Homemade Garlic & Herb Butter

This is an easy garlic and herb butter recipe for any occasion. Great for pizzas or garlic bread sides. There is no pizza night complete without a garlic bread recipe so this garlic butter side dish can be used for spreading, dipping or pouring.

This is a recipe for garlic and herb butter which is a simple combination which can be added to a variety of dough to make a garlic bread. The recipe explains the ingredients needed and how to prepare the butter.

There are plenty of dishes which will benefit from a garlic dip which is a great accompaniment all round but are especially good served with dough balls.

Ingredients to use for garlic and herb butter

The ingredients for this recipe are really simple and only involve a few bits. You need regular butter and a garlic clove. I got for a 2 tablespoon butter to 1 clove of garlic ratio. Feel free to scale up or down as necessary.

Adding in more cloves will make the flavour more intense obviously. Be careful not to add too many cloves of garlic in however, not only will this make you repel the most dangerous of vampires but it will taste too strong too.

It's easy to add more in if required but much harder to take flavour out if too far gone. As with lots of cooking, its best to taste as you go.

• Butter - (any salted butter will do but you can use un-salted if you so wish.)
• Garlic - Fresh is best, but lazy garlic does work (1 clove = 1 tsp)
• Herbs - Fresh herbs are the best for flavour here, make sure to check out what herbs you can grow in your own garden - even if you don't have much space.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make home made garlic and herb butter

This is one of the simplest but most effective recipes on my site. Only 4 steps to getting the garlic butter ready for use.

1. Collect your ingredients together and wash the herbs.

2. Chop the garlic and herbs finely. You can use a garlic mincer if that makes things easier for you.

3. Add the garlic and herbs into the butter. Set aside for a few minutes at room temperature to allow the butter to soften.

4. Mix the butter and herbs together so you have a nice garlic and herbs paste. Store in the fridge until its ready to use.

5. If you want to make garlic bread, spread some garlic butter on a stretched pizza dough.

6. Pop it in your pizza oven for 60 - 90 seconds until cooked.

Hint: If you don't have a pizza oven, garlic bread will cook perfectly well in a conventional kitchen oven. Start at 220c/450f/Gas7 for 10 minutes. Keep an eye after 10 minutes to make sure it doesn't burn.

Substitutions and alternative recipes

This garlic and herbs recipe is mostly suitable for all diets - butter depending.

• Vegan - use vegan butter as a substitute such as that made with oat milk in place of regular cows milk butter.
• Fresh garlic cloves - you can use lazy garlic in place of regular garlic. It works out around 1 teaspoon = 1 clove of garlic.
• Fresh herbs - If you can't use fresh herbs, dried will do. Try letting them sit in a bit of water to re-hydrate for 10 minutes before draining and adding to the mix. Aim for half the amount of herbs than you have garlic. i.e. if using 1 clove of garlic, only use a half teaspoon of dried herbs.

It's not difficult to get wrong providing the balance of butter to herbs/garlic is not out of whack.

Where else you can use garlic and herb butter

Here are some suggestions to switch it up a little and try something else:

• Spicy - add chili pepper flakes to the mix to give it a little kick.
• Baguette - instead of a pizza bread, slice a baguette and use that for the bread base.

See this French rolls recipe to test your garlic butter on.

Equipment needed to make garlic butter

If cooking a pizza bread, it really helps to have either a pizza oven or a pizza stone for your BBQ.

The butter can be mixed in any dish but I find ramakin dishes are a great option for serving in. You can also consider using a butter pat mould to make a really fancy looking portion of butter (as you would find in a posh hotel). To make individual butter pats you can use a silicone mould tray and place the butter in there before putting in the fridge to harden up.

If you are cutting garlic and don't want to get the garlic smell on your hands there are two options:
- Use a garlic press to mince the garlic in. These easy clean garlic press tools are relatively low cost and can be put in the dishwasher.
- Try washing your hands using a stainless steel soap

Storing home made garlic butter

I'd suggest using this recipe straight away or in the next couple of days if stored in the fridge. It is easy enough to make quickly and more can be made at the time if needed.

If you make these into butter pats using the mould technique, store these in air tight containers in the fridge which will keep it fresh for a week or so.

Unfortunately this will not freeze, it needs to be treated the same as regular butter and also remember that the garlic won't remain fresh forever so will need to be used up.

FAQ

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