Mercy, the heroic pet pig in Mercy Watson to the Rescue by Kate DiCamillo, loves hot toast with a great deal of butter on it. And the best kind of butter is the kind you make yourself! This kid-friendly Homemade Butter recipe has just a touch of salt and is perfect for slathering all over anything your heart desires.
I am an unabashed butter lover. I frankly can't think of many things butter doesn't improve, especially if it's fresh, creamy, and just a little bit salty. And while I love it melted atop a simple vegetable side dish, creamed into cookie dough, or swirled into a sauce, good salted butter is perhaps at its most glorious when simply spread onto some nice, hot toast. And know one knows this better than Mercy Watson.
About Mercy Watson to the Rescue
Mercy Watson to the Rescue is the first book in a series by prolific children's author Kate DiCamillo (1964-present). It debuted in 2005, and the series includes seven books in all that feature the antics of a plucky pet pig, Mercy, described as a "porcine wonder" by her owners Mr. and Mrs. Watson. The second book in the series, Mercy Watson Goes for a Ride (2006), was named a Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book in 2007.
The Mercy Watson series was new to me as I dove into this recipe, but Kate DiCamillo's work certainly wasn't. Her debut children's novel Because of Winn-Dixie (2000) is a stunning book that I have fond memories of reading aloud to my elementary school students years ago. It won an incredible array of awards when it came out, including being named a Newbery Honor Book. The Tale of Desperaux (2003) also earned this prestigious award, making DiCamillo one of only seven authors to have ever won two Newbery Medals.
The Mercy Watson stories, beautifully illustrated by Chris Van Dusen, are charming early reader chapter books that follow Mercy's adventures as she interprets (and misinterprets) the world around her. She is beloved by her adopted parents and loathed by the neighborhood busybody, and is frankly usually too oblivious and selfish to take much notice of any of them as she pursues her own goals. The situations that Mercy brings upon herself are funny and absurd, and she usually ends up the hero in spite of it all.
As DiCamillo writes of the series, "I was surprised to discover that no matter how many explosions occur, all of them instigated by Mercy, Mr. Watson and Mrs. Watson continue to love her, continue to see her in the best possible light. I’ve come to believe that that is what love is all about: somebody insisting, mercifully, on seeing us as better than we truly are."
Recipe Inspiration
In Mercy's dream, hot buttered toast was piled high on her favorite blue plate and Mrs. Watson was buttering still more. It was an excellent dream.
Kate DiCamillo, Mercy Watson to the Rescue
In Mercy Watson to the Rescue, after being tucked into bed for the night, Mercy finds herself afraid of the dark. She snuggles into bed with the Watsons instead of staying in her room, and they all fall asleep together and dream. Mercy's dream is all about her favorite thing in the world: "hot toast with a great deal of butter on it." The overfilled bed ends up crashing through the floor, putting in motion a whole series of events. And while Mercy does in the end technically save her parents from their fate with the help of the fire department, she has actually just been on the hunt for the toast of her dreams the whole time.
I love how single-minded Mercy is in her love and pursuit of buttered toast in this book. My favorite illustration is from Mercy's dream, where Mrs. Watson is buttering slice after slice of hot toast onto Mercy's favorite blue plate, with the stack reaching up to the sky. Haven't we all had this dream, at one time or another? I decided a toast stack like this deserved some really great butter.
Kids (and adults!) might be surprised to learn that butter is already hiding in plain sight inside another ingredient that might be in your fridge right now: cream. Cream looks very uniform to the naked eye—a smooth white liquid—but it's actually made up of a mix of tiny blobs of fat suspended in watery liquid. When cream is shaken or agitated, the fat molecules start to slam into and grab onto each other, becoming bigger blobs. With continued shaking and churning, those blobs eventually link together to form clumps of solid butter, leaving a thin, fat-free liquid behind. So, by just doing some shaking, you've magically turned one ingredient—cream—into two: butter and buttermilk!
You can simply shake cream in a jar to make butter, and many of us might have done this before at school or camp. It's a really neat trick, but it takes a lot of shaking. (Like, A LOT). And while it's a simple method, it's best done in a group so people can take turns (and take breaks!).
For less of an arm workout, I wanted to find the best tools to make the job of churning butter easier. I tried out a few different methods using various kitchen equipment, but my favorite was using a stand mixer. Its powerful paddle beat the cream vigorously while being totally hands-off, and by draping a dish towel over the whole thing, I could catch any drips and splashes it made along the way. It was also fun to listen to the change in the sound of the mixer when the whipped cream suddenly broke into solid chunks of butter with sloshy buttermilk in the bottom of the mixer bowl. Magic!
After straining and squeezing most of the buttermilk out of the solid butter, a quick rinse under cold water removed the rest. Then, all I had to do was sprinkle in some salt and mash and knead the butter until it was smooth and creamy. Freshly made butter is truly the best you'll ever taste, along with being a fun demonstration of food science! You can even double or triple down on your DIY breakfast experience by spreading it onto some homemade bread along with a dollop of homemade jam.
Ingredients You'll Need
To make this Homemade Butter, you'll need:
- Heavy or whipping cream: Heavy cream has a higher percentage of butterfat in it (36%) than whipping cream (which has 30%), so it will yield more solid butter after churning, but both will work in this recipe. Go for high-quality cream here, since it's the main ingredient!
- Salt: You can choose to leave your butter unsalted if you like, but for spreading on toast, I love salted butter best.
As with every recipe, before you start cooking, make sure to measure out and prepare your ingredients ahead of time. Then, you'll have everything you need when you need it! For all of the ingredient measurements and details, see the recipe card below.
How To Make Homemade Butter
The full recipe with detailed timing and instructions for this dish is below, but here are some key moments to look out for along the way:
- Whip the cream: Add the cream to a stand mixer bowl and beat with the paddle until whipped cream forms.
- Drape with a towel: Drape a large, clean dish towel over the mixer bowl to catch any splashes and drips.
- Beat until the butter separates: Keep on beating until clumps of solid butter separate from the liquid buttermilk.
- Strain: Pour the mixture into a strainer, catching the solid butter and straining and pressing out the buttermilk.
- Rinse: Hold the strainer under cold running water in the sink and gently press and knead the butter until the water runs clear.
- Mix in the salt: Sprinkle in the salt, then press, mash, and knead it in with a rubber spatula until it's well combined and the butter is smooth.
Why This Recipe Is Great for Kids
I've spent years writing cookbooks and creating recipes that are safe, fun, and engaging for kids and home cooks of all ages. Here are some key features of this recipe that make it perfect for kids and families to make together at home:
- This is such a simple recipe (only two ingredients!) that offers such a transformation! It's an excellent demonstration of food science for kids.
- There's nothing hot and nothing sharp, and the stand mixer does almost all of the work, so it's a great recipe to make with even the youngest chefs.
- Kids can get creative with how they use their homemade butter! It lasts for up to 2 weeks in the fridge, so you'll have lots of opportunity to add it to dishes to make them extra special. Kids can spread their butter onto hot toast, like Mercy, add a pat to cooked vegetables or a stack of pancakes, use it to griddle up a buttery grilled cheese sandwich, or anywhere else they typically use butter.
Let's Cook!
Gather your equipment, measure your ingredients, and get cooking with this kid-friendly recipe! If you loved making it together, please leave five stars and share your stories in the comments.
Homemade Butter
Good To Know
- I did try making this recipe with a hand mixer as well as a stand mixer, but it was very tiring on my arms and my butter didn’t fully separate from the buttermilk, even after 15 minutes of mixing. If you don’t have a stand mixer, you can try this recipe with a hand mixer fitted with flat beaters (not whisks), but be prepared for an arm workout, plan to take turns if you can, and be careful not to let the towel fall into the bowl as you move the mixer around.
- Heavy cream has a higher percentage of butterfat in it (36%) than whipping cream (which has 30%), so it will yield more solid butter after churning, but both will work in this recipe.
- To make the cream whip faster, chill the stand mixer bowl and the paddle in the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes before starting the recipe.
Equipment You'll Need
- Stand mixer with paddle attachment
- Large, clean dish towel
- Fine-mesh strainer
- Medium bowl
- Rubber spatula
- Airtight container
Measure Your Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy or whipping cream, chilled
- ¼ teaspoon table salt
Let's Cook!
- 2 cups heavy or whipping cream, chilledPour the chilled cream into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat the cream on medium speed until it starts to thicken and form whipped cream, 2 to 3 minutes. Stop the mixer.
- Drape a large, clean dish towel over the top of the mixer so it hangs down around the outside of the bowl, but not inside it (the towel will contain the splashes and drips in the next step).
- Beat the whipped cream on medium-high speed until it separates into liquid buttermilk and solid butter, 8 to 10 minutes (you’ll hear the buttermilk start to slosh around when it happens!). Stop the mixer.
- Move the towel out of the way to see if the yellow chunks of butter look solid and are clinging to the paddle and the liquid buttermilk has pooled at the bottom of the bowl; if not, re-cover and keep beating for another 1 to 2 minutes until they do.
- Set a fine-mesh strainer over a medium bowl. Use a rubber spatula to scrape the butter off of the paddle and into the mixer bowl. Scrape the butter and buttermilk mixture into the strainer, catching the solids. Use the spatula to gently press out as much liquid as possible from the butter solids into the bowl. (You can use the buttermilk in another recipe or discard it.)
- Hold the strainer with the butter in it under cold running water in the sink. Gently press and knead the butter with your hands or the rubber spatula until the water runs clear.
- ¼ teaspoon table saltTransfer the butter to a small bowl. Sprinkle with the salt, then press and mix with the rubber spatula until it’s evenly incorporated and the butter is smooth. If any liquid pools on the bottom, drain it off into the sink. Serve (especially on hot toast!), or transfer the butter to an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.
Conversation Starters
As you sit down to enjoy your homemade butter (perhaps on toast!), talk about what it was like to make the recipe and the themes in Mercy Watson to the Rescue. You can help young readers make connections to the book and share your own answers, ideas, and stories with them with the following prompts:
- What did the cream look like before you started churning it in the mixer, and how did it change? Were you surprised by this transformation?
- In the book, Mercy's favorite food is hot buttered toast. What is your favorite thing to put butter on?
- Do you think Mercy meant to come to the rescue in the story? Why or why not?
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