The holidays are right around the corner and some of us will be baking like mad.  A key ingredient of flavorful baked goods is the right, high-quality butter.  Here’s what you need to know about this golden beauty.

According to the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, butter is a food product, which is made exclusively from milk, cream or both, with or without common salt, and containing at least 80 percent milk fat by weight.

Sweet cream butter and cultured cream butter are two main varieties of butter produced in the United States. Sweet cream butter includes:

1. Salted butter:  Ideal for everyday cooking.  Sea salt and fleur de sel butters are great when used as condiments.
2. Unsalted butter:  A favorite of bakers.  Helps the natural flavors of baked goods come through and is key to creating flaky pie or tart crusts.
3. Whipped butter:  Easily spreadable from air having been whipped into the butter creating a light and airy consistency.  Not a good choice for cooking or baking due to its low density.

Cultured butter, a richer style of butter prominent in Europe, is becoming more popular in America.

Other butters to keep in mind:

• Preserved butter (Smen in Morocco) – fermented butter that’s been aged up to 2 years to a pungent flavor.
• Clarified butter (Ghee in India) – this high smoke point butter is created by heating butter to a point where its water content evaporates and its milk solids are removed.
• Raw cream butter – difficult to find in the United States, this butter is made from unpasteurized milk (miss this type of butter growing up in Quebec).

Whichever butter you use this holiday season, be sure it’s of the highest quality available.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Cabot Unsalted Butter (Vermont)
• Plugra European-Style Salted Butter (Missouri)
• Kerrygold Pure Irish Butter (Ireland)
• Liberte Goat Milk Butter (Quebec)
• Lurpak Salted Butter (Denmark)

Happy baking!

Veronique