Happy holidays!! It has been way too long since I've posted, but I thought what better way to pick back up than with an easy and crafty gift idea for the friends and family you love?! I can't lie, I was inspired by this idea on "Your Home Based Mom" blog, but I took it and went in a slightly different direction that has made some happy people in my life :) What is this easy gift you may ask....BUTTER! Flavored butter to be more specific...yum yum yum!
Originally, I was planning on using small 4 oz. canning jars for this gift and had planned on doing three stacked on top of each other and tied with a ribbon but got majorly excited when I found these adorable little red jars in the front section of Target because it made the gift way more festive and personal. However these jars were about twice the size of the canning jar I planned to use, so I had to make two runs to Costco for ingredients, which let's be honest isn't really a bad thing!
You could also make this with used baby food jars, just maybe spray paint the tops so it doesn't confuse anyone!
For my flavors, I wanted a sweet, savory, and fruit option, so I ended up making a honey butter, a garlic and herb butter, and a strawberry butter. For all options I used Kerrygold Irish butter since I adore the flavor and it has a softer consistency even when it's than other cheaper butters might.
To make each of the butters, I simply combined all the ingredients in my stand mixer for about a minute until the ingredients were combined and the butter had a nice whipped texture. (You could use either the paddle attachment or the whip attachment, depending on how light and fluffy you want the texture to be.) And although I based my recipes off ones I found online, you could certainly add more or less ingredients depending on how strong you wanted the other flavors in your butter.
Honey Butter:
6 sticks of butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbs vanilla extract
Garlic and Herb Butter:
6 sticks of butter, softened
4-6 cloves of roasted garlic, mashed
1/4 cup parsley, finely minced
1/4 cup chives, chopped
Directions for roasted garlic: cut the tops off the heads of garlic, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and bake in a 450 degree oven for 45 minutes. IT'S SO GOOD!!!
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Strawberry Butter:
6 sticks of butter, softened
1 cup frozen strawberries, thawed and partially drained
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Once all the butters were made and in the fridge, I wanted to label them so it would be easy to tell what they each were. Luckily, I found some ADORABLE Christmas themed labels, gift bags, and mini clothespins at Michael's this year that I thought would be perfect for my gifts.
On the front of each label, I wrote the name of the butter, and on the back I put the ingredients used. You could certainly put instructions for use, such as "use in the next two weeks or freeze," but since I was giving each gift in person I let them know that freezing the jars until they were ready to use them would help them last much longer.
Once the butter was labeled and chilled, I stacked them in the bag, along with a loaf of bread, and put some cute crinkled paper to look like "snow" on top to make it more festive. As I said...easy and so personal.
Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!
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