I have one more recipe to share with you from the herb class I taught a few weeks ago.
Have you ever heard of compound butter and wondered what it was?
Compound butter is simply butter that has had something else added to it. Maybe you’ve eaten at a restaurant that served yummy garlic butter – that is a compound butter.
One of my favorite compound butters is honey butter. My mother in law makes a great one!
A little cinnamon sugar added to butter for your pancakes or waffles is delicious.
Compound butter can be sweet (honey, raspberry,etc.) or savory (garlic, herbs, etc)
I remember a restaurant in Salt Lake City that served a yummy raspberry butter with their bread basket.
Obviously the compound butter we made at the herb class had herbs in it! You can use any mixture of herbs that you like. Experiment with different combinations. No matter what combination you use the procedure is still the same. I used 4-6 Tbsp of different herbs to 1/2 C of butter plus 2 Tbsp of lemon juice (the lemon juice can be left out)
Soften your butter and add herbs and lemon juice.
Stir butter and herbs to combine.
Place butter on a piece of wax paper and roll into a log.
Twist the ends of the paper and then place butter in refrigerator.
Butter is ready to use after it has firmed up. If it gets too hard just let it sit at room temperature for a while.
We love to eat it with No Knead Bread or melt some on top of a burger or steak – yum! You almost don’t need any other condiments on your meat when you add the herb butter.
Use your imagination and you can come up with all kinds of wonderful combinations for your compound butter – sweet or savory – which do you prefer?
- 1/2 C softened butter
- 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves
- 2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
- 1 Tbsp fresh chopped rosemary
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- Fresh ground pepper to taste
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Add ingredients to softened butter
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Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate
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I love this! Easy way to add flavor, something you can keep on hand! I make compound butter all the time, just need to think outside the box!!!
Thanks for sharing this and giving us lots of additional ideas. Mom’s honey butter is the BEST!
That sounds very good. I wonder if it would also be good in cream cheese? Have you tried it?
@Melissa Y.:
I think herbs added to cream cheese would be delicious! In fact we have a local bagel bakery that sells herbed cream cheese – yum!
WoW!! This is a fabulous way of using those fresh herbs! I can see a gift basket with different butters and savory muffins..yum! Thanks a bunch!
I would be worried we would not use the butter before the fresh herbs went bad. Does this happen or does the butter act as a preserver?
~ Tasha
Tasha,
I just keep the butter refrigerated and we haven’t had a problem. We like our butter though so it doesn’t stay around that long!
Yum and do you have the recipe for honey butter from you MIL? That sounds good too!
Here is her honey butter recipe:
1 C butter
1 1/2 C honey
1 tsp vanilla
Beat together for at least ten minutes.
My mother in law actually uses half butter and half margarine but I refuse to use margarine!
Oh thank you! Vanilla has been my missing ingredient. And I agree with the no margarine. I’m going to make this today! Thank you again 🙂
I made it and was perfect. My 2 and 4 year old loved it and said it tasted like stars on their toast. Thanks : )
(Found this on Pinterest) I just made this and it was AMAZING (yes, it was midnight here…whoops!)!!!!! I used the herbs you posted, but didn’t measure. I would have never thought of the lemon juice, but it just “made” the butter. Thanks tons!!
Glad you found me on Pinterest and that you liked the butter. Summer is a perfect time to make it with all the wonderful fresh herbs.
I have been making herb butter using my garden fresh herbs for many years; never knew it was called compound butter! I use a combination of whatever herbs I havae in my garden to make mine, plus I always add fresh garlic & a generous pinch of sea salt too. Now I want to try the honey butter that you mentioned!