If you’ve ever wondered “How to Make Brown Butter,” it’s much easier than you think! It only requires 1 ingredient and about 15 minutes of your time. The moniker beurre noisette – French for “nutty butter” – sums up why you should try your hand at it. You’ll want to use this golden wonder on anything and everything!
About This Recipe
Brown butter is an absolute game-changer. Although the idea of browning butter may induce panic, never fear! The success of achieving perfectly browned butter is dependent on using your senses, so get ready to be thrilled.
The process of making brown butter doesn’t just yield a delicious result, it is also a true pleasure to witness. Pour yourself a glass of something tasty and strap in for the ride!
At first, your only job is to watch. The butter goes through several stages of development — melting, bubbling, separating, and eventually, browning. Once you note these stages, you’ll easily be able to scale the recipe up or down according to your needs.
Browning butter is also a great olfactory introduction to the Maillard reaction — the chemical transformation that makes perfectly browned steak or golden roasted potatoes so delicious.
Butter’s main flavor compound is butyric acid, while butyrate is the scent compound that is given off during a Maillard reaction. You’ll know when your browned butter is done browning because you’ll be able to smell its uniquely delicious aroma! Just trust yourself; you’ll know when it’s ready.
Brown butter is a fantastic addition or even replacement within a number of recipes. Whether you are hoping to add flavors to cookies, cakes, breads, madeleines – elevate the flavor with a bit of brown butter.
Ingredients & Substitutions
This might come as a shock to you, but you only need one ingredient to make browned butter:
- BUTTER! Make sure to get the really good stuff here for the most nuanced flavors. Look for identifiers like grass-fed, organic, and/or cultured. I also prefer to use unsalted butter so I can more easily adapt it to use in other recipes. Remember, you can always add salt, but you can’t take it away!
Equipment
Browning butter is a simple task that doesn’t require much, aside from:
- A Heavy Bottomed Pan - This will ensure even cooking and help prevent scorching.
- Sharp Eyes & A Keen Sense of Smell. Honestly, once you make brown butter once, you’ll wonder what all the anxiety was about. If you’re tuned into the moment, you will have no problem identifying when your batch is ready.
How To Make Brown Butter
- Start by melting your butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Use a pan with a light-colored bottom so you can keep track of the color.
- First, the butter will melt and look opaque.
- Next, it will begin to bubble. The bubbles will be small and vigorous, and it’ll be hard to see the bottom of the pan. Keep the faith.
- After the foaming subsides, you’ll start to hear a splutter. This is an indication that the butter has separated into solids and liquids. Now you’ll need to pay closer attention.
- Swirl the pan occasionally to make sure that the butter is cooking evenly. The coloring will darken, but your most reliable cue that your butter is done browning is how it smells and sounds!
- Once the butter has developed a deep golden brown coca-cola color, the noise/sputtering subsides and smells deliciously nutty, your browned butter is done!
- Then, pour directly into a heatproof glass jar to cool. This will prevent the butter from cooking further and burning.
- You'll find that there are little brown specks at the bottom of the pan as seen pictured below - those are golden. Make sure to not leave those little guys behind as they are packed with nutty, rich flavor.
How To Use Browned Butter
Feel free to use browned butter immediately. It goes great on:
You can also store browned butter in a heatproof container (like a mason jar) and refrigerate it for later. I love using it in:
- Coconut Brown Butter Rice Krispie Treats
- Banana Cake with Brown Butter Buttercream
- Brown Butter Double Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you allow the browned butter to chill entirely, you can then let it come back to room temperature to sub into basically any recipe that calls for you to cream butter.
Start experimenting with your favorite cake or cookie recipes to see how it changes them. I think you’ll be delighted with what you find!
Did you come up with an amazing way to use your browned butter? Let me know in the comments below, or tag me on your socials!
Expert Tips
- Feel free to scale the recipe up as needed. Once you’ve made brown butter and witnessed all its steps, you’ll know when you’re getting close enough to jump in and start *really* paying attention.
- Make browned butter in advance, and always keep it on hand. It will keep in the fridge for up to a month, so even if you don’t have a plan for it, make it! I can promise it’ll be a lifesaver on a busy weeknight when you forgot about dinner; combined with pasta, you don’t need much else!
- REMEMBER: All it takes to make brown butter is butter, a pan, patience, time, and a bit of babysitting. Watch the color develop, smell the nutty aroma, agitate the butter, listen to the sputtering sizzles that come from your pan, and you will succeed!
Frequently Asked Questions
The French sum it up best by calling it beurre noisette, which roughly translates to “hazelnut butter”; the end product does taste rather nutty.
Can you say that 10 times fast?? LOL. All jokes aside, the nuanced flavor of brown butter does something quite wonderful to an already outstanding ingredient. While browned butter isn’t necessarily ideal for *all* applications, I’d venture to say that it is a delightful upgrade over regular butter in many situations.
It all depends on your quantity. If you’re just doing a stick, it might only take 5 minutes, whereas if you’re doing a couple of pounds, it’ll take quite a bit longer. I encourage you to use your senses here – my step-by-step photos make it easier to gauge which step you’re in, but remember that you’re not done until the butter smells quite nutty!
More How To Recipes
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How to Make Brown Butter
Equipment
- Saucepan
- Spatula
- Heatproof Glass Container
- Heavy Bottomed Dutch Oven or Saucepan
Ingredients
Brown Butter
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter
Instructions
Brown Butter
- Start by melting your butter over medium heat in a saucepan. Use a pan with a light-colored bottom so you can keep track of the color while the butter starts to brown.1 Cup Unsalted Butter
- Swirl the pan occasionally to make sure that the butter is cooking evenly
- As the butter melts, it will begin to foam, sputter and the coloring will get darker
- Once the butter has developed a deep golden brown color and has stopped sputtering, pour into a heatproof glass container and set aside
Notes
- Feel free to scale the recipe up as needed. Once you’ve made brown butter and witnessed all its steps, you’ll know when you’re getting close enough to jump in and start *really* paying attention.
- Make browned butter in advance, and always keep it on hand. It will keep in the fridge for up to a month, so even if you don’t have a plan for it, make it! I can promise it’ll be a lifesaver on a busy weeknight when you forgot about dinner; combined with pasta, you don’t need much else!
- REMEMBER: All it takes to make brown butter is butter, a pan, patience, time, and a bit of babysitting. Watch the color develop, smell the nutty aroma, agitate the butter, listen to the sputtering sizzles that come from your pan, and you will succeed!
- What does brown butter taste like? The French sum it up best by calling it beurre noisette, which roughly translates to “hazelnut butter”; the end product does taste rather nutty.
- Is brown butter better? Can you say that 10 times fast?? LOL. All jokes aside, the nuanced flavor of brown butter does something quite wonderful to an already outstanding ingredient. While browned butter isn’t necessarily ideal for *all* applications, I’d venture to say that it is a delightful upgrade over regular butter in many situations.
- How long do I need to brown butter? It all depends on your quantity. If you’re just doing a stick, it might only take 5 minutes, whereas if you’re doing a couple of pounds, it’ll take quite a bit longer. I encourage you to use your senses here – my step-by-step photos make it easier to gauge which step you’re in, but remember that you’re not done until the butter smells quite nutty!
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