How to Make Brown Butter

When you run a site called Begin with Butter, you get a lot of questions about what type of butter you prefer. Indeed, you write whole posts about butter, where you wax poetic about cultured butter, sweet cream butter, and even vegan butter. But what if I told you, dear BBs, that there is a kind of butter that has such an intensely rich, deep, and complex flavor. That that flavor profile elevates any baked good that it touches. That the process for making this magical ingredient was simple, involving only a pot, a wooden spoon and some patience. This ingredient is brown butter, and it is as versatile and perfect as any ingredient. Ever.

About Brown Butter

Brown butter is what happens when you slowly heat butter past its melting point. The butter actually separates into milk solids (which are the things that brown at the bottom of the pot) and liquefied fats. The solids sink to the bottom of your pan, coming into better contact with the heat, and they…toast. It’s truly a beautiful thing to see, but it’s a delicious and important ingredient to use, as it imparts a more complex, richer butter flavor into everything it touches!

Why do you want to use brown butter? Well, brown butter adds a deep, irreplaceable flavor to anything it touches. Itโ€™s nutty and caramel-y and rich. And that only comes with this special ingredient. While using it can be a touch tricky at times, it isย alwaysย worth the effort.

How to Brown Butter: A Photo Tutorial

The process of browning butter is actually quite simple. You just need to remember to go slowly and stir once the butter has melted.

First, youโ€™ll place the amount of butter that you need in a small saucepan or stainless steel skillet. It’s best to use a pan with a light-colored bottom; stainless steel is perfect for this task. Use the best butter that you can source for this adventure! (Note: many sources recommend that you don’t use more than two sticks/1 cup/227 grams of butter at a time. However, I’ve successfully used up to 3 sticks/1.5 cups/341 grams of butter for this task.)

Place the butter in the pan on a stovetop over medium heat. Leave it alone for a few minutes while it melts. You donโ€™t have to stir at this point; youโ€™d only be stirring solid butter anyway. ๐Ÿ˜‚

Once the butter melts completely, youโ€™ll need to start stirring. You do want to stir regularly, but you donโ€™t have to stir constantly. The reason for stirring is this: the milk solids that are part of the butter will separate from the water and fat in the butter and those milk solids will go to the bottom of the pot and stay there (and burn!) if theyโ€™re not stirred on a regular basis. If that happens, the milk solids will burn before the rest of the butter gets to be a gorgeous amber color.

As it cooks (and youโ€™re stirring), the brown butter will change color; it will go from light yellow (melted) to golden, to an amber hue with the butter solids at the bottom. During this process, youโ€™ll also notice that the top of the butter gets very bubbly!

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The bubbles can actually make it difficult to see whatโ€™s going on underneath. Pro tip: I look at the milk solids on the side of my pot, because those will loosely inform me when the milk solids underneath are done!

Youโ€™ll know youโ€™re done with this step when youย smellย a positively gorgeous nutty, caramel-y scent in your kitchen. Once youโ€™re done, remove the brown butter from your heat immediately to a heat resistant container. Mason jars work perfectly for this task, as they’re meant to withstand high temperatures.

And that’s it! You’ve made brown butter!

How to Use Brown Butter

Once you allow the brown butter to cool to room temperature, you can use it in a number of preparations. If your recipe calls for cooled brown butter that hasn’t re-solidified, you’re ready to go! If, however, there’s a recipe where you need to have brown butter re-solidified so that you can cream the butter with granulated sugar, then you’ll need to refrigerate the brown butter so that it can re-solidify fully. Trying to cream liquid brown butter with sugar will not lead to the same result.

In order to re-solidify brown butter, allow the brown butter to cool to room temperature, then place it in the refrigerator until it’s fully solidified. Once it’s solidified, you’ll remove it from the refrigerator about an hour before baking, or when you take out the rest of your cold ingredients. ๐Ÿ˜Š

Congratulations! Youโ€™ve made brown butter! Now you can use it in literally everything, because it is truly theย most amazingย butter ever.

Enjoy BBs!

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How to Make Brown Butter

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Brown butter adds depth and complexity to any dish it touches. It’s especially wonderful in baking, where it delivers a luxurious mouthfeel and taste to every kind of baked good!

Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 227 g (1 c) unsalted butter

Instructions

  1. Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.
  2. Allow the butter to melt fully, then begin gently stirring. Continue stirring constantly.
  3. The butter will go through stages. At first, it will simply look like melted butter. Continue stirring.
  4. The next step of browned butter is the foamy step. This is the longest part of the browned butter process. Continue stirring.
  5. The foamy brown butter will lessen (but not eliminate entirely), and youโ€™ll start to notice browned bits on the bottom of your saucepan. These are browned milk solids, and this is the objective!
  6. Once you see the browned bits on the bottom of your saucepan, remove the browned butter to a heat-proof container (like a Mason jar) to cool completely. If you allow the browned butter to remain in the saucepan, it will burn.
  7. Once the browned butter has come to room temperature, you can either use it right away, or you can allow it to chill in the refrigerator until about an hour before your baking time. You can cream this butter if it’s been re-solidified.
  8. Use as directed in your chosen recipe.

Notes

  • Author: Shani
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