Do you make or buy Brandy Butter?

[blunt]

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I buy it

if you make it you end up buying a bottle of brandy which no-one likes and no-one drinks and costs a fortune

I made it last year using nigella's recipe in, er, either Domestic Goddess or Feast. Anyway, it was nice but made far too much! The brandy didn't go to waste though, that also went in the Christmas pud and some home made mincemeat.

or you could use booze other than brandy

I have fond memories of making vodka margarine for a student christmas dinner

Vodka margarine!!

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it does it?

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one set of grandparents would make sherry margarine, the others would pass the bottle round with the mince pies and the adults would simple open up their mince pie, pour a good measure of brandy in and close it again!

I love M&S Brandy Butter, my Mom used to get loads in and freeze it as I would just eat it before Christmas.
Mom did try making it brandy butter but it was not a good as M&S.
How long before I can tuck in buy some?

I've had Waitrose, Tescos Finest and Fortnum & Mason and they're all much the same!

I make it.

Brandy doesn't go off, and I use it in other cooking - chocolate mousse, chocolate truffles, mince pies, christmas pud etc.

Also good for some cocktails - soak a sugar cube in brandy, add some champagne (or cheap fizz) and you've got a fab way to get a party off with a bang.

no, buy clotted cream instead

I make it too - I buy a bottle of brandy that I use when I make the cake and the pudding (though I don't make a pudding every year). After Christmas it comes in handy from time to time in cooking.

Brandy butter recipe:

I'm not sure of the amounts, but you start with a lump of softened butter - probably about 75g. into which you beat sugar - I use caster because I like the slight crunch it gives, but some people use icing sugar. When you've beaten some sugar into the butter, and it looks like brandy butter, gradually add the brandy, probably at a teaspoon a time, beating it in and tasting as you go, until it's the strength you want it - you may have to add a bit of extra sugar if it gets too wet.

I suppose it's not as much a recipe as a set of three ingredients that you combine in amounts to suit you.

Merry Christmas!

sunnygirl.

Use unrefined sugar for a nicer taste.

Make it - much the same as SunnyGirl - keep adding brandy until just before it splits (if you misjudge that you have to add more sugar and beat it hard)

Lizzylou - Waitrose have it already