Day 10 – Brandy Butter

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Stop, hold on, before you switch off thinking you’re not keen on brandy butter!  I wasn’t either, until I made my own!  Wow what a revelation I can’t believe I’ve been missing out all this time!

Two versions from me, a brandy butter and a Baileys butter too.  Stored in the freezer in individual portions so there’s no waste either.

If you love a good spread of butter on your toast, teacakes or slice of fruit cake then this is definitely right up your street!

Ingredients:

Brandy Butter

125g butter, salted

125g icing sugar

zest of 1/2 orange or 1 clementine

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or seeds scraped from 1/2 pod

3 tbsps of brandy

Baileys Butter

125g butter, salted

125g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste or seeds scraped from 1/2 pod

3 tbsps of Baileys

 

To begin with you need your butter nicely softened at room temperature.  Use your favourite butter,  I’m using a thoroughly lovely Cornish butter from Rodda’s.

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Add the softened butter to a bowl with the zest.

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Beat it together well.

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Add  the icing sugar 1/3rd at time and beat it well after each addition.

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Now you should have a super light and creamy mixture.

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Add the vanilla bean paste and begin to add the brandy 1 tablespoon at a time giving it a great beating after each.  After 3 tbsps taste it and see if you prefer it stronger.  You can add upto 5 tbsps before any more and you’d risk it splitting.  Beating it super well after each tablespoon is the trick here.

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For the Baileys version beat the butter and then work in the icing sugar 1/3rd at a time before starting to add the Baileys along with the vanilla bean paste and beating well.

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Now of course you can just put it in a tub and store it that way, but that wouldn’t be as much fun would it?

Add it to a piping bag fitted with a large open star nozzle.

Line a baking tray with baking paper, greasing the base of the tray will keep it stuck down in place.

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Pipe out little individual stars of brandy butter.

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Place the tray in the freezer for 1 hour.

Take out the tray, release the stars and place them in a freezer bag.  Store them in the freezer until you need them.

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They defrost quickly so you only need to take them out of the freezer a little in advance – 20 minutes should do the trick.

Add them to warm mince pies or top your Christmas Pud with them – enjoy!

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Brandy Butter

Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire

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