Edible flowers can be used to make beautiful compound butters that bring color and flavor to your dishes.  Below are three recipes we’ve tried and enjoyed…but the techniques below could be adapted to use other flower varieties (if the variety is suitable in terms of flavor & texture).

 

Chive Blossom Butter Recipe                    (example of chopped flower technique)
Beautiful with a bold chive/onion flavor.  One taste of this butter and you’ll be looking around for a baked potato to slather it on…

Ingredients:
4 large Chive Blossoms with about 3″ stalks attached
½ cup Unsalted Butter, softened

Directions:
1. Finely mince the chive blossoms and stalks together.

2. Mash the blossoms and stalks into the softened butter with a sturdy fork.

3. Wrap in plastic wrap or pack in a ramekin topped with plastic and move to the refrigerator to store/re-harden.

4. Serve on savory foods like baked potatoes, steaks, pasta, etc.

 

Marigold Butter Recipe                               (example of pureed flower technique)
Marigolds have a slightly bitter, slightly spicy flavor that would work with savory dishes or sweet dishes where the sugar helps soften the taste.

An example of a smoother food-processor-blended butter.  You could also use the chopped flower technique (as in the chive blossom recipe above) for marigolds.

Ingredients:
½ cup (loosely packed) Edible Marigold Petals or Micro Marigold Florets
½ cup Unsalted Butter, softened

Directions:
1. In a small food processor – process together the butter and flower petals/florets until combined in a fairly uniform paste.  If your butter is too hard you may need to remove it from the processor, warm it and mash together with the flowers with a sturdy fork to get it started.

Be careful not to over-process the butter to the point where it starts to melt.

2. Wrap the butter in plastic or a plastic-covered ramekin and move to the refrigerator to store & re-harden.

3. Serve on sweet or savory foods where the flavor of marigolds is welcome.

 

Pansy Butter Recipe

While we came up with this recipe while playing around with leftover dehydrated pansies, you could probably also make fresh pansy butter using the sugar paste method or food processor puree methods above.

Ingredients:
10-15 Edible Pansies, dehydrated & finely ground   (How to Dehydrate Edible Flowers)
2-3 tbsp of Unsalted Butter
Optional: Superfine Sugar to taste

Directions:
1. Soften the butter to the point where it can be mashed with a fork.

2. Mash the ground pansies into the butter, working it until the bits and color and evenly distributed.

3. Serve.  Alternatively wrap in plastic wrap or in a wrapped ramekin and re-harden in the refrigerator.

 

Sweet Rose Butter Recipe (example of sugar-flower paste technique)
Because roses are one of the tougher edible flower varieties, we recommend processing them into a sugar paste before use in recipes. This sweet compound butter would be a good choice for sweet breakfast breads (pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc).

Ingredients:
1 tbsp Rose Paste Recipe
¼ cup Unsalted Butter, softened

Directions:
1. Mash together the butter and rose paste until well combined.

2. Wrap in plastic or in a plastic-covered ramekin and move to the refrigerator to re-harden if desired, then serve.

Note: Rose butter should be served soon after you make it. We’ve found it isn’t very stable after that – the color can leech out of the butter, leaving it looking rather grey.

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Edible Flower Recipes