How to Make Butter with Goat Milk and a Stand Mixer

You can make delicious homemade butter with goat milk! After collecting cream from the top of your milk, whip it up with a stand mixer, salt to taste, refrigerate, and spread on fresh bread. Follow these steps for creamy, delectable butter and buttermilk to use in biscuits or pancakes.

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Making butter has been on my home dairy bucket list for quite some time and I finally got around to doing it!

We raise Nubian dairy goats and love their milk because it tastes great and is high in butterfat. After straining our fresh milk and putting it in the refrigerator, the cream rises to the top of the jar. Usually, I just shake the jar and use the milk, but I started skimming off the cream and saving it for a batch of butter.

The result was the best butter we have ever tasted! Goat milk butter is snow-white, sweet, creamy, and fresher than anything you can buy at the store.

Collecting Cream from Whole Milk

To make butter, you have to have cream. In order to collect cream, you will need to start with non-homogenized whole milk. Letting the milk sit in the fridge for several days, undisturbed, makes collecting cream easier. I make butter with cream from raw goat’s milk, but you can use cow’s milk too.

I skimmed cream off the top my milk for about two weeks and froze it until I had about 3 ½ cups. I just used a spoon to collect the cream each day, but if you have a cream separator that would be more efficient.

If you don’t have your own dairy animals and still want to make your own butter, you can buy heavy cream from the store and use that!

How Butter is Made

Cream (the precursor to butter) is high in fat but also contains some water. To turn cream into butter, all you have to do is agitate it enough so that the fat particles stick together and the liquid (buttermilk) is expelled.

This agitation can be accomplished in several ways. You can use a butter churn, blender, electric mixer, or a stand mixer like I do to turn cream into butter.

Let’s give it a try!

Materials Needed for Making Butter with Goat Milk and a Stand Mixer

• Stand mixer with bowl
• Whisk attachment for stand mixer
• Splash guard for stand mixer or tin foil
• Ice bath bowl
• Paper towel
• Paddle attachment for stand mixer
• Measuring spoons
• Rubber spatula
• Containers for storing buttermilk and butter

I use my Classic tilt-head KitchenAid stand mixer with the 4.5-quart stainless steel bowl to make butter. I use the whisk attachment for churning the butter and the paddle attachment for mixing in salt or other flavorings.

Making butter can get a little messy! I made a tent out of tin foil to keep the butter from splashing all over my counter during churning, if you have a splash guard made for your stand mixer, use that!

Once separation has occurred, you will need a container to collect and store the buttermilk and an ice bath for rinsing the butter. I use a mixing bowl with water and ice cubes to wash my butter. After adequately rinsing your butter, it will need to be pressed and dried between paper towels. Use a rubber spatula to collect all your fresh butter and store it in your refrigerator.

Ingredients for Making Butter with Goat Milk and a Stand Mixer

• 3 ½ cups cream from goat’s milk
• ¼ tsp salt

There are only two ingredients in this goat butter, cream from goat’s milk and table salt. You can choose to omit the salt if you like.

If you want to flavor your butter, you can add garlic, herbs, or cinnamon.

Directions for Making Butter with Goat Milk and a Stand Mixer

1. Collect cream from whole goat’s milk until you have 3 ½ cups. If you kept your cream frozen, thaw before making butter.
2. Put the whisk attachment on your stand mixer and the cream in the stand mixer bowl and affix firmly.
3. Put the splash guard on your stand mixer, or build a tin foil tent for the mixer.
4. Turn the mixer on the lowest speed, wait 5 seconds, then advance to the next speed, wait 5 seconds, and turn it up again, until it is going at top speed.
5. Let the mixer run on top speed for about 5 minutes. The butter and buttermilk should be completely separate.
6. Stop the stand mixer.
7. Prepare an ice bath using a mixing bowl, water, and ice cubes.
8. Pour the buttermilk off the butter and into a container.
9. Collect the butter and separate it into balls that you can fit in your hand.
10. Wash each ball of butter in the ice bath. Squeeze the butter and press it against the walls of the bowl.
11. Repeat rinsing in the ice bath at least three times, dumping the water and making a new bath each time, until the water does not turn milky.

12. Dry your balls of butter between paper towels.
13. Clean and dry your stand mixer bowl.
14. Put the paddle attachment on your stand mixer and the dried balls of butter into the stand mixer bowl. You don’t need a splash guard this time.
15. Add ¼ tsp salt to the bowl, or other flavorings, if desired.
16. Run the mixer on low speed until the butter and salt or other add-ins are adequately mixed.
17. Use a rubber spatula to transfer the fresh butter to a container for refrigeration.

Additional Notes about Making Butter with Goat Milk and a Stand Mixer

• Using this recipe, you will end up with about 1 cup of buttermilk and 1 ½ cups of butter
• You can use the buttermilk to add some delicious tangy flavor to your favorite biscuits or pancakes
• Your fresh butter should be kept in the refrigerator and used within 3 weeks. You can also freeze it if you don’t want to use it right away.
• Homemade butter can be used just like store-bought butter! You can use it to top fresh bread, sauté mushrooms, or bake cookies.
• Goats metabolize beta carotene differently than cows, that’s why goat butter is white, and butter made from cow’s milk is yellow!