Roast the garlic:

1. Remove outer papery skins from garlic heads, but keep the cloves intact and attached to the head of garlic.
2. Slice the top 1/3 off the head of garlic to expose the tops of all the cloves. (This helps to remove the roasted cloves later)
3. Drizzle the heads with olive oil & season with salt and pepper. 
4. Wrap in aluminum foil and bake at 400 for 45-60 minutes, check at 45 minutes.
5. The cloves are ready when they are light golden and soft to the touch. Some cloves may be popping out of their skins and some cloves will appear to have shrunk.

Make The Roasted Garlic Butter: 

1. Once the garlic is cool enough to handle squeeze the head of garlic at the bottom near the root cluster, working your way up. The garlic should squeeze out of the top of the head of garlic. Add this to a bowl and mash with a fork until it’s a paste-like consistency. 
2. If using fresh herbs, finely chop them and add to your roasted garlic paste and mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add 1 stick of softened butter to the roasted garlic mixture and mash until incorporated and mostly smooth. 

Food Processor Option: Add roasted garlic, herbs (if using), salt & pepper to a food processor and process until combined into a paste. Then add softened butter and process again until fully incorporated.

Shape The Roasted Garlic Butter:

• You can simply store this in a container in the refrigerator to use as needed, or shape into a log and slice if you’d like a nicer presentation. There are 2 ways to shape the butter into a log.

• Plastic wrap: Lay a large piece of plastic wrap open on the counter and use a spatula to place the butter in a rustic log/line shape in the center of the plastic wrap. Fold and roll the plastic wrap around the log of butter then spin the ends of the plastic wrap to help remove any air pockets and condense the roasted garlic butter log!

• Parchment: Lay a piece of parchment paper flat on the counter and use a spatula to add all the butter to the middle of the parchment paper. Fold the parchment over itself so the edges meet up and tuck a pastry cutter or flat edge spatula under the butter log. Push the pastry cutter toward the butter as you hold the bottom layer of parchment paper firmly. This will help remove air bubbles and give you a beautiful log shape!