes together.