Creamy, luscious, and sweetened with pure maple syrup, maple butter takes a minute to make with just two ingredients. It's terrific smeared on fresh cornbread or muffins, or dolloped on waffles and pancakes. Rather make honey butter? I'll show you the flavor options and even a dairy-free option to sweeten up your day.
While homemade cornbread was baking, I made this terrific maple butter to go with it. This is a maple butter recipe, not maple cream. Making maple cream, which is cooked and whipped maple syrup, takes a candy thermometer. This is way easier, sometimes called maple syrup butter.
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Why You'll Like This Recipe
- Homemade maple butter takes a minutes to make.
- It's a versatile spread and topping (see ideas below).
- Just two ingredients!
Try it atop these crispy golden gluten-free waffles for a terrific weekend breakfast.
Recipe Ingredients
- Butter: You want unsalted good quality butter (also called sweet butter.) For dairy-free use a good unsalted plant butter (in cubes not tubs) such as Miyoko's.
- Maple syrup: Buy only real maple syrup, not the fake colored corn syrup that looks like maple syrup. It's just corn syrup and fake flavoring. Ick!
Please see the recipe card for measurements.
Chef's tip: Buying maple syrup. The grading of maple syrup changed years ago. The old A, B, and C system went away. All maple syrup is now labeled Grade A to reduce confusion. Grade A maple syrup has four levels better describing color and flavor. Grade A Golden is delicate, Grade A Amber is rich, Grade A Dark is robust, and Grade A Very Dark is strong. Want help choosing? Read more information on the grades here.
Substitutions and Variations
For variations on sweet flavored butters try these:
- Swap in your favorite honey for honey butter.
- Add cinnamon for a cinnamon butter.
- Make vanilla bean butter by adding vanilla bean paste or ground vanilla bean.
- For a zero-sugar honey butter, use this monk-fruit based honey.
- For a zero-sugar use this monk-fruit based maple syrup.
- Combine these flavors! Vanilla, cinnamon, and maple, delish!
- Add pumpkin pie spice in fall!
Of course you can make savory flavored butters (aka compound butters) too but that's a different post (in the works)!
Make this simple stovetop seared salmon and top with a dollop of maple butter with a little Dijon mustard whipped in.
How to Make Maple Butter
Start by bringing two sticks (half a pound) of unsalted butter to room temperature so it's very soft. Leave it sit on the counter for about an hour.
Chef's tip: If you're making a bigger batch for a crowd, you can use the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a paddle attachment or whisk attachment.
Serving Suggestion
- Use it on top of pancakes, waffles, or french toast.
- Smear it on muffins, cornbread, and banana bread.
- Slather it on warm toast, biscuits, English muffins, or dinner rolls.
- Spread a little inside these gluten-free crepes and fold them for dessert.
- Drizzle over roasted or steamed vegetables.
- Mix it into oatmeal, overnight oats, or porridge.
- Mix it into whipped sweet potatoes.
- Try glazing ham, pork, chicken, or salmon with it. Try adding a little Dijon mustard.
Storage
Maple butter is perishable and must be stored in the refrigerator, not at room temperature. It keeps for 1-2 weeks in an airtight container in the refrigerator, or it can be frozen for several months.
To bring maple butter back to a usable, spreadable consistency, there are two ways:
- Allow the container to stand at room temperature until it's soft enough to spread.
- Briefly microwave it on low power to melt it (which looks like a mess), then let it cool back in the refrigerator just until it starts to solidify, then re-whip. I've done this and it works great. It's gets nicely creamy and spreadable again.
Recipe FAQs
The first question is maple cream or maple butter? They are two different things sometimes called the same. Maple cream is made by cooking down maple syrup then whipping it. It is sometimes called maple butter. Real maple butter is simply good quality unsalted butter whipped with maple syrup. The first one takes abut 45 minutes to make, and maple butter, about 1 minute.
Try Grade A Amber or Grade A Dark maple syrup for good strong maple flavor. The darker the color of the syrup, the more robust the flavor, the maple butter will taste.
Yes, it must be refrigerated to prevent spoilage. Do not store it on the kitchen counter. It can also be frozen.
Related Recipes
There are lots of yummy ways to use maple butter and it's flavor variations.
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📖 Recipe
Maple Butter
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ pound unsalted butter two cubes, or dairy-free butter
- ⅓ cup amber or dark real maple syrup
Instructions
Maple Butter
- Allow butter to come to room temperature before whipping, about an hour or two. Unwrap it to facilitate softening.
- Add the very soft butter and maple syrup to a medium bowl and whip together until creamy, fluffy and smooth, about 1 minute. It's ready to serve, best at room temperature when soft.
Storing and Re-Using
- Maple butter lasts in the refrigerator 1-2 weeks or freezes for several months. If it is hardened in the refrigerator, to make it creamy and spreadable again, either leave it out on the counter for about an hour until soft, or briefly melt in the microwave on low power, pace back in the refrigerator until it begins to soldify again, then re-whip.
Notes
- Swap the maple for your favorite honey for honey butter.
- Add cinnamon for a cinnamon butter.
- Make vanilla bean butter by adding vanilla bean paste or ground vanilla bean.
- For a zero-sugar honey butter, use this monk-fruit based honey.
- For a zero-sugar maple butter use this monk-fruit based maple syrup.
- Combine these flavors! Vanilla, cinnamon, and maple, delish!
Nutrition
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Porsche Guy says
I like honey butter so I thought I would try this and it was terrific. Its s' easy to make and takes no time. we used it on the pumpkin bread and it was a hit.