Chocolate Butter Recipe

alright, alright.

I know what you were thinking when you saw the title of this post. Chocolate and butter. Gee. I wonder if that tastes good?

Truly though, one of my favorite, simple things to toss into a picnic basket is a blended or infused butter. All the recipes for these are so simple, they are all about the ingredients, and they are the perfect thing to spread on a fresh baked baguette or flakey fresh croissant.

So, I know I probably don’t need to do any heavy convincing to get you to try chocolate butter, but really, this recipe is over the top, scrape out of the bowl good. And perfect for the simplest or dressiest of picnics.

Mmm. It takes just a couple steps to make a smooth chocolate butter with the tiniest bits  of bittersweet chocolate that taste heavenly as they melt away on your tongue.

Chocolate Butter

Ingredients
1 stick unsalted butter
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
2 Tbsp confectioner’s sugar
2 squares (.5 oz or so) of your favorite chocolate, chopped
pinch of sea salt

Method
Pile all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined. That’s it.

Good chocolate and good butter. That is the only key. I used a Valrhona 85% bar for the chocolate. And if anyone has a great recommendation for butter, I’d love to hear. Ever since trying French butter I am very self conscious about our American versions. (UPDATE: Thank you Lindsay, for pointing me to this post about butter, I am now on a mission to hunt down Beurre D’Isigny or an Echire butter.)

I prefer to use natural cocoa powder. A well-made brand keeps the fruitier flavor of the original cacao. If you prefer the more typical brownie flavor of cocoa, go for Dutch processed cocoa powder.

If you’d like to create molded butter, which is kind of fun, sprinkle additional cocoa over any mold you like, press chocolate butter inside, refrigerate until firm and remove. I like this to be room temp before serving it though, especially so the chocolate bits melt easily as soon as they hit your tongue.

Tagged as: favorites, good food for simple entertaining, picnics, simple food