Today I’m sharing a simple tutorial on How to Brown Butter in less than 10 minutes! Add it to your favorite baking and cooking recipes for instantly elevated flavor. Includes a how-to video!
A Baker’s Liquid Gold
If you’ve never browned butter before, you are in for a treat! This French technique is not only quick and easy to do, but it also makes your kitchen smell amazing and adds tremendous flavor to any dish. I love incorporating it into my toffee cookies to complement their toffee flavor, but don’t count it out for savory recipes, too — it’s also a key component in my garlic butter shrimp!
Brown butter (or “browned butter”) is simply butter that has been cooked until the milk solids are toasted to a nutty, golden brown color. 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 and takes just a few minutes to do.
This technique is simple, but it does require a watchful eye and near-constant stirring–so stay diligent! I’m also including several tips and a how-to video to make sure you’re successful.
Let’s get into it!
What You Need
You only need one ingredient (and it doesn’t have to be fancy!):
- Butter: The type of butter you need depends on your recipe. If your recipe doesn’t specify, I generally recommend using unsalted butter and adding salt separately. If you’re simply making browned butter for a dipping sauce for veggies or meats, salted butter is best.
SAM’S TIP: I recommend using a light-colored saucepan so you can see when your butter actually starts to turn brown. Using a dark-colored pan isn’t impossible, but it will make the process more difficult and could lead to burned butter.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Brown Butter
- Melt butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium-low heat (don’t bump up the heat to speed up the process, as my mom always says, “haste makes waste” and that’s so true here!).
- Increase the heat to medium and stir frequently as the butter starts to foam, pop, and sizzle.
- As the popping and sizzling slows, keep swirling and stirring until you see browned bits forming in the bottom of your pan.
- Remove the butter from the heat and pour into a heatproof container. Use as desired or as indicated in your recipe.
SAM’S TIP: Don’t let your butter turn from brown to burnt! Watch it carefully (don’t walk away from it!) and stir or swirl the pan frequently so the milk solids cook evenly. Frequent motion is the best way to prevent burning!
SAM’S TIP: Once you see brown bits (toasted milk solids) forming, remove your skillet from the heat. The pan will still be hot, so immediately pour your butter into a separate heatproof container to stop the cooking process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately it won’t always work as an even substitute for regular butter. The browning process ends up cooking out a lot of the water in the butter, and many recipes count on that water to turn out properly.
Unless you’re up for experimenting, I recommend sticking for recipes that have been developed specifically for brown butter, like my brown butter blondies, brown butter chocolate chip cookies, or banana nut muffins.
It has a toasted, almost toffee-like flavor with strong nutty undertones. In fact, brown butter’s direct translation in French (beurre noisette) is hazelnut butter!
You’ll often find it paired with toffee, chocolate, nuts, or caramel in baked goods or with seafood, lemon, sage, or pasta in savory dishes.
As it sits, it will solidify like regular butter, but it will take longer. If you refrigerate it, it will solidify even quicker. You can also freeze brown butter for later use.
I know many of you already know how to do this, but I’m hoping is helpful for some of our newer cooks and bakers 😊
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
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.
Notes
Here are some recipes you can make with brown butter!
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
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.