Quick Cinnamon Butter

Making your own sweet or savory compound butter takes just a few minutes, and you are not limited to the few flavors of compound butter that you find at the grocery store, which is often pricey.

For fans of cinnamon, here’s a recipe for lightly sweetened cinnamon butter. It can be used in many different ways: as a spread for fresh yeasted breads, quick breads such as pineapple nut bread, bagels, scones, waffles, pancakes, popovers, or, on the savory side, as a topping for plain roasted or mashed sweet potatoes or winter squash. You can also incorporate it into baked goods by adding a cinnamon swirl to homemade rolls.

Feel free to alter the amount of cinnamon and sugar to suit your taste and depending on the sweetness of the food you are serving it with. 

Making this butter with everyday unsalted American butter is absolutely fine, However, if you want to notch it up, use unsalted European butter such as Irish butter. With a fat content of around 82 percent, European butters are higher in fat and have less water content than American butter with around 80 percent fat and a higher water content. European butter stands out not only because it is yellower than American butter but also because it has more flavor and it is creamier, which is just what you want in a buttery spread like this. Other flavorful substitutions for standard American supermarket butter are cultured butter and Amish butter.

It will also make a subtle difference whether you use true cinnamon or cassia to make this butter. Cassia has a stronger, bolder flavor whereas cinnamon has a warm, sweet flavor. Adding the same amount of cassia as true cinnamon to the butter can be overpowering so add it in small increments and taste before adding more.

For the sugar, try light brown or raw cane sugar, which gives the butter a deeper sweet flavor, which works especially well with sweet potatoes and winter squash, and any spiced quick breads such as spiced apple bread.

The recipe makes about 1/3 cup, and it's easily scaled up for a large dinner or brunch. You can also made a large batch of the butter and freeze it, divided into suitable portion sizes. Instead of freezing a whole log, use an ice cube tray to portion the butter into tablespoons. Once frozen, transfer the frozen butter cubes to a sealed freezer bag.