Make Your Own Red Wine Butter From Scratch!

There's nothing quite as tasty as freshly baked bread with freshly made butter. But how could you improve butter even more? By adding red wine to it! This divine butter is easy to make and yet imparts a delicious flavour to bread. Spread it across a dark, soft rye or an aromatic sourdough to bring out the flavours in both!

Recently while out at dinner Mr NQN and I turned into the couple discussing the merits of eyeballs while we were spreading some red wine butter on our bread. We stopped our conversation as it was so good that it was a cause for pause. If you love wine then you will possibly adore this butter. As soon as I tried it, I knew that I had to make it at home. I asked and they just said that it was made by adding red wine to the butter whipping process so I tried that and it wouldn't emulsify. It was only after I placed it all in a food processor that things really came together. An added bonus is that it was beautifully whipped which made it much easier to spread too.

The eyeball talk all happened a few weeks ago when we were in a restaurant celebrating Valentines Day. All around us were couples, some holding hands across the table, others deep in conversation while others seemed to have a comfortable air of silence about them. For some reason our table was facing the rest of them - it was a little like sitting at the front of the bus facing the entire bus so we watched one couple staring into each other's eyes.

"Eyeballs don't really attract me that much," said Mr NQN.

"What do you mean eyeballs? It's the whole eye that people look at, not just the eyeballs," I said. I mean eyeballs don't do much for me too but I assumed that people were talking about the overall package.

"Are you sure? I think they're just talking about eyeballs," said Mr NQN. And I have to admit I am not quite sure. Do you mean eyeballs or the overall eye? All I know for sure is that if you love red wine, your eyeballs and your tastebuds will love this pale pink whipped butter concoction!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you mean the eyeball or the overall eye when you say that someone has nice eyes? And do you prefer red or white wine?

Red Wine Butter

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 10 minutes

• 300ml/10.6 fl ozs. cream
• 2-3 tablespoons red wine
• 2 fat pinches salt
• pinch of sugar

Step 1 - Place the cream in an electric mixer fitted with a beater attachment. Cover with a teatowel and then whip until stiff peaks form in the cream. Scrape down the sides and keep beating until the buttermilk separates from the butter (the teatowel prevents it from spitting out of the bowl). Sieve the buttermilk out (you can reserve this and use it for cooking). Rinse the butter under cold water and press down (I know it seems weird to wash butter but as long as you use cold water, it will be fine).

Step 2 - Transfer the butter to a food processor. Add the salt, red wine and sugar. Process until smooth and until the butter is whipped and the red wine is incorporated. Serve with fresh rye or seeded bread. Store in the fridge.