Flavored Butters for the Holidays

How’s your holiday shopping coming along? Do you need some last-minute gift ideas? Well, people are saying that Flavored Butters would make a great gift. Check out these reader reviews. Get the cook or foodie in your life a copy of the cookbook critics call “wizardry”, “festive and flavorful”, “inspiring”, and “the perfect answer for taking common dishes and kicking them up a notch”.

And how about whipping up some of the recipes in the book and giving them as hostess gifts? A basket containing a log of homemade flavored butter with a pretty butter dish and spreader would be perfect to take to at any holiday get-together.

In the spirit of the season, here’s a new flavored butter based on the Bed & Breakfast Butter recipe in the book.

Enjoy and happy holidays to you and yours!

Cranberry Bed & Breakfast Butter
Printable Recipe

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup Jellied Cranberry Sauce, at room temperature

Blend together the butter and cranberry sauce in a medium bowl. Form into a log and refrigerate until firm before slicing and serving, or use another shaping method described in Flavored Butters.

Makes 8 servings. Serve with muffins, scones, pancakes, waffles, toast, or other breakfast fare.

Bonus Butter

My new book is part of The Harvard Common Press’s 50 Recipes series. I tried to sneak in 53 recipes thinking there’s no harm in giving people more than what they paid for. But I was busted. My editor caught me and made me do some cutting—when they say 50 Recipes, they mean 50 Recipes. It wasn’t easy deciding which three had to go. One recipe that ended up being sacrificed was the Black Garlic Butter, not because it’s somehow inferior to any of the others, but because black garlic is a bit hard to come by. The butter is in fact quite delicious, so I thought I’d offer it up here as a bonus recipe. (By the way, if you’re wondering why in the world anyone needs 50, let alone 53 recipes for flavored butters, here’s an explanation.)

Before I get to the recipe, I have to say how grateful I am for the warm reception Flavored Butters is getting in the media and blogosphere. I’ve been called a “butter goddess” and a “butter genius”, and it might just go to my head! (But more likely, it'll go to my butt!) But seriously, I have to thank The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for the shout-out, the Chicago Tribune for the great review (and the dozen or more other media outlets that picked up the story), The Kitchn for another fantastic review, and the Akron Beacon Journal for the mention in this article on herbs and gardening. I also want to show my appreciation to The Best Cookbooks List, Magnolia Days, and Fake Food Free for jumping on the butter bandwagon—the support means so much! And while this has nothing to do with Flavored Butters, I owe one more thank you to HuffPost Taste for including my Passion Fruit-Coconut Bars in their passion fruit recipe roundup.

And now to the Black Garlic Butter. Black garlic, which seems to have originated in Korea, is a product of fermentation.

The ink-colored cloves have a soft, gelatinous texture and a complex sweet and mellow garlic flavor with candy-like hints of molasses, caramel, smoke, and fruit. Roasted garlic fans would certainly love it. Blend black garlic with butter to use as a spread for crostini or as a sauce for seafood such as grilled or seared* scallops.

Black Garlic Butter
Printable Recipe

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
4 cloves black garlic
2 teaspoons soy sauce

Combine the butter, black garlic, and soy sauce in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Form into a log and refrigerate until firm before slicing and serving, or use another shaping method described in Flavored Butters.

Makes 8 servings.

*For everything you ever wanted to know about searing, plus dozens of fabulous searing recipes, check out my first book Seared to Perfection.

Images of Alaska and Smoked Salmon Spread

Wild, wondrous, and wintry. Alaska in the cold months is breathtaking. The forests, covered in a sheet of snow and ice, look as though they are made of glass.


And they're teaming with wildlife even in the bitter weather. Timid moose calves venture to the edge of the glass forest to graze on twigs while mother moose watch from between the trees.


Incidentally, the Alaskan cookbook I got includes various recipes for moose.

My one big goal in Alaska was to eat as much king crab as possible.


Which I did.


But for the first time for me, food took a back seat to the scenery. You simply don't notice a grumbling belly when you're watching a dozen Dall sheep scurrying up and down a cliff side.


We were told that the appearance of such a large group of sheep is very rare, and the sight brought out all the area nature photographers.


(If you're a photography enthusiast, note I was the ONLY person using a black lens.)


It turns out my Alaskan cookbook also has lots of recipes for mountain sheep. I think those Alaskans will eat anything that moves.

We got to see a grizzly bear at a wildlife preserve.


My Alaskan cookbook has a few bear recipes too, but it seems like a bear would probably eat you before you could eat it.

This time of year daylight is fleeting.


The sun doesn't rise as much as it peeks above the horizon.


Mountains cast long shadows across the valley floor.


The perpetual dusk makes the cold sink in.


It's bone chilling.


And it looks as cold as it feels.


But do I retreat to the warmth of the indoors?


No, I brave the freezing temperatures to marvel a little longer.


I'm overwhelmed by Alaska's beauty.

Of course, it's inevitable that my attention eventually turns back to food…

There's no need for a recipe for king crab legs since they're simply reheated and served with drawn butter, so here's another seafood delicacy inspired by our Alaskan adventures.

But first…Here's Smoke In Da Eye's review of Seared to Perfection. And in case you missed it, here's the demo I did of the Sage-Rubbed Pork Loin Chops with Cranberry-Pear Compote from Seared to Perfection on KOIN Studio 6 yesterday. I'm happy to report that I wasn't nearly as nervous as I thought I would be!


Smoked Salmon Spread
Printable Recipe

8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
5 ½ ounces hot-smoked salmon, skinned
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives
½ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
Generous pinch cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the cream cheese, smoked salmon, dill, chives, lemon juice, and cayenne in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Season to taste with pepper.

Makes about 2 cups. Serve with crackers, baguette slices, or cucumber sticks. Also makes a great bagel schmear. Keeps for a couple of days tightly sealed in the refrigerator. It’s best at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge about half an hour before serving.