Original post date 3-6-12

Well, today is only Tuesday but it turned out to be an additional baking day. We did our monthly huge trip to Sam’s Club yesterday morning and as I was putting part of our haul away in the deep freeze, I took out a lonely pound of butter to take upstairs to the fridge. I put this pound of butter on one of the pantry shelves so I could continue on with what I was doing without an extra trip upstairs. Have you guessed what my mistake was yet? Yep- you got it: I left the butter there over night. I found it this morning- right on the shelf where I left it. Now, this is not the end of the world. I normally leave my butter- one stick at a time- out on the counter in a butter dish so that I can use it on toast, etc. I just don’t leave a whole pound out unless I have specific plans for it. So I had to make some hasty plans to use it up this morning. I made a batch of chocolate chip cookies and this berry butter. I don’t have any pictures except of the final product because I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. I’ve had some pretty nasty compound butters before and am always a little leery of them. But once I tasted this one I knew I had to share it. This is that little taste of sunshine that makes waiting for Spring well worth it! And it will be even better tomorrow :.)

The Recipe:

8 oz (Half a pound, 2 sticks) Butter, softened

1/4 C Raspberries

1/4 C Blackberries

1/4 C Powdered Sugar

1/2 t Lemon Zest

Pinch Nutmeg

1/8 – 1/4 t Vanilla

The Method:

*Puree or mash berries. The recipe called for doing this in a food processor but you would have to have one of the tiny ones. I tried this in my blender and had to continually stop it & put the berries back up to the blades. I got very chunky berries in the end but I think that makes this better even better :.)

*Add the sugar, nutmeg, vanilla, and zest to the butter and cream together.

*Add the berries and beat together thoroughly.

*Put in a container and let sit overnight before using on whatever you can think of- this stuff will make anything taste wonderful!

Happy Spring everyone!!