Truffle butter is a great way to add a bit of flair to certain butter-containing dishes. The best part is that you don’t need to go out there and buy truffle butter. Our truffle butter recipe can be made at home.
Truffle butter is formed of just two ingredients. Truffles and salted butter. A truffle butter recipe doesn’t contain anything else. Some people will make truffle butter with truffle oil, but it isn’t required.
On this page, our goal is to share the best truffle butter recipe. We also want to give you a couple of tips on how best to use it.
The truffle butter recipe is simple. Later, we will share more information on choosing the right truffles for your truffle butter. This recipe is easy to follow, and even the newest family foodie can create a great dish that can bring other recipes to life.
You need just two ingredients:
1/2 oz whole truffles (preferably black truffles)
1 cup of salted butter (room temperature)
A teaspoon of black truffle oil (optional, for spreadability)
We know that truffles can be a bit expensive for some people. If you skip ahead to the next section, we will share some alternatives e.g. you can use truffle oil.
You will also need the following:
A sharp knife, garlic press, or small grater
Fork
Parchment paper or wax paper
Medium mixing bowl
Plastic wrap
Unsalted Butter For Truffle Butter
Our black truffle butter recipe calls for the use of salted butter. We find that this type of butter makes for a more flavorful butter. It also keeps it a little bit better. While you can use unsalted butter, you will likely need to add extra salt to any meals that you create, especially if you are creating a dipping sauce.
Remember, salt not only adds a hint of saltiness to any dish but can also help to bring out the taste of the truffles in your homemade truffle butter.
Whether you are using salted or unsalted butter, always use the best-quality normal butter you can find. Don’t use vegetable-based spreads. Use actual butter. Your truffle butter will taste so much better.
Black or White Truffles?
We suggest only using black truffles in your truffle butter. While you can make white truffle butter, it is pointless outside a few situations.
When you cook white truffles, they lose their flavor. They only have to be heated for a few minutes for that to happen. So, if you attempted to make a truffle butter sauce with white truffle butter, you wouldn’t get any taste of the truffle at all.
This doesn’t happen with black truffle butter. A black truffle will retain its taste for a lot longer when heated, allowing you more versatility when cooking.
Making Truffle Butter
Once you have gathered your ingredients and cooking tools, you can start to make your own truffle butter. This is a very quick process, but you will end up with a high-quality butter that can be used for a whole host of other dishes.
Step 1
Start by mincing/grating/chopping your fresh truffles as fine as you can. The finer you can get them, the better. You don’t want there to be large chunks of fresh truffles in your butter. It can mess up the taste. It would be delicious but messes up the texture of the butter.
Step 2
Take your room-temperature butter and add it to your medium mixing bowl. Add the minced truffles on top of that.
Add your truffle oil.
Mix everything together with your fork. Make sure that it is well-mixed to ensure that the truffle flavor is everywhere in that butter.
As you mix, the butter will soften up. It may melt a little bit. This is fine. You will just have a creamy butter texture. You will be fixing that shortly.
Step 3
Once your softened butter is mixed, spoon it onto your parchment or wax paper.
Roll the softened butter up. Most people will make truffle butter into a log shape, as it is easier to cut, but it doesn’t really matter what shape your truffle butter is in. It just needs to be wrapped up neatly in that paper.
Step 4
Put the wrapped butter into an airtight container and leave in the fridge for at least two hours. This will harden the butter. After two hours, feel free to use it however you wish.
Alternatives to Fresh Truffle Butter
It is always best to make truffle butter with fresh truffle mushrooms. It makes high-quality butter and it is going to be absolutely loaded with flavor. However, we know that buying fresh truffles can be expensive, so we have some alternatives for you.
Truffle Pate
Black truffle pate is a mixture of truffles, mushrooms, olive oil, and salt.
If you don’t want to use whole truffles, then you can mix a couple of teaspoons of truffle pate into the butter instead. It will make black truffle butter, but it will have a slightly more mushroom taste to it.
If you add truffle pate, then use unsalted butter only. The salt of the truffle pate should be enough. You don’t want to overwhelm the flavor of the butter with saltiness, right?
Because the truffle pate contains olive oil, it will make for a highly spreadable butter. We use black truffle pate when we want to spread butter over cooked meat e.g. steak, rather than cooking into something like mashed potatoes.
Truffle Oil
You can use truffle oil to make truffle butter. However, do bear in mind that truffle oil isn’t always made with real truffles. Some of it is made with something that sort of tastes like truffles, so the flavor won’t be exact.
You can add a few tablespoons to the butter instead of the fresh truffle route. Use truffle oil to make a very spreadable butter. It softens it up a lot. In fact, it may make it difficult for you to set the butter.
Truffle Salt
We don’t recommend using truffle salt in truffle butter. Truffle salt is incredibly salty. It does contain truffle pieces, but it is very difficult to get the taste consistency right when you are mixing it into regular butter.
This salt is more for sprinkling over dishes when they have cooked. You don’t really cook with it.
Cooking With Truffle Butter
Whichever truffle butter recipe you follow, you will end up with a high-quality butter that you can use in a whole host of different ways.
If a savory recipe calls for butter, then you may be able to substitute it with truffle butter. We have seen truffle butter used with:
Really, you can use truffle butter in so many different ways, it is worth experimenting with it. We have seen people use truffle butter in many, many different dishes. The sky is really your limit here. The only thing it doesn’t really work with is any sweeter dishes that need butter i.e. you wouldn’t put the truffle butter in a cake.
Your truffle butter will have the saltiness from the butter, but also a prominent earthy, garlic taste. If you use black truffle pate to make your black truffle butter, then there will be a hint of mushroom in there too.
This means that your butter will work best in recipes that either have a strong hint of garlic in them already or could do with a bit of garlicky, spicy taste. As we said, feel free to experiment. You can’t really go wrong.
Store Truffle Butter
You should store your truffle butter in the fridge. Make sure it is stored in an airtight container to ensure it lasts as long as possible. It should keep in the fridge pretty well.
Does Truffle Butter Expire?
Yes. If you use fresh truffles, then your truffle butter will last 1-2 weeks in the fridge. If you use truffle pate, truffle oil, etc. then it will last a bit longer.
Remember, the longer you store the butter, the less flavor it will have.
Can You Freeze Truffle Butter?
You can put the butter in a freezer bag and place it in the freezer. It can last an indefinite amount of time in the freezer, but we suggest consuming it within 6 months for the most flavor.
Final Thoughts
It isn’t difficult to make a truffle butter recipe. You need just two ingredients; fresh truffles and salted butter. It takes a couple of minutes to make (plus two hours in the fridge), and you end up with something that can add a ton of flavor to a plethora of different dishes.
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