Gingerbread Butter

At a glance

What stands out: This gingerbread butter recipe will transform any pancake, waffle, or slice of toast into a festive holiday treat! And it’s SO straightforward to mix!

How long it takes: 5 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: small mixing bowl
Servings: 8 (1 tablespoon each)

(Really Straightforward) Gingerbread Butter

Classic gingerbread flavors. This compound butter tastes like a gingerbread cookie but in buttery goodness form. It has all the ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves that you’ll find in gingerbread and it’s lightly sweetened with maple syrup. It’s dangerously tasty.

Fancy (but not really!). We love making compound butters like this gingerbread butter because they feel pretty special, like fancy party food, but they take about five minutes to throw together. (Keep reading for more compound butter ideas.)

Make it ahead! It’s so nice to have on hand for those leisurely breakfasts and lazy brunches. It goes evenly with our gingerbread pancakes! Butter makes it better, right?

Ways to change it

• Make a log. Instead of serving the butter as a spread from a bowl, you can roll the butter in parchment paper or waxed paper to make a log. Chill until firm, then slice it into rounds to serve.
• Double (or triple the recipe). It’s straightforward to mix as much as you want and since it keeps well, why not make a double batch while you have all the spices out?
• Change the spices. It doesn’t have to be gingerbread butter. You could easily make pumpkin pie butter using pumpkin pie spice, or apple pie butter, using our apple pie spice. Simply use 2 teaspoons of the spice blends instead of the spices in this recipe.

Make Ahead/Storage

Refrigerate/Freeze: Gingerbread butter will keep in the refrigerator for up to three weeks, or you can freeze it for three months.

• Yield: 8
• Prep: 5 minutes
• Total: 5 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (or freshly grated nutmeg)
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

Method

1. Blend ingredients together using fork. Scrape into small decorative bowl. If you prefer, form the compound butter into a log on plastic wrap or parchment paper, wrap tightly, and refrigerate until firm.
2. Refrigerate the gingerbread butter until ready to use. It's best if you remove compound butter from the refrigerator 30 minutes ahead of time so it can soften slightly.

Notes

Storage: Gingerbread butter, wrapped tightly, will keep in the refrigerator for up to three weeks, or in the freezer for 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator before using.

Serving ideas: This compound butter is rich served with quinoa pancakes, buckwheat pancakes, or best of all, gingerbread pancakes! Try it on from-scratch whole wheat bread or straightforward pumpkin bread.