divine angst

Dave! asks how to make strawberry butter.

I will tell you because…mmmm….MMMMMM….strawberry butter is the Best Thing on Earth. Ever.

Soften a stick of butter. It’s got to be nice and soft, but not melted, or it won’t work. Just pull a stick out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature. (You can speed this up by gently nuking the butter on low for 15 or 30 seconds at a time, but be careful not to melt the it.)

Put the butter in a stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Or use a hand mixer—but the butter has to be really soft or it’ll just fly everywhere. Or you can use the food processor if you’re making more than one stick of butter’s worth (one stick usually is too little and just gets stuck to the sides of the bowl).

Whip the butter for a few seconds, to get it nice and light and fluffy. Scoop in a generous spoonful of good strawberry jam or preserves and whip that in. Pick preserves or jam that you would like on toast—it’s got to have the right amount of sweetness for your tastes.

Once the butter and preserves are all nice and whipped together, transfer into a serving dish—a little ramekin, maybe—and smear on warm croissants or other flaky bread/pastry. Store in an airtight container—I have little 8 oz. Tupperware containers for just these sorts of small things. The strawberry butter won’t keep much longer than about 2 weeks, but don’t worry—it wont last that long. You’ll find yourself sneaking into the fridge in the middle of the night to make strawberry butter toast.

(If you want to be really homemade, you can use real strawberries, macerated in sugar, but you have to let them get nice and mushy before you attempt to incorporate them. And you’ll need to make sure to add enough sugar or the butter won’t be sweet enough. And it won’t keep very long at all, since the strawberries will turn rancid after about 4 days. But doing this way will give you lots of kitchen cred.)