Brown Butter

Brown butter. You’ve probably noticed it in recipes and on restaurant menus a lot lately. It’s become a popular ingredient in recent years, and for good reason – it makes everything more delicious. I mean, butter itself makes everything better, so it makes sense that butter, heated until it browns and gives off a deliciously nutty scent, would improve everything it touches.

Browning butter is not complicated – all you need is butter, a heavy-bottomed, preferably light-colored saucepan, and a rubber spatula. The only tricky part is making sure your butter turns nicely brown without burning. This, I’ve found, really just takes patience and practice.

Steps

1. Melt your butter in a light-colored, heavy bottomed saucepan on medium heat, occasionally swirling the pan or stirring.
2. The butter will froth up and will snap, crackle, and pop like crazy (just like your Rice Krispies® when you were a kid – only louder). The froth will clear out, and the crackling will continue. Continue to swirl or stir occasionally.
3. Then, it will froth up again and the crackling will stop. Once the crackling stops, you’ll need to keep a closer eye on the butter, and stir/swirl more frequently. At this point it will start to brown and smell nutty.
4. Once the butter reaches an amber color, remove it from the heat and immediately pour it into another dish. (If you leave it in the pan it will continue to cook and could burn.) Make sure you get allll those luscious brown bits at the bottom of the pan – they add great flavor! (Unless the recipe you’re using says otherwise – then leave the brown bits in the pan)
5. At this point you have options, depending on how you’re going to use your brown butter. You can allow it to cool completely and re-solidify, and then just use it as you would regular butter in your recipe. Or, let it sit just until it’s cool, but still liquid. Note: if your butter solidifies too quickly and you want it liquid, just melt it again, making sure not to cook it further – heat it just until melted.

A few things to note:

1. If you’re replacing regular butter in a recipe, just make sure you use the brown butter in the same state as the butter in your recipe (softened, melted, etc).
2. Salted or Unsalted? I almost always prefer salted butter, because I like the extra saltiness. However, browning the butter definitely enhances the saltiness of salted butter, so unless you’re a salt freak like me, you’ll want to use unsalted.
3. If you’re browning your butter and getting nervous about it burning, err on the side of it being a little less brown. It will still have extra nutty flavor, and each time you make it you’ll gain confidence to get it closer to the amber color you want.

What Do I Use This Stuff For?

Everything. It’s delicious.

More specifically, though, it’s great in cookies, cakes, frostings, and glazes, as well as drizzled on roasted veggies, or even seafood! YUM. Need a recipe to try it in? I have more recipes coming that use brown butter, but in the meantime it would be fantastic in these Kahlua Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Ready to make your own brown butter? Give it a try and leave any questions you have in the comments below.

Enjoy!