Brown Butter
Let’s talk about one of the best secret weapons in baking and cooking: Brown Butter! 🧈✨
If you’ve never made it before, you’re in for a game-changing moment. Brown butter (or beurre noisette if you’re feeling fancy) is simply regular butter that’s cooked until the milk solids toast into golden, nutty perfection. It smells like heaven, tastes even better, and somehow makes everything you add it to—cookies, cakes, sauces—taste richer, deeper, and absolutely irresistible.
I love making a big batch at once, browning several sticks of butter in a large pot so I always have some ready to go. Trust me, once you start using brown butter, you’ll never want to go back to regular butter again.
Here’s exactly how to make it—and why you might want to make extra.
Ingredients:
226 g unsalted butter (to make 181 g of brown butter)
Or:
454 g unsalted butter (to make 363 g of brown butter)
* To always have brown butter on hand, I brown several sticks of butter at a time using a large pot)
Watch This Video to Learn How to Make Brown Butter
Directions:
Choose a small, medium, or large saucepan depending on how many sticks of butter you’ll be browning. Add the unsalted butter to the pan and place it over medium heat. You can use cold butter straight from the fridge—just keep in mind it might take a little longer to melt.
As the butter melts, it will start to roar, foam, and create big bubbles. It might splatter a bit, so if it gets too wild, simply lower the heat to medium-low or low. After a few minutes, you’ll notice the bubbles becoming smaller and the butter beginning to quiet down.
Keep stirring gently and continuously. Watch closely as the butter shifts to a beautiful golden amber color and tiny brown flecks start to form at the bottom of the pan. You’ll also notice a nutty, toasty aroma—that’s your signal that the brown butter is ready! The entire browning process can take anywhere from 4 to 10 minutes, depending on the amount of butter you're using.
Once you reach that perfect golden stage, immediately remove the pan from the heat. Carefully pour the brown butter into a heatproof container, making sure to scrape up all the delicious caramelized bits from the sides and bottom of the pan—those little flecks are packed with flavor.
Let the brown butter cool at room temperature until it reaches a creamy, spreadable consistency, or refrigerate it if you want it to fully solidify for storage.