Homemade Herbed Butter

Posted by jenny on 04/21/2010

in

I think it was the abundance of herbs in the garden this weekend that gave me the idea to make compound butter. This is such a simple thing to do - and something you can enjoy for months if you store the butter in the freezer. And the best thing is - you can use this for anything. Want a little interesting something on that piece of grilled fish? A spread for that toasted bagel? Compound butter, or herb butter, is perfect for that.

There are a couple of ways to do this - a simple and fast way, and a slightly more labor-intensive (but oh so satisfying) way. The simple way works just fine and is great if you have good butter at hand and don't have time to be fussy about it. Just let the butter sit out for a little while to soften, then mix in whatever herbs you want. Put the whole thing into some parchment or plastic wrap, squeeze it into a log, and pop it into the fridge or freezer. Simple.
I decided to take a little more time and do something I'd never done before. I made my own butter from fresh cream. It's easy, really.

Herbed Butter
3 c heavy cream (the nicest you can find)
Various herbs (I made two kinds: (1) chives and chive blossoms and (2) sage, sage flowers, and orange zest)

Set out the heavy cream until it reaches room temperature.
Pour the cream into the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment and whip the cream until it gets thick.
Continue whipping the cream until it begins to separate. This will start to get messy, so it's a good idea to drain the buttermilk periodically at this stage. I put the liquids through a sieve and into a jar, and I'm planning on using that for the base of a soup later this week.
Whip until the solids have given up all of their liquid. You can remove the whisk attachment and use a spatula to fluff up the butterfat. More liquid will likely weep from it, so spoon it until it gets to a good texture.
At this point, I separated the solids into two bowls and added herb combinations to each. One bowl had chives and chive blossoms, and the other had sage, sage blossoms, and finely grated orange zest. You can use as many or as few combinations as you want.
When the herbs have been combined with the butter, spoon the solids into parchment paper or plastic wrap and roll into a log for storage.

Note: If you want your base butter to have a more tangy or European flavor, mix your cream with a spoon of plain yogurt the day before and leave it on the counter overnight to culture. You can use sour cream too.