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    Home » Baking techniques

    Published on: May 18, 2022 by Janice; Updated on: February 21, 2023 1 Comment

    How to make brown butter

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    Brown butter in a saucepan.

    Learn what brown butter is and how to make it for cookies and cakes using this easy recipe! This technique for cooking butter on the stove gives a nutty flavour to the butter and baked goods made with it! Once you learn to make it, you will want to brown butter for many of your baking recipes.

    Brown butter in a saucepan.
    Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
    Jump to:
    • What it is
    • How to make it
    • Enhancing the nutty flavour
    • Don't burn it
    • The difference between clarified and brown butter
    • The difference between ghee and brown butter
    • What to make with brown butter
    • 📖 Recipe
    • Frequently asked questions

    What it is

    Brown butter (also called browned butter) is a higher-fat version of butter, made by browning the milk solids in butter in a process that lends it a nutty flavour.

    Brown butter is prized for its complex flavour. French pastry chefs use it to make financiers and madeleines, among other things. You can even make classic chocolate chip cookies with brown butter instead of regular butter.

    Butter sizzling in a pan to boil off the water and make brown butter.Browned butter in a saucepan.

    How to make it

    Butter is roughly 80% fat, so there's still 20% to account for. The rest is made up of water and milk solids (proteins and sugars). While we know that oils and water don't mix, butter is actually an emulsion of animal fat and water. They are mixed together to form a very smooth texture and an even mixture.

    Cold butter in a saucepan to melt and make brown butter.

    If you melt butter in a pan on the stove, the emulsion will break. The milk solids will separate from the fat. They tend to settle on the bottom of the pan (though they also form a foam on the surface too). As you continue to heat the mixture, the butter will sizzle as you approach the boiling point of water.

    Melting butter in a saucepan to make brown butter.

    As you heat the melted butter, the water will boil off. The temperature will rise above the boiling point of water, high enough that the milk solids (proteins and sugars) will brown. The browning process, known as Maillard browning, creates flavour compounds that have a complex, nutty flavour. This is why the French call it "beurre noisette." The word noisette means hazelnut, referring to both the aroma and the colour that forms when you brown butter.

    Butter sizzling in a pan to boil off the water and make brown butter.

    Brown butter has a higher fat content per gram than regular butter. Brown butter solidifies just like regular butter when cooled, though the texture is more granular and less supple, probably due to the lack of water.

    Some bakers prefer to strain off the browned milk solids, leaving behind the clear, golden butter without any brown or black specks.

    Enhancing the nutty flavour

    Pastry chefs add a secret ingredient to the pan when they brown butter to enhance the flavour: fat-free milk powder (also called powdered milk or dehydrated milk). Adding milk powder to melted butter before browning it increases the concentration of milk solids, thereby increasing the amount of flavourful compounds that develop as the sugars caramelize.

    If you are baking a recipe that calls for brown butter, consider adding milk powder to your butter before browning it to give it a stronger flavour that can stand up to the other ingredients in baked goods.

    Browned butter in a saucepan.

    Don't burn it

    There's a fine line between brown butter and burn butter. If you continue to heat butter after the milk solids have browned, they will burn. This will completely change the flavour. If you are unsure of how far to take brown butter, pull the pan off the stove and, using a spoon, push away any foam on the surface of the melted fat. This way, you can see what's happening on the bottom of the pan. The flecks should be brown, like mahogany, not black. If they are black, you have cooked it too long. The nutty flavour is gone in burnt butter. You will have to start over because it may have bitter notes.

    Brown butter still has milk solids and therefore is not appropriate for high-temperature cooking because it can burn.

    Warm clarified butter in a measuring cup is golden in colour and fluid
    Clarified butter in a measuring cup.

    The difference between clarified and brown butter

    Clarified butter is not the same as brown butter. To clarify butter, you heat it to remove water and strain it to remove milk solids. It isn't browned and so doesn't have the same nutty flavour. Clarified butter has a more prominent milk flavour.

    Vocabulary: Don't confuse beurre noisette (brown butter) with beurre de noisette (hazelnut butter)! Beurre de noisette is made just like peanut butter, from ground hazelnuts that are processed into a creamy, spreadable paste. Beurre noisette is made from melted butter that has cooked until the milk solids brown.

    The difference between ghee and brown butter

    Ghee is a strained version of brown butter. After boiling off the water and browning the milk solids, you strain the mixture. Line a strainer with layers of cheesecloth to obtain a clear, golden butter free of milk solids. This increases the shelf-life of ghee. Ghee is more stable than brown butter and you can store it at room temperature without it spoiling.

    Because brown butter still has milk solids, it's not appropriate for high-temperature cooking because it can burn easily. For high-temperature cooking, use ghee.

    Ingredients measured out to make Skor cookie bars, with browned butter, dark brown sugar, vanilla, an egg, leaveners, salt, flour, and lots of chopped Skor bars

    What to make with brown butter

    Brown butter has a unique flavour, akin to toasted nuts, but even better. It's really a great way of adding a nutty flavour to cookies and cakes without adding any nuts. You can use brown butter to make a quick caramel sauce like this whiskey caramel sauce served over baked apples.

    Chewy sea salt and toffee blondies cut into long bars on a black wire cooling rack

    The nutty flavour of brown butter also makes it great for recipes made with nuts. It complements and accentuates their flavour. You can use brown butter to make your bars and cookies. These white chocolate and raspberry blondies and these toffee blondies are both made with brown butter.

    Pumpkin whoopie pies being filled with brown butter cream cheese frosting, spreading it on with a knife.

    Once cooled to room temperature, you can use brown butter to make frosting, like this brown butter cream cheese frosting. It's the perfect complement to a pumpkin loaf cake or carrot cake.

    📖 Recipe

    Brown butter in a saucepan.
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    5 from 1 vote

    Brown butter

    Prevent your screen from going dark
    Learn how to brown butter with this recipe starting from regular unsalted butter to create a nutty "beurre noisette" to bake with.
    Course pantry staple
    Cuisine French
    Keyword beurre noisette, brown butter
    Prep Time 5 minutes
    Cook Time 18 minutes
    Total Time 23 minutes
    Servings 15
    Calories 110kcal
    Author Janice

    Ingredients

    • 230 grams (1 cup) unsalted butter

    Instructions

    • Place the butter in a small saucepan. Heat the butter on medium or medium–high until it is melted.
    • Once it's melted, continue heating the butter, swirling the pan occasionally. The butter may begin to sizzle/boil. This is because the fat has reached the boiling point of water and so the water will begin to evaporate. That's what we want!
    • Continue cooking the butter until the milk solids settled at the bottom of the pan turn a deep golden brown. Keep an eye on it so they don't burn!
    • Store brown butter in an airtight container in the fridge.
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    Notes

    230 grams of butter should leave you with about 200 grams of brown butter, which is less than 1 cup (closer to ¾ cup).
    You can store brown butter in the fridge since it still has the milk solids. Otherwise, it may spoil!
    Tried this recipe?Mention @bakesomethingawesome or tag #bakesomethingawesome!

    Nutrition

    Calories: 110kcal | Carbohydrates: 1g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 12g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 33mg | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 4mg | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 383IU | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg

    Frequently asked questions

    Is beurre noisette the same as beurre de noisette?

    No, beurre noisette and beurre de noisette are not the same thing! Beurre noisette is made from butter melted and browned on the stove, whereas beurre de noisette is made from hazelnuts ground into a creamy paste, like peanut butter.

    Can you replace regular butter with brown butter in baking recipes?

    You can replace unsalted butter with brown butter in most baking. Just note that if a recipe calls for 115 grams (½ cup) of unsalted butter, that's actually about 92 grams of fat and the rest water, proteins, and sugars. Brown butter contains no water. You may need to adjust your recipe to compensate for the lack of water in brown butter.

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    Comments

    1. Shareba @ InSearchOfYummyness.com says

      May 27, 2022 at 2:51 pm

      This was a great read! I love that you explained the differences between brown butter, ghee and clarified butter. Thanks for the info!

      Reply

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