How to make perfectly smooth, delicious brandy butter in minutes, the perfect accompaniment to your festive mince pies or Christmas pudding.
I mentioned in my recipe for pretty mince pies earlier this week that I’d originally only made them as a prop for photographs in another post, and here it is… perfect homemade brandy butter.
In all honesty I had started to think that this was a recipe that I thought I would never be able to share. I decided to start making my own brandy butter as I love it on mince pies and if you buy a tub in the shop you have a 100g tub which has to be used up in 2 days. That means you either needs to eat a lot of it (and it’s basically just butter, sugar and alcohol!) or it was going to go to waste. Being able to whip up enough for a couple of mince pies at a time seemed like the obvious thing to do.
The problem was that I quickly realised that I couldn’t actually make it – it kept curdling, and who wants their pretty mince pies topped with something closely resembling cottage cheese?
I was on the verge of giving up when I accidentally came across the solution… The butter must be at room temperature and soft enough to beat by hand. If it’s not soft enough the brandy won’t combine properly with the butter and it’ll look curdled. The other important tip is to mix in the brandy gradually and ensure that each addition is fully combined before adding more.
I’ve seen suggestions online to add more icing sugar or less brandy. I’m sure that these would probably work but then you’d have brandy butter that’s either too sweet or doesn’t taste like brandy, neither of which is ideal.
Stick to my two tips and you should have perfectly smooth, delicious brandy butter in minutes.
FREE GRAMS TO CUPS CONVERSION CHARTS
Subscribe to the Charlotte's Lively Kitchen mailing list to get your FREE printable grams to cups and cups to grams conversion charts for twelve popular baking ingredients
Brandy Butter
INGREDIENTS
- 50 g unsalted butter - soft and room temperature
- 50 g icing sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 25 ml brandy - approx – see notes
INSTRUCTIONS
- Beat the butter until very soft (you can start this using a food mixer but I recommend finishing by hand - if the butter isn't soft enough to beat easily by hand then your brandy butter is more likely to curdle).
- Add the icing sugar and beat until fully combined.
- Add the vanilla extract (¼ tsp) and mix to combine.
- Gradually add the brandy (25ml), about a teaspoon at a time, and beat to fully combine before adding more.
- Once all of the brandy has been added cover the butter and refrigerate until ready to eat.
NOTES
NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION
Any nutritional information provided is the estimated nutritional information per serving. Please refer to my guide to Charlotte’s Lively Kitchen nutritional information if you would like to learn more about how this is calculated.
Free From/Suitable For…
- Suitable for Vegetarians
- Gluten-Free
- Egg-Free
- Nut-Free
- Soy-Free
- Corn-Free
The ingredients for this recipe are commonly available free from all these allergens. However, please ensure you double-check allergen information for all ingredients.
Ana says
Sounds scrumptious, any chance it can be made in advance and frozen? I need to make enough for ten people and it would be helpful to make it earlier.
Charlotte Oates says
I’ve not tried, but I’ve got some in the fridge so I’ve popped a bit in the freezer to test it out. I’ll let you know in a couple of days.