Love Real Food Easy Honey Butter

Do you have room for some honey butter on your holiday table? Let’s make some! Honey butter is creamy and utterly irresistible. It’s sweet and a little bit salty, which always sends me back for more. It looks dazzling on the table, and it makes everyone’s eyes light up.

In fact, honey butter is so easy to make that you can whip it up for a special dinner any time of year. Start with softened butter and it’s ready in five minutes or less.

Honey butter is super simple to make. You’ll find the recipe below, but here are some quick tips before you get started.

Softened butter is key

Start with softened butter and your honey butter will be ready in 5 minutes! Softened butter is key to your honey butter’s success because hard butter won’t blend and melted butter won’t whip. Leave a stick of butter on the counter to warm up to room temperature for a half hour or longer.

How to soften butter in a hurry

If you need your cold butter softened now, take advantage of your microwave—place a stick of butter, still in its wrapper, on a plate. Microwave for 10 seconds, turn it over, microwave another 10 seconds. Repeat if necessary, turning each time, just until your thumb leaves an impression on the butter. Then it’s ready! (I wouldn’t suggest this method for a baked good, but honey butter is forgiving enough.)

If you have salted butter…

This recipe is designed for unsalted butter. If you have salted butter, no problem, just don’t whip additional salt into the butter. Finishing the honey butter with a light sprinkle of salt is still a good idea.

Ingredients:

One stick of unsalted butter (4 ounces or 8 tablespoons), softened

3 tablespoons honey

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon fine salt

For garnish: Drizzle of honey, and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt or kosher salt