Brown butter (beurre noisette in french) is a cooking basic you need to know how to make. The process gives the butter a lovely toasted nuts flavour that will bring your recipes to a new level.
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What’s brown butter?
Butter is made up of fat, water and milk. To make brown butter (beurre noisette), we make those milk solids go nice and toasty brown. It gives the butter a delicious smell resembling toasted nuts. Also, the flavour improves considerably. To make it you melt butter over medium heat. First, it will melt and then it will start to sizzle. When it stops sizzling it’s a sign that you’re close to getting the milk solids golden. When you see they’re golden brown, remove them from your pot or pan, we don’t want them to burn.
How can I use it in recipes?
Brown butter is used the same way as regular butter. If you refrigerate it, it will go hard, it’s soft at room temperature and you can also use it melted. Bare in mind that the weight and volume of the butter will decrease in the browning process, so you might want to brown a bit more than required. Alternatively, you can complete the quantity with regular butter since it’s not that much that gets evaporated. Refrigerated, brown butter lasts until the expiration date of the original butter. You can also freeze it for a longer duration.
What recipes can I use it in?
Brown butter (beurre noisette) works really well as an ingredient in recipes with a neutral flavour such as vanilla cakes, cookies, blondies and bread with a high butter content. It will be noticeable especially if the recipes don’t have too strong flavours such as in a chocolate batter, for example. Here are a few of my recipes where you can use this type of butter for a great result. If you have questions, you can always send me a message via my Instagram account.
Ingredients
- Unsalted butter as needed
Instructions
- Place the butter in a pan or pot of a size appropriate to the amount of butter you're browning.
- Melt it over medium heat and keep cooking it, mixing constantly with a spatula. It will begin to sizzle.
- Once the sizzling stops it means you're close, pay attention to the colour of the milk solids that tend to be at the bottom.
- Once golden, remove the butter from the pan or pot immediately.
- Use it melted, at room temperature or cold depending on what the recipe needs.
