The Festive Compound Butter You Should Spread On Holiday Baked Goods

For foodies, the holiday season is the best time to try new recipes to add some festive flair to your dinner table. When assembling your menu, it's important to incorporate all of those seasonal flavors — like pumpkin, cranberry, and peppermint — to evoke that warm and comforting holiday essence. Cranberry is among our favorites, and while the famed, vibrant fruit makes an appearance at most Thanksgiving tables in the form of cranberry sauce, there are so many other ways to enjoy it. We like making a cranberry compound butter; it's the perfect tart accompaniment to all of your homemade breads and baked goods this season.

To put it simply, a compound butter is a butter that's been mixed with other ingredients. While it might seem complicated to incorporate ingredients into an already-made butter, it's really not. Our simple method for making compound butter utilizes a food processor, like this KitchenAid model, which makes it a breeze. To make a cranberry compound butter, start by making a quick cranberry sauce over the stove by boiling fresh cranberries, orange juice, and a bit of sugar. Add a stick or two of softened butter to your food processor, adding the cranberry sauce and a bit of honey for some additional sweetness. Roll it into a parchment paper log and stick it in the fridge until it solidifies again.

One of the most important tips you need when making compound butter is using high-quality butter. If you just use any old stick of butter you've got lying around, the compound butter will likely not be as showstopping as you envisioned, because the primary ingredient wasn't the best to begin with. While this recipe is simple enough to follow, perhaps you don't have a ton of time to watch a homemade cranberry sauce bubble on the stove. If this is the case, you can utilize Martha Stewart's cranberry butter recipe, which uses just two simple ingredients: canned cranberry sauce and butter. Mix the two in the food processor, and voila: You'd never know it came from a can. And if you want to spruce things up a bit more, try adding a sprig of rosemary to the butter before rolling it up for some additional fragrance.

Once you see and taste the final result of this festive butter, we guarantee that you'll want to eat it straight-up — it's that good. But we also know that it goes well with lots of different baked goods, from our honey sage skillet cornbread to our glazed cranberry bread. Whatever you place it beside on the table this season, it's guaranteed to slowly disappear right before your eyes.