How to Make Garlic Butter (Only 4 Ingredients!)

Learn How to Make Garlic Butter at home with this easy  and delicious recipe! With only 4 simple ingredients and 20 minutes of your time, you’ll feel like a professional chef when you make this easy garlic butter recipe from scratch. Homemade Garlic Butter is perfect for French bread, baked potatoes, steaks and anything else you’d slather butter on. 

Homemade Garlic Butter

While there are plenty of recipes out there to mix garlic and herbs into butter you buy at the store, this is a homemade butter recipe that includes how to make homemade butter plus how to add the herbs and garlic for homemade garlic and herb butter. That’s why this is the best garlic butter recipe! 

BUT… if you want to use store-bought butter, I do have instructions for that down below (click here to jump to there).

This recipe is technically a simple compound butter – which is butter mixed with other ingredients (sweet or savory). Mix butter with fresh herbs, garlic, honey, pureed fruit, etc. and you have compound butter.

Totally irrevelant, but my aunt made homemade strawberry butter when we were growing up and it was one of the best things I’ve ever put in my mouth! But I digress…

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Homemade Butter

Knowing how to make homemade butter is a game changer. In this day and age where it’s really easy to get your hands on butter at the store, I know it’s not something many people do.

But let me tell you – no store-bought butter is the same as making it yourself. Plus, this is a good skill to have and it’s super cool to tell your friends you made the butter yourself, right? 

Why You’ll Love Homemade Garlic & Herb Butter

• Homemade butter tastes better.
• You can adjust the amount of salt you want added (unless you want unsalted butter), and you can add any and all of the flavors you want!
• It’s also a great way to use up heavy cream if you have some in your refrigerator that you won’t use by the expiration date. 
• You get the bonus of homemade buttermilk as a by-product. Learn all about buttermilk here.

Tools Needed

• Strainer
• Electric Mixer such as a Bosch Mixer or Kitchenaid Stand Mixer
• Mixing Bowls
• Airtight Container
• Garlic Press, unless you buy garlic already minced

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Ingredients for Homemade Garlic & Herb Butter

These are basic ingredients that you easily get your hands on if you don’t already have them!

• Heavy Whipping Cream
• Water
• Garlic, minced. I like to mince three cloves of garlic to get about a tablespoon
• Italian Seasoning (or individual herbs)
• Onion Powder  
• Salt, optional

See the full recipe on the recipe card below.

Substitutions

Butter. As mentioned here below, you can use a stick of butter (two actually) to make this compound butter without actually making the homemade compound butter from scratch. Whatever you decide, please use real butter, not margarine or a butter substitute.

Garlic. I prefer fresh garlic cloves but you could use minced garlic from a jar if you like. You could also use 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of garlic powder but it’s far inferior to fresh garlic. 

Italian Seasoning. Use your own custom mix of dried herbs if you don’t have or like the mix in Italian seasoning. YOu could use thyme, oregano, dill, paprika, basil, etc.

How to Make Garlic Butter

This is an easy recipe and it’s a quick recipe. Who knew you could make homemade butter from scratch in 20 minutes? Not me, until I did it!

How to Make Homemade Butter

1. Start by beating your heavy cream in a stand mixer until it separates. You will have a solid and a liquid. 
2. Pour into a strainer that is sitting over a mixing bowl and separate the solid and liquid.
3. Save the liquid in a mason jar. That is buttermilk!
4. Next rinse your butter by kneading it in a bowl of water and rinsing it until the buttermilk is squeezed out entirely. 

NOTE: Place a towel over your stand mixer to prevent a mess if the mixture splatters.

How to Make Garlic Herb Butter

1. Place kneaded butter into a bowl and add in your minced garlic, onion powder, and Italian seasoning.
2. If you want salted butter, add a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.
3. Knead once more until well combined.
4. Place in a sealed storage container until ready to use. A small bowl with a lid works great or you can cover the bowl with plastic wrap. *See serving suggestions below for creating a log of butter.

Variations

For a kick of heat, you can add a pinch of cayenne pepper, black pepper, or red pepper flakes.

For more color, you can add fresh ingredients such as fresh parsley or fresh rosemary.

Serving Suggestions for Garlic Herb Butter

You can serve this directly from the bowl or if you want a fancier presentation, you can spoon the soft mixture onto plastic wrap or wax paper into a log shape.

Then roll it up into a tube and refrigerate until hardened. Then it can be sliced to serve on a small platter or for individual servings. 

There are so many ways to enjoy Garlic and Herb Butter. It goes almost anywhere regular butter goes in everyday meals. Here are just a few ideas for where how to serve the best garlic butter you’ve ever had!

• Bread – Use French Bread and you have a homemade garlic bread spread. Spread the garlic and herb butter over the bread- DELISH!! Take it to the next level by when you make Cheesy Garlic Bread by adding some parmesan cheese on top! Or spread it on toast, dinner rolls, etc.You get the idea.
• Steak or Chicken Breasts
• Baked Potatoes or Sweet Potatoes – of course this is a delicious topping for potatoes, right?
• Vegetables such as green beans or brussels sprouts or corn on the cob (I have an Instant Pot recipe here)
• Homemade Pizza Crust – brush it on the edges before cooking!
• Pasta – this is one of my go-to easy lunches for my homeschool kids. We cook pasta (any shape), toss it with garlic butter and parmesan and voila – delicious, easy lunch. Sometimes I toss in some steamed broccoli too!
• Shrimp, Lobster Tails or other seafood – melt this homemade garlic butter spread and use it as an easy homemade garlic butter sauce for dipping seafood.

Storage Suggestions 

This homemade garlic butter recipe has a great shelf life in the refrigerator or freezer. If you want it to be easily spreadable, bring it to room temperature before serving.

Refrigerator – If you’ll be using it regularly, this butter will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Store in an airtight container.

Freezer – For longer storage, simple compound butter can be stored in the freezer for up to 6 months. I recommend freezing in small portions and taking it out as needed. A great way to do that is to freeze in ice cube trays, then drop them into a freezer bag after they’re solid.

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