This sweet and savory compound butter makes the perfect homemade Christmas gift. They are easy to make and look creative with our free printable label!
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Compound Butter for Christmas
Compound butter makes a great neighbor Christmas gift for the holidays. It’s easy to whip up and can be used so many ways. These flavored butter recipes are some of my favorites, as well as cinnamon honey butter and dreamy orange butter. So yummy!
I love the long seated tradition of entering the kitchen at this time of year to create all kinds of goodies to share with family and friends. I also LOVE receiving these gifts every year. You can always feel the love that goes into each and every recipe that is shared.
One thing I DON’T love is how frantic and hurried the season has become. Sometimes we just don’t have time to bake for days and days in order to put together these treasured gift plates.
Another issue I have have… Sometimes, we get sugar overload with all of these scrumptious goodies. For the last several years, I have tried to find some savory goodies along with the sweet to give as holiday neighbor gifts. This year, my favorite sweet & savory gift for the season is compound butter.
What is Compound Butter?
It is a butter combined with any of a number of tasty additions that can be used in various different ways in the kitchen. I am particularly fond of any type of berry butter, the ever popular honey butter and the luscious roasted garlic butter. Enhanced garlic herb compound butter with thyme, rosemary or chives is also great.
All of these can be used on breads, french toast, crêpes, pancakes, used in sauces and even used to enhance many types of meats, such as a finisher on steak. I decided this year, that I am going to give little gift baskets with some homemade compound butter along with some bread.
How to Make Compound Butter – 3 Ways
Berry Butter
Don’t you worry, sweet compound butters are a snap to make AND you can even use store bought bread if you aren’t the baking type. I am going to give you three quick flavored butter recipes along with the fabulous printable that you can use to label your jars and your gift container if you like.
Ingredients:
- 4 sticks of softened unsalted butter
- 1 jar of Smucker’s preserves (you can use any kind you like, for this one I used cranberry raspberry preserves)
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1/4 teaspoon citric acid
Instructions:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, add your softened butter, the Orchard’s Finest preserves, honey & citric acid.
Once you have all your ingredients in your mixer, turn your mixer on high and whip the butter for several minutes. Once it has whipped well and is nice and fluffy, take your mixture and add it to your sterilized 4 ounce Ball jars. Fill to the top and place the lid on tight. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. This recipe also can be stored in the freezer really well.
Why do I use citric acid? I like to add a bit of a tart kick to the butter without adding the liquid from lemon juice. The liquid can cause issues with the consistency and I have found that citric acid is a perfect solution. You can get the hit of tart flavor without the consistency issues. I found citric acid at my local market in the canning section. If you can’t find it, you can always order it online. I LOVE it and use it in all kinds of recipes.
Honey Butter
Ingredients:
- 4 sticks of softened unsalted butter
- 1 cup honey
Instructions:
In the bowl of an electric mixer, place softened room temperature butter and honey. Whip on high for several minutes until light and fluffy. Once finished, carefully spoon into sterilized 4 ounce ball jars and replace the lid. Store in the fridge until ready to use. This butter also freezes well.
Roasted Garlic Butter
Check out our favorite recipe for roasted garlic butter over at WhipperBerry. The tutorial shows you how to roast your own garlic and everything!
Savory & Sweet Christmas Butter For Gifting
Now this is where it gets fun… I LOVE packaging! To me, the way you dress-up a gift is just as important as the gift. Now, I used my favorite 4 ounce Ball jars for the Christmas butter on purpose. We created a lovely FREE printable label for everyone to use that fits these jars perfectly.
Aren’t they fun?! Now… I have created a couple of different ways to use these free printable labels…check them out below.
For silhouette users: If you are a silhouette user, you can download the silhouette studio file, print them with your printer and cut out with your CAMEO or Portrait. I used the Printable Gold Foil for mine, but you could use anything that you want. Card stock, printable sticker paper or even printable kraft paper. Use whatever you feel comfortable with.
Non-silhouette users: Now, if you would like to print and cut your labels on your own…no worries, I have you covered too! Just print as many sheets as you would like on whatever paper you would like, cut out the labels and affix them to your jars and gift container.
Gift Container
I found my container at Target in their seasonal decor section. I would love to link to it, but I can’t seem to find it on their website. You’ll just have to look at your local store. You can also use any type of container that will fit your butter selection and the bread your choose. You could use an inexpensive gift bag and it would look fabulous!!
More Homemade Gifts
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Sweet and Savory Compound Butter Recipe
Ingredients
Berry Butter:
- 4 sticks softened unsalted butter
- 1 ounce jar of Smucker’s Orchard’s Finest preserves (you can use any kind you like, for this one I used cranberry raspberry preserves)
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- ¼ teaspoon citric acid
Honey Butter:
- 4 sticks softened unsalted butter
- 1 cup honey
Instructions
Berry Butter:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, add 4 sticks softened, room temperature butter, one ounce jar Orchard’s Finest preserves, 1 Tablespoon honey and 1/4 teaspoon citric acid.
- Once you have all your ingredients in your mixer, turn your mixer on high and whip the butter for several minutes. Once it has whipped well and is nice and fluffy, take your mixture and add it to your sterilized 4 ounce Ball jars. Fill to the top and place the lid on tight. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve. This recipe also can be stored in the freezer really well.
Honey Butter:
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, place 4 sticks softened room temperature butter and 1 cup honey. Whip on high for several minutes until light and fluffy. Once finished, carefully spoon into sterilized 4 ounce ball jars and replace the lid. Store in the refrigerator until ready to use. This butter also freezes well.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Originally written by Heather from WhipperBerry for I Heart Naptime.
Categorized as: American, Christmas, Condiments, DIY, Gifts
Jamielyn Nye is the founder and recipe creator at I Heart Naptime. She is the author of the I Heart Naptime Cookbook and shares easy family-friendly recipes and desserts for every occasion.
Is it possible to pint orange butter and cinnamon orange labels plz
Hello, yes. The section for gifting includes a form to download the labels in PDF form. Thanks!
So excited to see your website with the flavored compound butter recipes. My thoughts this year are to share with neighbors and family. Saw your response regard the honey-herb butter. Where is that one? I would love to see what herbs you use with the honey.
We use 1 stick butter and 1/4 cup honey. Some great additions would be rosemary or thyme.
I love the fonts on the labels. Do you have an svgs for them so I can print them on my cricut?
Sorry we no longer have the svgs :(
I don’t see the garlic butter recipe. Can you share please? Thank you!
I love this garlic herb butter recipe! https://www.iheartnaptime.net/garlic-herb-butter/
Berry butter and garlic butter were HUGE hits in my Christmas baskets last year and have been requested again. I should mention I don’t bake or cook regularly so that’s how easy these are. Thanks for sharing these recipe’s!
So glad they were a hit :)
I’m making these butters as gifts. Just to clarify in the berry recipe, the list in your description says “1 jar” of preserves but in the actual recipe it reads “1 oz jar” of preserves. What is the correct amount of preserves to use? A whole jar seems like a lot for 1 pound of butter. Input please & thank you.
Hi Nancy! This is a guest post, but I believe it is a 1 oz jar of preserves.
I’m a little obsessed with the idea of giving something savory as a neighbor gift! Such a fanstastic idea!
What a great idea! Love flavored butter, especially when it is sweet!
How much does each recipe yield of you use 4 Oz jars?
Each recipe should fill four 4 oz jars. :)
Love these!!
Hi. Am interested in making these savory butter compounds. Had a question on the Smucker’s Preserves. How many ounces is in the jar and thus required for one recipe? The directions say 1 jar, but the printed recipe says 1 oz jar. THanks
Hi Cathy! It is a 12 oz jar of the Smucker’s Preserves! :)
Where can you buy Smuckers Preserves & citric acid?
You should be able to find the Smuckers Preserves at any grocery store. I’ve recently seen it at Walmart. Citric acid is normally found in the canning section of a store!
I’m wondering why these butters need to be refrigerated? We don’t normally refrigerate our butter. Also, can I use salted butter? I hate the taste of unsalted butter.
This butter will last a lot longer if it is refrigerated. I would only leave at room temperature for a day or two. Salted butter should be fine! :)
Wonderful recipes for future gifts. Thanks for sharing! However I cannot download the labels? Where it says “click Here” does not work. Help!
Oops! I just saw the last comment where the links are not longer available. Sorry!
Love this idea and plan to use it to make a couple of Christmas gifts. It appears that the link for the printables is not functional. Is it possible for you to reset the links?
Thank you!
How many 4oz jars does one recipe fill?
Each recipe should fill about 4 4oz jars. :)
Just found this site. I am excited to see how everyone likes these butters. Great idea. Can’t wait to try it. Thanks
It won’t let me print the garlic butter recipe or the labels :(
Hi Dawn! The recipe for the garlic butter is here: https://whipperberry.com/roasted-garlic-butter-recipe/. For some reason the printable labels got deleted. This post is from several years ago so I no longer have the printable. I’m sorry!
Got everything – even the acid!! – and going to make these today. But pooh – the download for the label is gone?? Am I goofing up again?? Thanks for all your help – you’re genius!!!
Hi Donna!
So sorry about that! I’m working on trying to retrieve them!