Cinnamon-Honey Buttercream...

When I was in graduate school, I lived in a house with 3 other people; we didn't know one another and we didn't choose each other either. We were assigned - it was our "dorm", I suppose. We had to learn all about each other, we had to figure out bathroom and cleaning schedules and we learned an awful lot about each other's favorite or must-have foods. We certainly got on each other's nerves but we have maintained our friendship to this day.

For my birthday that year, the other female house-mate, Beth got me a book - a book that showed how well she knew me: Flavored Butters, by Offerico Maoz. It's an incredible little book with beautiful pictures and incredible flavor mixes for nut-butters, herb-butters and fruit-butters. You can find recipes for pesto butter, roasted jalapeno butter and lemon butter as well as nut butter recipes for sesame, peanut, almond, pecan, pistachio, etc. butters. Everything that I've tried has been wonderful but one recipe, I keep going back to again and again and again...it's incredible.

Cinnamon-Honey Buttercream

It is it's own sentence and paragraph...it's that good. When I make it, the kids start scrambling around, looking for something to spread it on: toast, Italian bread, graham crackers, a spoon, whatever...
I made some Pioneer Bread and Strawberry Muffins to go with it. I'll post those recipes later but for now, since you can spread this heaven on anything you want, I'll just give you this one recipe to try.

1 Cup of Butter (2 Sticks), softened

Beat the softened butter, until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes

Mix in the salt and brown sugar and beat
for  10-15 minutes, until the mixture is about
twice it's original volume

Add cinnamon, honey, vanilla and zest - beating each until fully incorporated

This filled four-one cup bowls, you could also let it set up for
the 30 minutes and then roll it to give for gifts
or to put a nicer display for sharing

Looks so delicious...

Served with Pioneer Bread - a fabulous combination...

Cinnamon-Honey Buttercream


Ingredients:
1 C unsalted butter, softened (2 Sticks)
1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 C honey
2 cinnamon sticks, freshly ground (2-3 tsp)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1 orange*

Directions:
Using a stand mixer, beat the butter for about 5 minutes, until it's pale and fluffy.
Add the brown sugar and salt and continue beating for 10-15 minutes, until the mixture is approximately twice its original volume.
Add honey, cinnamon, vanilla and orange zest a little bit at a time while continuing to beat, making sure each additional is well incorporated before adding the next. When all the ingredients are thoroughly blended, you should have a beige cream.

Transfer to a glass or ceramic bowl and refrigerate for at least 15-30 minutes, until the butter stiffens to about the consistency of thick mayonnaise.

*The recipe says the zest of the orange is optional but it's my opinion the orange flavor is part of what makes the flavor explosion happen.

Stick around and I'll post, tomorrow and the next day, recipes for wonderful things to spread your fabulous buttercream on...