Honey Butter :: Whip up something sweet (for breakfast)

Have you ever had honey butter?

Many, many centuries ago when I was my early 20s I had a part time job at Williams-Sonoma where we were able to create and experiment with all their machines, bread-makers, sauces and jams. It was not unusual to have something special baking in the bread machine, nor was it unusual for us to create something to accompany the bread. Usually these included infused or seasoned oils and butters. In the Cuisinart Mini-Prep food processor we'd combine butter and honey and sometimes apricot, strawberry or raspberry jam to create these divine spreads. They were so good, that often customers would leave with their bags filled with assorted honeys and jams. The bread machines were a harder sell! Ever since I've had a thing for honey butter - slightly sweet, slight salty - and how it perfectly melts on warm crusty bread. But honey butter is wonderful on pancakes, waffles, quick breads and toast. There's something comforting about it. 

Ingredients:
Honey
Butter, cold
Roughly 3/4 cup of honey to 1/2 stick of butter. You can always taste and alter to add more honey or butter. 
Optional: 1 tsp of ground cinnamon gives it some lovely warmth

Directions:
In your small food processor (if you have one) blend your ingredients until they are fully whipped. The butter will melt on its own through the heat generated by the machine. If you use an already softened butter, your honey butter will be too liquid.

Once blended and airy you can use it immediately or store in the refrigerator. 

Note:
You can use any kind of honey you wish but I find that the thicker creamier versions hold up best. I do NOT use my local, organic honeys for this as they are much too good on their own.

If you live near a Trader Joe's I highly recommend their Organic Raw Honey. They also have a thick creamy honey also works really well.

As for the butter I prefer salted - there's something about that slightly salty, slightly sweet thing that just does it for me every time. And DO NOT let the butter soften ahead of time!

Our Whipped Honey butter is the perfect accoutrement to any baked bread, tea bread, muffin, toast, brioche....  What else would you put it on?