Butter recommendations in general?

[yamchito]

Hello all, I'm here asking your opinions on which butters should I use and which ones should be avoided for bread baking in general? I've been using Kirkland's grass fed butter and results are good, but recently I used Kerrygold and I noticed the bread (I'm trying to make a good Brazilian cheese bread) came in softer and a bit more flavorful. So in this vast butter marketverse, can anyone recommend what's in your opinion the best? I'll definitely try it. Thanks!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hello all, I'm here asking your opinions on which butters should I use and which ones should be avoided for bread baking in general? I've been using Kirkland's grass fed butter and results are good, but recently I used Kerrygold and I noticed the bread (I'm trying to make a good Brazilian cheese bread) came in softer and a bit more flavorful. So in this vast butter marketverse, can anyone recommend what's in your opinion the best? I'll definitely try it. Thanks!

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American butter by regulation is only required to have 80% butterfat.

American butter is also sweet cream butter.

The exception is Vermont Creamery, the butter is European cultured style and has a higher butterfat content of 82%. Their butter used to have a higher butterfat content; but Land O Lakes purchased
Vermont Creamery and like most American companies, destroyed the quality of the butter to increase their profits. Today, Land O Lakes/Vermont Creamery regular butters are just meh. Definitely not worth the extra money.

Vermont Creamery makes a cultured 86% butterfat butter. The founder of Vermont Creamery spent some years in France where she learned to make butter. The cultured, 86% butterfat butter is styled after French butter.


Kerrygold is Irish butter. Like French butter, it is cultured butter. It has a butter fat content of 83%, which is the standard in Europe.

French butters are also cultured, Some have a betterfat content as high as 86%.

Kerrygold butter, is unique in that it is very pliable when cold. The pliability is from there method of tempering the butter.

All butter is tempered to keep it from.leaking water; crumbling; and separating. tempering methods are proprietary; every creamery has their own method for tempering.

There is no one size fits all for butter in baking.

For instance, given Kerrygold’s pliability, it is ideal for laminating dough. But the color might not be ideal when the color of a product is important, such as white buttercream, a white wedding cake. In applications where the color is important, a lighter color, high butterfat butter would be better.

I have never seen/used Costco‘s grassfed butter. But if the color is a lot whiter than Keerygold, it is probably not all grass fed cream. Kerrygold’s dark yellow color is from the beta carotene in green grass. Ireland’s weather allows for green fields year around. In the United States, cows only graze on green grass part of the year as the weather dries out the fields. More often than not, if there’s not enough grass, you’re around for the cows to graze. So their diet is supplemented with hay and grain.

Butters that impart, the most flavor are cultured with a butterfat 82% or higher. Bakers concerned with flavor tend to use European cultured butters.

 

[yamchito]

American butter by regulation is only required to have 80% butterfat.

American butter is also sweet cream butter.

The exception is Vermont Creamery, the butter is European cultured style and has a higher butterfat content of 82%. Their butter used to have a higher butterfat content; but Land O Lakes purchased
Vermont Creamery and like most American companies, destroyed the quality of the butter to increase their profits. Today, Land O Lakes/Vermont Creamery regular butters are just meh. Definitely not worth the extra money.

Vermont Creamery makes a cultured 86% butterfat butter. The founder of Vermont Creamery spent some years in France where she learned to make butter. The cultured, 86% butterfat butter is styled after French butter.


Kerrygold is Irish butter. Like French butter, it is cultured butter. It has a butter fat content of 83%, which is the standard in Europe.

French butters are also cultured, Some have a betterfat content as high as 86%.

Kerrygold butter, is unique in that it is very pliable when cold. The pliability is from there method of tempering the butter.

All butter is tempered to keep it from.leaking water; crumbling; and separating. tempering methods are proprietary; every creamery has their own method for tempering.

There is no one size fits all for butter in baking.

For instance, given Kerrygold’s pliability, it is ideal for laminating dough. But the color might not be ideal when the color of a product is important, such as white buttercream, a white wedding cake. In applications where the color is important, a lighter color, high butterfat butter would be better.

I have never seen/used Costco‘s grassfed butter. But if the color is a lot whiter than Keerygold, it is probably not all grass fed cream. Kerrygold’s dark yellow color is from the beta carotene in green grass. Ireland’s weather allows for green fields year around. In the United States, cows only graze on green grass part of the year as the weather dries out the fields. More often than not, if there’s not enough grass, you’re around for the cows to graze. So their diet is supplemented with hay and grain.

Butters that impart, the most flavor are cultured with a butterfat 82% or higher. Bakers concerned with flavor tend to use European cultured butters.

Amazing, thanks for the detailed explanation. So far Kerrygold is the local (supermarket) winner. I appreciate you taking your time...!

 

[retired baker]

Amazing, thanks for the detailed explanation. So far Kerrygold is the local (supermarket) winner. I appreciate you taking your time...!

if you can get plugra its very good , used by many pastry shops .
Cabot isn't bad but a step down.

 

[yamchito]

if you can get plugra its very good , used by many pastry shops .
Cabot isn't bad but a step down.

Thank you! I'll try it for sure, I've seen it in the supermarkets. Next bake batch I'll try with Finlandia imported butter (found it at BJ's), but I'm in a mission to try the best ones. Take care!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Thank you! I'll try it for sure, I've seen it in the supermarkets. Next bake batch I'll try with Finlandia imported butter (found it at BJ's), but I'm in a mission to try the best ones. Take care!

There is no “best butter”. Rather, the appropriate butter for the particular product. I use plugra in some drop cookies, but not in shortbread cookies since plugra is sweet cream rather than cultured butter. I use Kerrygold in laminated dough, but not pie crust. I don't use sweet cream butter in tart dough.

You have to decide what flavor and color profile you want to achieve, then select the butter based on your goal.

 

[Logical baker]

When I visited New Zealand in 1983 I was pleased to have the opportunity to visit one of their small dairy farms. It was an amazing operation, very clean and efficient. One of the aspects was when the fellow who owned the farm went over his chits that showed what level of butterfat was in his cows’ milk: they averaged over 6%! At that time each farmer got paid more per butterfat content, i.e. the higher the more money the farmer got paid. As a result many of the farmers did everything they could to feed their cows accordingly. I’ve no idea if that is still true today. But I can attest that all the dairy products in the country were super rich and delicious!