Basil Butter

I cook with herbs a lot and make basil or other herb butters. However, they don't last long refrigerated and freezing in little tubs isn't convenient because it has to defrost.
So, I came up with this method. I've been making basil butter this way for years now.
It is really convenient for all types of cooking on a variety of meats and veggies!

The following is how I make mine but you can vary ingredients to your liking.

A large colander full of clean basil leaves. (about 3 cups)
4 sticks softened unsalted butter
food processor (helps)
1/4 dough scoop
several sheets of wax paper roughly 9x11 size (usually about 24)
large freezer zip top style bag
rolling pin
scissors

Sometimes I also add chives to the basil before mincing. It doesn't take long to mince by hand.
After washing and mincing the basil, add it to the butter and mix well.

If you have a food processor, simply process all the basil then add the butter and process altogether. Takes only a few minutes that way.

Take your waxed paper and using the dough scoop, place one scoop of the butter in the center of the waxed paper.



Fold the waxed paper in half over the butter and lightly press down.


Take your rolling pin and very lightly roll the butter to about 1/4 inch thickness. Stay away from the edges or it will squish out! If it doesn't roll out into a perfect shape, it will not matter at all.
It will look like this:As you can see, not all my butter was incorporated but it won't matter. Using a food processor prevents this.

Set aside, repeat with remaining waxed paper and basil butter mixture.
When all are done, snip around the edges of the waxed paper with the scissors so it will fit into the zip top bag.


Freeze up to 6 months. I've used it a bit past that without issue.

IMPORTANT*
When using this butter, leave it in the freezer until right before use.
It melts on contact so no defrosting is needed.

The butter should easily peel away from the paper. See?


If the butter is too thin, it may crumble or stick to the paper so work slowly at first. It doesn't really matter if the butter breaks since it is going to be used right away but it is harder to handle.