These compound butter recipes have been tested to exact quantities so you always know exactly where to start. No guessing, no adding to taste, no wondering if you got it right. Six fully tested recipes, three savory and three sweet, every one whipped to a light fluffy texture that spreads beautifully and tastes more luxurious than anything you can buy. Every recipe uses salted butter, the butter you already have in your fridge, so there is nothing special to buy. Whether you are making one batch for dinner tonight or all six for a party this weekend, this is the only compound butter guide you will need.
Quick Look
- 📋 Collection: Six Compound Butter Recipes
- ⏲️ Each Ready In: 10 to 30 minutes depending on the recipe
- 👪 Each Batch: 16 tablespoons
- 🔪 Difficulty: Easy
- 💭 Top Tip: Every one of these butters can be made up to five days ahead and refrigerated. Make one or make them all in one session and you have the most impressive and stress-free entertaining spread you have ever put on a table.
Why You'll Love This Collection
- Six fully tested recipes with exact quantities for every one. No guessing required.
- Three savory and three sweet so every guest finds something they love.
- Every butter is whipped rather than stirred for a lighter more luxurious texture.
- Every recipe uses salted butter, the butter you already have in your fridge.
- All six can be made up to five days ahead so day of entertaining is completely stress free.
- Beautiful in jars with handwritten labels for the most impressive homemade gift you can give.
- Covers everything from a simple weeknight steak to a full entertaining spread.
Jump to:
What Is Compound Butter?
Compound butter is simply butter with other ingredients mixed in. It sounds humble but the result is anything but. A great compound butter transforms a simple piece of bread into something you cannot stop eating. It turns a grilled steak into a restaurant meal. It melts over roasted vegetables and makes them taste like something you would order at a dinner party.
The French have been making compound butters for centuries. The classic version is beurre maitre d'hotel which is parsley and lemon mixed into butter and sliced into coins over steak. What we have done here is take that same principle and expand it across both savory and sweet territory, developing six distinct recipes tested to specific quantities so you never have to guess.
Why These Compound Butter Recipes Are Different
Most compound butter recipes give you vague guidance. Add garlic to taste. A handful of herbs. Honey to your preference. We tested every single recipe in this collection to confirmed ratios. You will know exactly how much roasted garlic to use, exactly how many tablespoons of creamed honey, exactly which herbs to include and which ones to leave out. That specificity is what makes this collection different from everything else in this space. Of course you adjust them to your own personal taste, but we give you a clear starting point.
Every recipe in this collection also uses salted butter as the base. Salted butter is not just acceptable here, it is the right choice. The salt balances and enhances the flavors in every recipe and gives the finished butters a more complex and satisfying result. And of course, if you have unsalted butter, you can add your own salt.
And every recipe is whipped. Not stirred, not mashed. Whipping the butter in a stand mixer creates a light and fluffy texture that spreads beautifully and tastes more luxurious than anything you can buy.
If you want to serve all six of these compound butters together as an entertaining spread our butter board post shows you exactly how to do it as a beautiful flight with six matched breads. It is the most impressive appetizer you will ever set on a table. You might also love our bread and butter toast party which is where all six of these recipes were born.
The Savory Three
These three butters move from bright and herbaceous through deep and caramelized to sweet and spiced. They are wonderful on bread but they are also exceptional on steak, grilled vegetables, focaccia, and corn on the cob.
Garlic Herb Compound Butter
The most popular butter at our toast party and the one guests reached for again and again. Bright, fresh, and genuinely garlicky with beautiful visible green herb flecks throughout every jar. We tested this recipe with three cloves of garlic and found it too hot. Two cloves is the sweet spot for us. Do remember though, all garlic cloves are not created equal, if your cloves are big or small you might need to adjust. We tested rosemary and left it out because it overpowers. What remains is a perfectly balanced combination of flat leaf parsley, chives, and thyme that works beautifully on everything.
Ready in 10 minutes. No cooking required. Keeps up to five days in the refrigerator.
Get the full Garlic Herb Compound Butter Recipe here.
Roasted Garlic Butter
Where the garlic herb butter is bright and fresh, this one is deep, mellow, and almost sweet. Roasting transforms garlic completely. The sharp pungent bite becomes something caramelized and complex that you can use in much greater quantities without any overpowering heat. We make this in the stand mixer rather than a food processor so the garlic breaks into rustic visible pieces rather than blending to a uniform paste. Those golden pieces are both beautiful and rustic in the jar and delicious in every bite.
Ready in 1 hour and 30 minutes including roasting and cooling time but almost entirely hands off. Keeps up to two weeks in the refrigerator.
Get the full Roasted Garlic Butter Recipe here.
Jalapeno Honey Butter
The bridge butter between savory and sweet. Gently spiced from the fresh jalapeno peppers, rounded out with creamed honey, and rich from the perfectly whipped salted butter. It hits a balance that is genuinely hard to stop eating. Most jalapeno butter recipes are either all heat with no sweetness or a vague honey drizzle with no tested quantity. We landed on three tablespoons of creamed honey to one and a half fresh jalapenos per cup of butter. Pair it with our sweet cornbread recipe and it is one of the best bites you will ever eat.
Ready in 10 minutes. Keeps up to one week in the refrigerator.
Get the full Jalapeno Honey Butter Recipe here.
The Sweet Three
These three butters cover everything from floral and golden to bright and fruity to deeply rich and chocolatey. They are spectacular on toast, scones, pancakes, waffles, and warm bread of any kind.
Whipped Honey Butter
The simplest recipe in the collection and the one that surprises people most with how good it is. Two ingredients. Five minutes. The result is a cloud-like golden spread that tastes like something from a restaurant. The secret is creamed honey rather than liquid honey. It incorporates seamlessly into the butter without separating and produces a perfectly stable texture that holds beautifully for the full shelf life of the recipe. You can also add cinnamon for whipped cinnamon honey butter.
Ready in 5 minutes. Keeps up to one month in the refrigerator.
Get the full Whipped Honey Butter Recipe here.
Strawberry Butter
The most visually stunning butter in the collection. Real strawberries cooked into a thick jammy reduction and folded into perfectly whipped butter produce something that looks like a pink dream and tastes like the best strawberry toast you have ever had. The reduction step is the key, because it concentrates the strawberry flavor and removes excess moisture so the butter stays perfectly smooth and stable rather than getting watery.
Ready in 30 minutes including the reduction and cooling time. Keeps up to one week in the refrigerator.
Get the full Strawberry Butter Recipe here.
Chocolate Butter
The grand finale and the one that makes people stop mid-bite and say something out loud. The secret is a double chocolate method. We used cocoa powder that's bloomed in melted butter which makes the perfect smooth texture with no graininess. Plus we add melted semi-sweet chocolate chips that produce a depth of flavor neither ingredient achieves alone. The result is smooth, deeply chocolatey, lightly sweet, and genuinely luxurious on a warm scone or piece of brioche toast.
Ready in 30 minutes including cooling time. Keeps up to one month in the refrigerator.
Get the full Chocolate Butter Recipe here.
How To Make The Base Compound Butter Recipe
- Step 1: Place room temperature butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl if using a hand mixer. Whip on medium high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until very light, pale, and fluffy. Room temperature butter produces the lightest result and is easiest to work with. The main thing to avoid is butter that has gotten too warm and looks shiny or greasy as it will not whip properly or hold its shape.
- Step 2: Add your chosen mix-ins and mix until fully combined and evenly distributed. See individual recipe posts for specific techniques and timing for each flavor.
- Step 3: Transfer to an airtight container or roll into a log in parchment paper twisting the ends to seal. Store in the refrigerator. Remove 30 minutes before serving to soften to a spreadable consistency.
Compound Butter as a Gift
Homemade compound butter in a small jar with handwritten label is one of the most thoughtful and impressive homemade gifts you can give. It looks beautiful, it is genuinely useful, and it shows real care and effort without being impossibly difficult to make.
For gifting, we recommend using small mason jars with a handwritten label clipped to the side. Wrap with parchment and tie with kitchen twine or a ribbon and you have something that looks like it came from an artisan shop. A single flavor makes a lovely gift on its own, or choose your favorite 2 or 3.
Keep the shelf life in mind when giving compound butters as gifts. Most keep about a week in the fridge, so make them right before gifting and give those with a note to use within the week. The honey butter and chocolate butter keep up to one month which makes them the most practical gift options if the recipient will not be using them immediately.
How to Use Compound Butter
Our favorite way to use compound butters is with bread. Check out our butter board with bread pairings. Beyond bread and toast the uses for these compound butters are genuinely endless. Here are our favorite applications for each type:
- Savory compound butters are wonderful melted over a simply grilled steak, tossed with hot roasted vegetables straight from the oven, stirred into mashed potatoes, spread on corn on the cob, or used as a base for garlic bread.
- Sweet compound butters are spectacular on warm scones, waffles, pancakes, French toast, dinner rolls, and croissants. The chocolate butter is particularly wonderful on brioche.
- The jalapeno honey butter bridges both worlds and is exceptional on cornbread, grilled corn, and roasted sweet potatoes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Compound butter is butter that has been softened and mixed with additional ingredients like herbs, garlic, honey, fruit, chocolate, spices, or anything else you want to blend in. The French have been making it for centuries as a way to add flavor to dishes at the finish. A pat of compound butter melting over hot steak is one of the most classic applications. What has expanded over time is the range of mix-ins, from purely savory to fully sweet.
Most compound butter recipes default to unsalted butter to give you control over the salt level. Since all the recipes include salt, we start with salted butter because it's what we always have on hand. You can use either for these recipes, it starting with unsalted butter, you can add your own to taste.
It depends on the mix-ins you use. Butters made with fresh garlic,fresh herbs or fresh fruit, keep up to one week in the refrigerator. Butters with no fresh additions, like whipped honey butter and chocolate butter, keep up to one month. All of them freeze well for up to three months wrapped in parchment.
Yes with one caveat. Butters with fresh ingredients like jalapeno peppers or fresh herbs will be fine in the freezer flavor wise, but the texture and color of the fresh ingredients will change after freezing.
No, a hand mixer works for all six recipes. The stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment makes the whole process faster and easier, but it is not essential.
An airtight container or jar in the refrigerator for everyday storage. A parchment wrapped log works well for freezer storage. Remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving to soften to a spreadable consistency.
More Butter Ideas You'll Love
If you try any of these compound butter recipes or any other recipe on my blog please leave a star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today!
Recipe
Compound Butter Base Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter room temperature
- Mix-ins of your choice (see individual recipe posts for exact tested quantities)
Instructions
- Place room temperature butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large bowl if using a hand mixer. Whip on medium high speed for 2 to 3 minutes until very light, pale, and fluffy.1 cup salted butter
- Add your chosen mix-ins and mix until fully combined and evenly distributed. See individual recipe posts for specific techniques and timing for each flavor.Mix-ins of your choice
- Transfer to an airtight container or roll into a log in parchment paper twisting the ends to seal. Store in the refrigerator. Remove 30 minutes before serving to soften to a spreadable consistency.
Notes
- If using unsalted butter add some fine sea salt in Step 1.
- Storage times vary by recipe. Butters made with fresh garlic, herbs, or fruit keep up to one week in the refrigerator. Butters with no fresh additions keep up to one month. All freeze well for up to three months wrapped in parchment.
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