Spring Compound Butter

I make compound butter during every season, but there is something that just *works* so well about spring butter- especially if you have access to heavy cream from a local dairy! Now, local dairy or not, spring compound butter is full of flavor and is a great way to spruce up any breakfast or brunch plate! There is something SO special about spreading a beautifully colorful butter across fresh bread!

One of the great things about this spring compound butter is that you can swap ingredients based on which spring flavors you love! I am a huge radish lover, so I took the traditional French pairing of butter and radishes to mind and used a microplane to add them in! However, I know the flavor of radishes can be rather divisive, so swapping them out for other bright spring flavors works well too! Think peas, shallots, or even spring onion! Just make sure that the produce flavors you are working with pair well with the herbs you add as well. Spring onion *and* chive might be a bit much- so swapping the chives with thyme if you’re using spring onion? Perfect.

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Spring Compound Butter Ingredients

Spring Compound Butter Method

The easiest way to make butter is in the bowl of a stand mixer! However, if you have lots of time a hand mixer or whisk can work too.

Pour the heavy cream and salt into the bowl of the stand mixer and start mixing on medium. As the cream starts to thicken and no longer want to splash you can increase the mixing speed.

The cream will go through stages. First it will bubble, then turn into whipped cream. Then the whipped cream will start to break down and turn yellow. Finally, the milk solids (butter) will separate from the buttermilk.

Pour both the solids and liquids through cheese cloth and strain out as much buttermilk as possible (save this for use in a different recipe!) Then use hands to squeeze out as much liquid as you can.

To get a clean butter that lasts longer, we want to remove as much buttermilk as possible. So, fill a bowl with ice cold water and ‘wash’ the butter in it. The water will turn cloudy as the buttermilk separates. If you want a particularly clean butter, you can refresh the water until it runs clear when you’re kneading the butter.

Add the butter back into the bowl of your mixer and add in the additional ingredients- the chives, radish, and roasted garlic. Mix until well-combined and then transfer to an airtight container.

Depending on the ingredients you used and how thoroughly you’ve washed the butter this will last in the fridge for a week up to two months. To check for spoilage, look at the herbs for mold, check for texture changes or color changes, and smell to see if it smells sour!

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