I made a double batch of buttercream this afternoon and I really messed it up! I based it on Indy's recipe, but made a few tweaks, which I obviously shouldn't have made b/c I don't know enough about what I'm doing, lol. Anyway, it is the best tasting icing, but it came out full of bubbles and almost like the mixture is beginning to separate (semi curdled looking).
Here is what I put in it:
1 2/3 c. crisco (I don't have any sweetex which is what I usually use)
1 c. salted butter
1/4 cup hot water (plus about 3T while it was mixing)
1/4 cup heavy cream (hot)
1/4 cup dry coffee creamer
2T vanilla
1/2 t salt
6T dream whip
4lb dominos 10x

Even with the double batch, it wasn't enough to cover the mixing paddle, so I know I prob. beat too much air into it..... But I see tons of recipes that won't fill the bowl and after the fat and liquids were creamed and the sugar added, I beat it less than 10 minutes total. Can I salvage it still? How??

If you were using Debs recipe why did you heat the milks up? That ends up melting some of your butter and crisco to some extent. If you whip it on the second setting for 20 min or more that keeps the air bubbles down. I don't know what to tell you on salvaging it though. I think when you put the hot milk and cream in it made it seperate .

Try throwing it back in the mixer, turn it on 4 or 6 and let it go.

But when I make BC, I let the shortening, flavors and liquids cream for at least 15-20 minutes, then I slowly incorporate the sugar. So it takes about 30 minutes total for me to make BC.

EDIT: Also wanted to mention that I don't see why you added water, cream and dry coffee creamer. I think you only need one of those. And it's okay to heat it up, I use creamer that was dissolved in warm water myself. Granted, it's not boiling hot, just very warm.

EDIT #2: sorry for all these edits, but if you used salted butter, then you probably don't need to add salt. I've never added salt to my bc. Next time, just try indy's buttercream, just as the recipe states. Then you'll really be able to tell if it's a recipe for you or not. Good luck!

Most of my tweaks, including the dry creamer/water/cream, salt, and salted butter were for taste. Mission accomplished. It is everything I ever wanted a buttercream to taste like. (It just can't be used to ice a cake unfortunately)
I heated the liquids (ala sugarshack method) thinking that it might help minimize the grittiness that I sometimes get with powdered sugar icings. I've tried probably 6 different bc recipes in the past month and I got it into my head that I could just combine the best parts of each recipe into a "super" recipe. Silly me
So I will continue my experimentation, but I just really love the flavor of this one and I'm crossing my fingers someone knows how to fix it.

you can fix any kind of emulsion (water-fat mix) either by mixing in a little ice cold water or boiling water and let it mix until it creams again.
When I'm doing big batches I just take my kitchen torch and heat the ka bowl while it's runnig or use my hand blender.

Hope it turns out ok.

Thanks so much. I thought about it and I think I messed up the sugar:fat ratio when i added the heavy cream... So I fridged it, added another cup and a half of psugar and about 1.5 T of ice water. Everything is put back together- no more curdle look
There are still more air bubbles than I want to have, but I think I read somewhere that you can manually push them out with a spatula. Hope that is so. Fun times!