Clover Honey Butter

Altho there are many brands of honey butter available at most grocery stores, I prefer to blend my own.  At my local co-op, there are honeys but they are very expensive and are no better than those at Wal-Mart.  The co-op had carried a local harvest of honey, but no longer.  I think that the honey I had gotten at Wal-Mart, or Kroger's, or Piggly Wiggly are shelved next to the peanut butter and jellies, on the very top.  It might however also be shelved next to the syrups for pancakes and waffles.  I think tho that is the location of the molasses.  I think that I even saw honey next to the tea.

At any rate, I bought some honey before the holidays.  When I began to bake breads, I poured some honey over a stick of softened butter in a small bowl.  I mixed it up, using a fork to cream the honey and butter together.  When I have fresh bread, I let the blend warm to room temperature.  Otherwise, I keep it in the fridge, it stays fresh that way.

I think that when I was a child, I began to make honey butter, as a very special treat.  I do not think that it was available in the stores then.  I do remember that while I was in undergrad, there was Sue Bee honey butter but I cannot remember exactly where in the store it was.  Most likely pre-made honey butter can be found in the refrigerated section, either next to the butter or next to the cream cheese and other mixed spreads.  Just a supposition on my part, and it is entirely possible that I am wrong; because I've not actually tried to find it.

Honey Butter is tasty stuff that is different than merely spreading butter on the bread then drizzling honey on that.  At least, that's my opinion.  But then again, my neighbor when I lived in Alabama would mix peanut butter and grape jelly in a bowl and then spread it on bread.  I thought that was odd at first, til I tried it and that sandwich did taste different.  It's the texture, and experience, and the mixture of the ingredients is melded in such a way that...well, I suppose it is like bread, you could eat flour, yeast, butter, sugar, salt, and wash it down with water...but that is a different experience than combining those things and baking them into a loaf of bread.

way different.