I Tried Martha Stewart’s Most Beloved Butter, and I Get Why She Baked 35 Pies With It in Two Days

This past Thanksgiving, Martha Stewart shared a photo on Instagram of the 35 (!) pies she baked over the course of a few days. Her caption read: “Total pies baked 35 — Chocolate pecan, brown butter maple rum pecan, pumpkin phyllo, apple crumb, and cranberry! It took two days, 100 eggs, 14 pounds pecan halves, eleven jars Karo syrup, 25 pounds Heckers flour, thirty pounds Plugra butter, six cups of maple syrup, 60 ounces pumpkin puree, 18 cups fresh cranberries, etc.” 

I couldn’t help but focus on the vast array of ingredients used to bake that many pies. What caught my eye the most was the butter Martha was using: 30 pounds of Plugrà butter. When I read that it was Martha’s BOC (butter of choice), I knew I had to bake with it for myself to see how it compares to other butters. 

This European-style butter is made by the Dairy Farmers of America cooperative (here, in the U.S.) and is beloved by bakers and chefs alike for its high fat content — 82% percent. U.S.-made butters have a slightly lower fat content at around 70%. Plugrà is also slow-churned in smaller batches, which is believed to yield a smoother and more pliable butter. 

That kind of quality also comes with a heftier price tag. At nearly $6 for the equivalent of two sticks (or eight ounces of butter), it’s at least a dollar or two more than several national name- and store-brand options on shelves right now. Still, given its high regard in the baking world, I was excited to give it a try.

In the midst of holiday baking, I made a batch of sugar cookies, swapping Plugrà Premium European Style Unsalted Butter for the store-brand butter I typically buy. (Martha’s Instagram post doesn’t note whether she used salted or unsalted). Once softened, the butter blended seamlessly into the sugar (although, not any more than I recall my typical butter doing). The cookies baked into a pristine golden brown in the oven. 

Then it was time for the real test: How did they taste? I thought at first that it would be hard to tell the difference between this cookie and any others that I’ve made. But wow, was I surprised! 

This cookie had a prominent buttery flavor — more so than I’ve noticed in the past — that I could only attribute to Plugrà. (The rest of the ingredients were the same as the ones I typically use.) It also had a strong buttery aroma that made my apartment smell like a dream. 

Although this butter is on the pricier side, I will keep buying it for special baking occasions. What can I say; Martha has good taste.

Buy: Plugrà Premium European Style Unsalted Butter, $5.09 (on sale!) for 8 ounces at Instacart

Have you tried Plugrà? Tell us about it in the comments below.