Homemade Orange Honey Butter
Butter is freshly whipped from cream, then mixed with orange blossom honey, fresh orange zest, and salt, for a decadent butter that’s perfect for pancakes, waffles, and more.
Butter whipped at home is just divine, and to me, there is nothing better for a weekend brunch than buttermilk pancakes with homemade orange honey butter on top. Some homemade butter recipes merely instruct you to melt some butter, mix some stuff into it, then stick it back in the fridge, but that’s not what we’re doing here. We are going to whip some heavy cream with a mixer until it separates into butter and true buttermilk. Once you make your butter like this from scratch, you’ll be trying all sorts of butters, like herb butters for steak, cinnamon butter for waffles, and so on. I also love brushing this onto Homemade Soft Pretzels hot from the oven. Let me take you through the process:
Start by whisking heavy cream, honey, and orange zest.
In the first few minutes, the mixture will turn into orange honey whipped cream:
After a couple more minutes, the mixture will start to clump up, and by the 7 or 8 minutes mark, the butter will really separate from a liquid that collects at the bottom of the bowl. This is true buttermilk!
Once the butter has clumped up, scoop it out from the bowl and it’s now ready to be spread on toast or pancakes.
Homemade Orange Honey Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 tbsp orange blossom honey
- zest of one orange
- pinch of salt
Instructions
- Place the whipping cream, honey, orange zest, and salt into a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and turn the mixer on as high as you can go without splattering cream everywhere (medium high for me). It will take about 10 minutes to take your whipping cream to the butter stage. Let’s break it down.
- In the first few minutes, the mixture will turn into orange honey whipped cream.
- After a couple more minutes, the mixture will start to clump up, and by the 7 or 8 minutes mark, the butter will really separate from a liquid that collects at the bottom of the bowl. This is true buttermilk!
- Once the butter has clumped up, scoop it out from the bowl and form it into whatever shape you like. I usually use a disher to portion it out into little balls. Spread it on pancakes, muffins, toast, whatever your heart desires. Enjoy!!!
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
12 Comments on “Homemade Orange Honey Butter”
Hi! I tried making this twice, but it turned out really bitter both times. I was very careful about not getting any pith, and I tried adding more honey, but no luck. Any idea what I did wrong? Thanks! I’m not always very good about commenting, but I’ve really loved your recipes I’ve tried in the past (the Asian drumsticks were especially good), and I always look forward to seeing what you come up with next!
Hi Lindsay, that is so strange, I haven’t had this happen to me before with home-whipped butter. My guess is it’s not from the pith or the honey. I did some reading and it looks like the cream used should be a few days old and needs to be ripened at a specific temperature, and it’s recommended to use grass-fed cows (not sure how much that last part matters, to be perfectly honest). If you look at the label of your heavy cream container, are there additives? Basically anything other than cream? I’ve noticed a lot of heavy creams sold at the grocery store have preservatives and stabilizers, and I make a point not to buy those. Maybe that is the solution? Those are my ideas. Glad the other recipes have gone well!
Hi
Can this be frozen.
Hi Jackie, butter freezes beautifully. Enjoy!
This butter is epic. I had no idea you could easily make butter at home — it makes perfect sense, as you’re just churning it in the mixer, but I just never thought about it.
I know, right? It’s so great! I love homemade butter!!!
Cool! Thanks for the recipe! My son made butter in his kindergarten class this year, and has been asking if we could do it again at home!
I like that cream stage..looks very nice 🙂
I am in love with butter after having lived off I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter and returning back to the real thing. Didn’t know real butter wasn’t so difficult to make. I will definitely be experimenting in the next few weeks.
I am getting such a strong desire to cook from looking through your blog!!!
Wow, that’s an interesting combination of flavor in butter. On my list of things to try!
Hi Joanne,
Any suggestions for what to do with that buttermilk? I’d hate to throw it away.
Thanks.
Hey Dad Pete! You can use it for anything that calls for buttermilk. Buttermilk pancakes, buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk scones, buttermilk dressing, pretty much anything! Great question =)