Learn how to make brown butter, and get ready to up your baking game! This nutty, toasted brown butter is a total game-changer. You can use it in cookies, cakes, brownies, frosting, banana bread... The options are endless! The complex flavor of brown butter enhances even the most simple of desserts, and I seriously can't get enough of it.
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Brown butter chocolate chip cookies, brown butter banana bread, brown butter brownies - how have I not done a post on how to make brown butter yet??
Adding brown butter to my baking recipes is a go-to for me. It adds more flavor and complexity, and it also makes my kitchen smell ✨delish✨. It sounds complicated, but it's actually a really easy thing to make, and it's good to have this method in your back pocket!
What even is brown butter? 🧈
Brown butter (beurre noisette for you Francophiles) is butter that has been melted over low heat so the water in the butter evaporates, so the milk solids in the butter turn brown and smell nutty and toasted.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Melt the butter
Place the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat on the stove. Stir until the butter has completely melted.
Let the butter foam
Continue stirring the butter, at this point it'll start to foam and sizzle. Lower the heat. The foam will start to subside, and as you stir, you'll see white milk solids at the bottom of the pan. It'll start to smell nutty and toasted.
Pour into a bowl
Once those milk solids turn golden brown and the sizzling has stopped, turn the heat off. Pour the browned butter into a heatproof bowl and use as desired!
Swapping out regular butter for brown butter
Ok, so now you know how to make brown butter! But does that mean you can just swap out regular butter for brown butter all the time?
You can't just make a 1:1 switch. Because some of the water evaporates when browning the butter, you'll lose a couple of tablespoons of butter. What I tend to do when developing and testing recipes is measure the butter before and after browning - there's usually a 15-20% change in the weight of the butter!
Some bakers will add a tablespoon of milk or water (or even an ice cube!) to their recipes when swapping in browned butter to account for that moisture loss.
My Top Tips
- Light Colored Pan: Use a light colored pan so you can easily see the milk solids turning from white to brown.
- Scrape Scrape Scrape! Make sure you scrape all the brown bits in the saucepan into your bowl - that's the liquid gold we want with all the flavor!
- Keep an Eye Out: Brown butter turns well... brown, pretty quickly! So keep your eye on the pan and don't leave the stove, otherwise you'll end up with burnt butter.
- High-Quality Butter: Try to use a high-quality butter, like European butter, which has a higher butterfat content. Better quality butter = better brown butter!
Uses for Brown Butter!
Here are just some of the recipes that I've used brown butter in.
- Cardamom cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting
- Brown butter cinnamon rolls
- Browned butter pecan cookies
- Brown butter snickerdoodles
- Brown butter blondies
- Brown butter miso chocolate chip cookies (such a good salty sweet cookie!)
- Brown butter espresso brownies
- Brown butter oatmeal cookies (a classic!)
- Chocolate chunk banana bread with brown butter
Made This Recipe?
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Thank you!
Ella
Recipe
How to Make Brown Butter (Easy & with Video!)
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Rubber Spatula
Ingredients
- 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
Instructions
- Place the butter in a small or medium light-colored saucepan on the stove over medium-low heat. Stir with a rubber spatula as the butter begins to melt. Note: Make sure you are always stirring throughout this process!1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
- The butter will begin to foam on top and sizzle. Make sure you continue stirring! After 5-7 minutes, you'll start to see milk solids at the bottom of the pan. When you stir and the foam moves, you'll be able to see those milk solids.
- At this point, the sizzling should have stopped, but you might still have some foam on top (although it should be subsiding by now!). The milk solids at the bottom should turn golden brown and the butter should smell nutty and toasted.
- Turn off the stove and pour the browned butter into a heatproof bowl. Make sure you use the rubber spatula to scrape out all the brown bits into the bowl. Let cool and use as desired.
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