Earlier this week we talked about giving your guests individual dishes of butter for a fancy brunch or breakfast. Here's a quick look at how to create little molded pats of butter — it's a tiny, extra-fancy detail, but sometimes we just delight in silly things like these!
It's really simple to make these. All you need is some softened butter (we prefer homemade or unsalted butter) and something to mold it. We use this little pan, which we also use for baking mini-mini cupcakes (it's great for using up the last little bit of cake batter — you know, the last scoop that just won't fit in the cupcake papers!). You could also use silicone ice cube trays or mini muffin pans. Candy molds would work well too.
What You Need
Ingredients
Unsalted butter
Salt (optional)
Equipment
Small mold or mini-muffin pan
Spatula
Instructions
1. Start with a small mold and very soft, unsalted butter.
2. Fill the molds with softened butter, using a spatula to work it in. Try to make sure there aren't any air pockets between the butter and the pan.
3. Freeze the butter for about 1/2 an hour (it freezes quickly) or longer. It should be quite firm.
4. Then place a plate or pan on top of the butter, flip it over, and run the pan wells under hot water for a few seconds.
5. Flip the whole thing over and you should see that the butter pats have fallen out. Easy!
At this point we like to sprinkle the pats with just a little flaky sea salt. You can refrigerate them in a closed container until you need them.
You could also of course use this method to mold just one big star, bunny, Christmas tree, or anything else you would like to adorn your holiday table. Have fun!
And, like we said, this is of course a tiny, insignificant little detail for a dinner party table; it's rather silly, really, But aren't those details sometimes half the fun of throwing a party?
Related: Elegant Brunch: Individual Butter Pats For Each Guest
(Images: Faith Durand)
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Seems like it'd be easier to just melt the butter and pour it in. Would that not work for some reason?
I have that exact pan! I'm dragging it out for some butter pats this weekend.
@cmrcmk -- if you melt the butter, the milk solids and fat might separate. and in general, melted butter never seems to resolidify back the same way.
Those cute silicon ice molds at the dollar store would work very well for this too!
Yeah, if you melted the butter first the solids would definitely separate from the fat, and you'd end up with little ghee pats.
If you feel like going totally Martha on this, try piping it in.
Quick cheat: Place your stick of butter in a plastic zip seal bag, add your flavorings (citrus zest, herbs, honey, maple syrup...) Squish it all together until it is mixed. Cut a small triangle off the corner of the bag and then pipe it into the molds. Help the butter mix settle into the mold by banging the tray on the counter, then chill and impress!
If you're going to pipe it, you could just as well do without the molds and use pastry tips to pipe out little rosettes and things onto a cookie sheet. The butter would probably have to be a bit more solid to hold the shape already though.
Well...here's an idea.
Solid butter is a solid emulsification of butter fat, water, and milk solids. Melting it causes these to separate (which is how we clarify butter), however there is a technique to maintain the emulsion as it becomes a liquid...the french call it "Buerre Monte", which translates to literally "butter sauce".
Once you establish the same emulsion as a liquid, you can allow it to go back to a solid in the fridge. This will allow you to just pour the butter into whatever shaped mold you want.
The way to make Buerre Monte is to whisk chunks of butter in a small saucepan after heating it up with a half tablespoon of water. If the sauce boils, the emulsion will break. Keep a target temperature of 190 or so and you'll be fine.
Hexpirate, that's really useful. I've never heard of that before. Although 'buerre monte' doesn't mean 'butter sauce'. 'Beurre monte' would mean 'beaten butter'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beurre_monte
More to it there, used by the French Laundry quite a bit for alot of purposes. Poaching lobster in Beurre Monte is awesome. =)