Browning your butter is a simple way to elevate the flavor or your favorite baked goods to new heights. Today I’m sharing a simple tutorial on How to Brown Butter and walking you through all the steps for easy browned butter. It takes less than ten minutes to do!
How to Brown Butter
If you have never browned butter before, you are in for a treat. A simple kitchen technique that takes an ingredient that’s already king in my kitchen and elevates it to new heights.
Browning butter is easy to do (especially with my step-by-step instructions) and as a bonus it’s going to make your house smell seriously amazing. Like a nutty, buttery, toffee-like amazing… how has Yankee Candle not capitalized on this scent yet?
I’ll also share a few of my favorite recipes that use brown butter so you can get started on perfecting your butter-browning technique!
What is Brown Butter
Brown butter (0r “browned butter”) is simply butter that has been cooked until the milk solids are toasted a nutty golden brown. At the same time, we’re cooking out most of the water (and American butter typically contains about 20% water, so there’s quite a bit to cook out!). This is often done on the stovetop in a skillet and takes only about 10 minutes to do.
Brown butter’s French name is “buerre noisette” and yes, that sounds fancy, but it’s really such a simple ingredient, and the steps to make it are easy.
Let’s get started, I have step-by-step photos of the process as well as a video just below the recipe.
Step 1: Melt Your Butter
Easy enough. Do this over low heat in a medium-sized saucepan.
To make things easier for yourself I recommend using a light-colored saucepan (I like to use my stainless steel one here rather than my cast iron). The reason for this is that you want to be able to see when your butter actually starts to turn brown and using a dark-colored pan will make that more difficult. Keep your stovetop heat on low until the butter is completely melted.
Step 2: Sizzle & Pop
Increase your stovetop heat to be just over medium (don’t crank the heat too high or you’ll end up burning your butter). At this point, it’s important to not walk away from your butter. Don’t even take your eyes off of it. Brown butter will happily and obnoxiously turn to burnt butter the moment you avert your eyes. Watch it carefully and stir frequently with a wooden spoon or a heatproof spatula (don’t use a metal spoon as the handle will quickly get very hot).
The butter will begin to sputter, sizzle, and pop. This is great! It means it’s starting to cook. Use your spoon or spatula to swirl the butter frequently if not constantly to evenly cook those milk solids. You don’t want anything burning, and frequent motion is the best way to prevent that.
Step 3: Watch for Browning
Here you’re going to use your ears and nose (as well as your eyes) to tell that your butter is ready.
Once most of the water has been cooked out the sizzling and popping will slow down, your butter will be making a lot less noise (keep swirling it, anyway). At about this same time you should notice little brown bits starting to form on the bottom of the pan. These are our toasted milk fats! The kitchen should be smelling amazing at this point, a bit nutty, a bit like toffee.
Once you see those brown bits (toasted milk solids) forming you should remove your skillet from the heat. The pan is still hot, so keep swirling with your spoon as you remove it from the heat and I recommend immediately pouring it into a heat-proof container so it doesn’t continue to cook (and burn!).
And that’s it… I told you it was easy.
A Note on Substitutions…
Browned butter is a great way to add extra toffee-like flavor to your favorite baked goods, but it will not work as a 1 for 1 substitute in any recipe that calls for regular butter. We’ve cooked out a lot of our liquid, and most recipes are counting on that water that’s in regular butter in order for your baked goods to turn out properly. If you try to use this in any old cookie or cake recipe, there’s a chance your cookie dough could end up crumbly or your cake too dense. Unless you’re up for experimenting, I recommend sticking for recipes that have been developed specifically for brown butter. Here are a few of mine that are perfect for today’s recipe:
Some Recipes To Try:
- Banana Nut Muffins
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Toffee Cookies
- Browned Butter Blondies
- Butter Bites
So, what are you going to bake first with your browned butter?
How to Brown Butter
Ingredients
- Butter
Recommended Equipment
- Medium-sized light-colored saucepan
Instructions
- Place butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Ideally you should use one that is light-colored (like stainless steel rather than black cast iron) as this will make it easier for you to see once your butter has begun to brown.
- Heat butter over medium/low heat until butter is completely melted.
- Increase heat to just a notch over medium. The butter should begin to bubble, sputter, and pop. Use a wooden spoon or a heatproof spatula to stir and swirl the butter frequently (make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan while doing this). Do not take your eyes off of your butter.
- Watch your butter very carefully and continue to swirl and stir. Once the sizzling/popping slows down, you will begin to notice bits of brown forming on the bottom of your pan.
- Once you see the butter beginning to brown, remove from heat and immediately pour into a heat-proof bowl.
- Use brown butter as indicated in your recipe, but keep in mind it is very hot after browning and most recipes will require that it cool back down to room temperature before using.
Sadie
I think I might have taken the butter off the stove a tiny bit too early haha… it was a bit intimidating and I was scared I was gonna burn it all, lol! Hopefully it will work with the recipe anyway. I’m making your brown butter toffee cookies 🙂
Sam
Hi Sadie! I hope you love the cookies! It can be a little intimidating to brown butter. You can really tell it’s done when you see those little brown flecks in the butter and you start to smell that nutty aroma. 🙂
Bunny
I brown my butter in the microwave, in a large glass bowl. It’s so easy to keep an eye on how brown it’s getting, and so much easier than standing over a saucepan on the stove. 1 1/2 cups butter takes about 7 minutes in the microwave.
My favorite recipe that uses browned butter is ‘Crumbly Cranberry Shortbread Bars’. It’s often requested when I cater Holiday Parties. The browned butter makes the flavors over the top.
Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for sharing the method that works well for you, Bunny! 🙂
louise bennett
Hi Sam , I use browned butter when making my pecan pies, instead of just melting it. Tip: don’t add the eggs until the butter has cooled, as not to cook the eggs.
I love your videos
Sugar Spun Run
Browned butter in pecan pie sounds perfect, Louise! Thank you for the tip and your sweet comment. I am so glad you have enjoyed my blog and videos. 🙂
Silvia Garcia
Hi, do you happen to have recipes that used Brown Butter? Cookies, Muffins, Biscuits, etc..I would love to experiment the Brown Butter . Thank you, Silvia
Sam
I do! If you check in the post above the recipe I have a section titled “Some Recipes to Try”, you’ll find some great starting points there 🙂
LILIANA
Do you also use the scrapings from the buttom in, for ex, a brownie or a cookie?
Sam
Hi Liliana! I never usually need to scrape the bottom, but all of the browned bits that you see definitely stay in when I use this in brownies or cookies 🙂
Connie Patton
I have enjoyed watching your cooking techniques, ie browning butter! Thanks!
Sam
You’re very welcome! I’m glad you found the post and video helpful, Connie! 🙂
Donna
Love your recipes!!!
I have learned a lot from you.
Do you have a video on how to clarify butter?
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Donna! I am glad you have enjoyed my recipes and have learned a lot. Unfortunately, I don’t have a video on How to Make Clarified Butter just yet. 🙂
Maria
Very helpful video!
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much, Maria! 🙂
Bunny
One of my favorite recipes is for Crumbly Cranberry Shortbread Bars, and is calls for browned butter. I prefer to make it in a microwave, in a large glass bowl. Is easy to keep an eye on how brown the butter is getting. 1 1/2 c. butter takes 7-8 minutes.
Leslie
I use browned butter on popcorn. My granddaughter asks for the pieces with “extra brown fings.”
Sugar Spun Run
Yum! That sounds amazing, Leslie! 🙂
Liza
Thank you for the tip about not substituting it! I know browned butter is made but cooking off the water, but for some reason I never thought to factor that in when I tried subbing it in cookies recently, and they didn’t turn out great. Now I know why and I’ll use your recipe!
Sugar Spun Run
I am glad that this recipe will help, Liza! 🙂
Jesse
Great guidance on how to brown butter. I’ve never done it before b/c I was too intimidated, but now I’m confident I can do it! Thanks Sam!
Sugar Spun Run
Wonderful, I am glad I could help, Jesse! 🙂
Dzenana Basovic
Is it supposed to be used in melted state only or it can be used in another way? Sorry for my evident lack of knowledge.
Sam
Hi Dzenana! I always use it in its melted state, and unless the recipe indicates otherwise I would recommend using it melted (but not while it is still hot). I Hope that helps! 🙂
Pla728
Thank you! I’m 57 years old and I’ve been baking for years but I never could get browned butter right. Now I see what I was doing wrong! Very helpful video.
Sugar Spun Run
Thank you so much! I am glad you found the video post helpful. 🙂
MARy
WHenmaking brown butter, do you measure the butter after it’s browned to get he proper amount, thanks
Sam
Hi Mary! I always measure before browning, but it honestly depends on how the particular recipe is written.