Orange Honey Butter

At a glance

What stands out: Orange zest and honey are blended into butter to create an incredibly flavored compound butter. Orange honey butter is reliable on cornbread, biscuits, or muffins but also makes a great edible gift.

How long it takes: 5 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: small bowl
Servings: makes ½ cup

Creamy Orange Honey Butter

So simple but so good! This beautiful compound butter is infused with orange zest and honey, giving it subtle hints of sweetness and citrus. Making orange honey butter is a straightforward way to elevate something as simple as butter. This is a hidden gem recipe and after you try it, you’ll be thinking, “How did we not know about this before?”

Sweet/tangy balance. Orange zest has natural oils in it, and those oils permeate the butter, giving it a whole new dimension. Sweet honey balances the tangy orange flavor. Adding just two simple ingredients to your everyday butter is a straightforward way to put a little something special on your table.

Little effort, big results. Having a little dish of this specialty butter on your table during the holidays would impress anyone. It’s an effortless way to jazz up any already fantastic baked good or even plain bread.

A great gift idea. Orange honey butter is a edible gift idea, too. It literally takes five minutes to make, then all you have to do is package it in a pretty jar, maybe tie a ribbon around the top, and give it to a friend, neighbor, or your student’s teacher. Pair it with a loaf of from-scratch bread for bonus points.

What goes in

Unsalted Butter – You’ll want to make sure to take the butter out of the fridge an hour before using, depending on how warm your kitchen is. Using soft butter is the only way to blend the ingredients into a creamy consistency.
Orange Zest – All you’ll need is 1 large orange. Do not add any of the juice, you just want the zest. Always wash the orange before zesting it.
Honey – Any type of honey will work in this recipe. Raw honey tends to be a bit more solid at room temperature, but either will work. We wouldn’t use the most expensive honey since it’s mixed with other ingredients.

How it comes together

Soften the butter. The easiest way to soften butter is to take it out of the refrigerator ahead of time. Cutting the butter into small pieces or grating it will speed the process. You can also microwave the butter, at low power, in 30 second increments. Check the softness after each increment and rotate the butter so it softens easily. Be careful not to melt it.

Zest the orange. Wash the orange first and use a microplane or grater. The zest should be quite fine, not coarse, for a standby results. You should have one to two teaspoons of zest.

Don't have a microplane?

We frequently use citrus zest in our cooking and a microplane is about the only way to zest efficiently. We've had this one for years and it works evenly!

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Blend the ingredients. In a small bowl, blend together the butter, orange zest, and honey until smooth and blended. We usually use a fork. We've found that an electric mixer does not work well because the orange zest gets tangled on the beater blades.

Refrigerate or serve immediately. If you refrigerate the compound butter, take it out and let it set at room temperature for at least fifteen minutes to soften.

Ways to serve it

Breads. You can use orange honey butter on anything you would normally spread butter on, such as toast (try a nice whole grain bread with lots of seeds!), scones, muffins, or pancakes. Try it on banana bread muffins or carrot raisin muffins. We love it on from-scratch cornbread, pumpkin bread, and zucchini bread, too. Turn ordinary pancakes into a special treat with honey orange butter. We often serve compound butters with warm from-scratch beer bread, Irish soda bread, or Dutch oven bread.

Vegetables. A dab of honey orange butter on melted on cooked vegetables adds another dimension of flavor. Try it with roasted sweet potatoes, sautéed Brussels sprouts, or air fryer carrots.

Ways to change it

• Add warm spice. Blend in a small amount of ground cinnamon or ground ginger for another layer of flavor. Orange and honey is a year-round combination but the addition of cinnamon adds a festive holiday feel. In the summer, you can add dried rosemary or lavender for a special touch.
• Try a different citrus fruit. Instead of orange zest, try lemon, tangerine, or grapefruit zest. Blood oranges have a slightly sweeter flavor than regular oranges. Lemon honey butter would be the reliable finishing touch on lemon bread, lemon poppy seed bread, or lemon poppy seed protein pancakes.
• Use a different sweetener. Use maple syrup instead of honey to make orange maple butter. Agave syrup or even powdered sugar could be substituted.
• More compound butters: Try gingerbread butter too! Chive butter and garlic butter are rich savory compound butters.

Keeping leftovers

Refrigerate/freeze: Store orange honey butter in a small ramekin or bowl, covered with plastic wrap. It can be refrigerated for up to two weeks or frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to three months.

To serve: If the butter is frozen, allow it to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Cold butter should be softened for a half hour or so at room temperature for spreadability. Sometimes the honey and butter separate a bit; simply stir well before serving.

• Yield: 8
• Prep: 10 minutes
• Total: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• ½ cup unsalted butter, softened (one stick)
• 1 to 2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest (from 1 large orange)
• 2 tablespoons honey

Method

1. In a small bowl, blend ingredients together until smooth and combined. We usually use a fork. Store in the fridge but soften before use.
2. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use.

Notes

Refrigerate/freeze: Store orange honey butter in a small ramekin or bowl, covered with plastic wrap. It can be refrigerated for up to two weeks or frozen in a freezer-safe container for up to three months.

To serve: If the butter is frozen, allow it to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Cold butter should be softened for a half hour or so at room temperature for spreadability. Sometimes the honey and butter separate a bit; simply stir well before serving.