Let’s make Roasted Garlic butter! Roasted Garlic Butter is considered a compound butter, which is a fancy term for butter mixed with other ingredients–usually seasonings, herbs, or spices. It can be either whipped or creamed with the mix-ins. It’s very popular at steakhouses to add flavor and fat to meat without needing any other sauce.
This Garlic-infused butter instantly takes run of the mill recipes to an entirely new level. It’s easy to use (slather it on everything), it’s easy to store (you can freeze it) and it makes a great gift as well. You can use roasted garlic butter on a variety of foods, from proteins to vegetables and sauces and across many different cooking methods.
If you’re a garlic lover, this one’s for you.
Roasted Garlic Butter Recipe
Making homemade roasted garlic butter doesn’t require much hands-on time, however, there is some down time waiting for the garlic to roast and the butter to firm up in the fridge. This recipe can be scaled very easily and the butter freezes exceptionally well.
To make roasted garlic butter you need only 4 basic ingredients:
Butter
Garlic
Fresh Herbs
Salt
Getting your garlic perfectly roasted is key for a lovely roasted garlic butter and this is where our recipe begins. (See full post on how to roast garlic here) To prepare roasted garlic, peel the outer papery skins, trying to keep the cloves attached to the head of garlic. Turn the head on its side and slice the top ¼ of the head off to expose the tops of individual cloves– this makes removing the roasted cloves much easier. Then place on aluminum foil, drizzle with a bit of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, cover and roast for about 45 minutes.
The garlic is done when the cloves are soft and very light golden brown. The garlic will have developed a soft, creamy consistency and the flavor will have mellowed into a subtle, sweet caramelized goodness.
If your butter is in the refrigerator, remove it as you begin the roasted garlic prep so it has time to soften.
Once the garlic has roasted and cooled, it’s time to assemble your butter– mash the garlic into a paste, finely chop herbs, and mash this into your butter!
A note on herbs:
For herbs, the choice is truly yours to make! Different herbs will impart a different flavor, aroma, and feeling to your roasted garlic butter so we’ll provide insights on a few classic suggestions.
Parsley: Has a mildly peppery, bright flavor and is often used very finely chopped as a garnish
Chives: Are reminiscent of onions as such, they impart a mild oniony flavor that is delicious with garlic.
Basil: This herb falls more on the floral end of aromatics– basil is mildly sweet, perfumey, and floral.
Sage: Sage has a robust and complex flavor, almost tree-musk forward with balancing notes of mint and citrus; almost like pine.
Rosemary: Also showcases tree-like flavors of musky evergreen with some floral undertones; rosemary is in the same family as mint, lavender, and basil and carries a hint of that floral nature.
Thyme: Thyme is very ‘herby’ tasting, with a strong flavor and aroma of what we consider to be ‘Italian herbs’. It has a woody flavor and aroma.
How to shape roasted garlic butter
For an impressive serving or plating presentation, flavored butter can be shaped into a wide variety of objects using molds or, at home, using parchment or plastic wrap to form back into a log or brick! This makes serving, slicing, and using roasted garlic butter more visually appealing.
Plastic wrap: Lay a large piece of plastic wrap open on the counter and use a spatula to place the butter in a rustic log/line shape in the center of the plastic wrap. Fold and roll the plastic wrap around the log of butter then spin the ends of the plastic wrap to help remove any air pockets and condense the roasted garlic butter log!
Parchment: Lay a piece of parchment paper flat on the counter and use a spatula to add all the butter to the middle of the parchment paper. Fold the parchment over itself so the edges meet up and tuck a pastry cutter or flat edge spatula under the butter log. Push the pastry cutter toward the butter as you hold the bottom layer of parchment paper firmly. This will help remove air bubbles and give you a beautiful log shape!
Or, just watch this video on how to shape it Much easier to watch versus read.
How to store roasted garlic butter
This roasted garlic spread needs to be stored in the refrigerator for short-term use and freezer for long-term use. If you can use your roasted garlic butter within 7 days, storing this in the fridge in an airtight container will suffice just fine. For extended storage, up to 2 months, keep the garlic butter in the freezer.
If you store the log in the freezer, you can still remove it and slice off a few ‘butter coins’ to use to make a sauce or for a certain recipe you’re working on. The small coins will defrost quickly when left at room temperature.
We’ve got an entire post on roasted garlic storage, shelf-life, and botulism information here.
Variations & Substitutions
Compound butters are very easy to adjust and alter the flavor of– using different combinations of herbs mentioned above is an easy way to change the flavor profile. We’ve got a few more variations and combos outlined below as well.
For these additions we recommend 2-3 tablespoons per 1/2cup, 4oz stick of butter.
Citrus: Both lemon juice and lemon zest can be added!
Caramelized onions: Add caramelized onions to your roasted garlic butter
Cheesy Notes: Add parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast.
Balsamic vinegar: Is a lovely match with roasted garlic.
Whipped honey butter variation: Add honey to your roasted garlic butter
Substitutions:
Use a dairy free butter or margarine in place of cow’s milk butter if this better suits your health or dietary needs. Margarine or any dairy-free butter sold in a tub won’t firm up as much in the fridge and may be difficult to roll into a log shape, just keep this in mind.
Flavored cream cheese spreads are also very, very delicious! These flavor combinations work for this as well.
Should you buy expensive butter for this recipe?
Great news– splurging on fancy European or cultured butters for this recipe is not required or recommended! All the nuance flavors you’ll find in top-shelf butters won’t carry through with all the additions here so using a standard grocery store butter will work just fine.
How to bring butter to room temperature?
Our favorite fool-proof method for quickly softening cold butter is to use a dutch oven. Place your dutch oven in the sink and fill with hot water from the tap. Set the lid on and leave it to warm for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes pour out the water and place your butter sticks inside for 5 minutes and voila!
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Roasted Garlic Butter {Tips On Shaping + Video}
Author:Adriana
Prep Time:20 minutes
Cook Time:45 minutes
Total Time:65 minutes
Yield:1/2 cup
Method:cold prep
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Description
Roasted garlic butter is a garlic flavored butter that has a smooth, mellow, and delicious flavor thanks to using roasted garlic in place of raw garlic. This recipe will walk you through all the steps to make roasted garlic butter:
Perfectly roasting the garlic heads
Choosing the correct herbs
2 ways to make roasted garlic butter
Shaping the garlic butter
Flavor variations
Storage & FAQs
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (4 oz stick)
4 heads of garlic
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs (optional)
salt & pepper
Instructions
Roast the garlic:
Remove outer papery skins from garlic heads, but keep the cloves intact and attached to the head of garlic.
Slice the top 1/3 off the head of garlic to expose the tops of all the cloves. (This helps to remove the roasted cloves later)
Drizzle the heads with olive oil & season with salt and pepper.
Wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes, check at 45 minutes.
The cloves are ready when they are light golden and soft to the touch. Some cloves may be popping out of their skins and some cloves will appear to have shrunk.
Make The Roasted Garlic Butter:
Once the garlic is cool enough to handle squeeze the head of garlic at the bottom near the root cluster, working your way up. The garlic should squeeze out of the top of the head of garlic. Add this to a bowl and mash with a fork until it’s a paste-like consistency.
If using fresh herbs, finely chop them and add to your roasted garlic paste and mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
Add 1 stick of softened butter to the roasted garlic mixture and mash until incorporated and mostly smooth.
Food Processor Option: Add roasted garlic, herbs (if using), salt & pepper to a food processor and process until combined into a paste. Then add softened butter and process again until fully incorporated.
Shape The Roasted Garlic Butter:
You can simply store this in a container in the refrigerator to use as needed, or shape into a log and slice if you’d like a nicer presentation. There are 2 ways to shape the butter into a log.
Plastic wrap: Lay a large piece of plastic wrap open on the counter and use a spatula to place the butter in a rustic log/line shape in the center of the plastic wrap. Fold and roll the plastic wrap around the log of butter then spin the ends of the plastic wrap to help remove any air pockets and condense the roasted garlic butter log!
Parchment: Lay a piece of parchment paper flat on the counter and use a spatula to add all the butter to the middle of the parchment paper. Fold the parchment over itself so the edges meet up and tuck a pastry cutter or flat edge spatula under the butter log. Push the pastry cutter toward the butter as you hold the bottom layer of parchment paper firmly. This will help remove air bubbles and give you a beautiful log shape!
Notes
Roasted Garlic Butter needs to be stored in the refrigerator and is good for 7 days. For extended storage, this keeps very well in the freezer for up to 2 months!
Roasted garlic heads can be made a few days in advance. If you’re already cooking something in the oven for about an hour, roast your garlic at the same time!
We have an entire post on how to roast garlic.
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