How to Make Brown Butter

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Browned butter makes just about everything better. This delicious and nutty form butter takes is perfect for elevating your food. Learn exactly how to make brown butter in just a few minutes!

close up brown butter with flecks of caramelized milk solids on spoon over bowl

Why you'll love it

One of my all-time favorite things is brown butter. Even just the way it smells is just so amazing. If they made it into perfume, I might be tempted to buy it.

I use browned butter to elevate my savory recipes and my desserts alike. It adds so much dimension to your food with minimal effort on your end. It takes only a few extra minutes, and is almost foolproof.

You can use this process for any amount of butter, in fact, making a large amount of it helps to ensure you can use it any time you want. Check out the FAQs to learn about storing extra butter.

The whole process takes less than 10 minutes and will completely upgrade everything you add it to. There is a reason a lot of cooks and bakers refer to it as liquid gold.

What is it

Brown butter is heat-treated butter that allows the milk solids in the butter to caramelize. It is known for a deep amber, light brown color and a noticeable nutty aroma and nutty flavor.

It comes from the French beurre noisette which translates to hazelnut butter. When butter melts, the butterfat and the milk solids separate thanks to the wonders that is the cooking process that is the maillard reaction (this is the process of browning food through heat to create new and complex flavors)

During the browning process, much of the water content evaporates, the melted butter darkens in color, and the milk solids caramelize and speckle the bottom of your pan.

It is often used in French cooking, but it is also popular in American cooking and baking.

If you are making clarified butter or ghee, it is easy to overcook your butter so that the milk solids end up browning and bringing your butter to this caramelized stage.

How to make

You can use salted or unsalted butter. Unsalted butter is usually the best so you can control the amount of salt in your final dish. Typically, I prefer to make mine in a saucepan, but you can use almost anything you have around. There are two main different ways to brown your butter: the microwave and the stovetop.

Microwave instructions:

This is not my favorite way to make brown butter, and not one I recommend unless you have no stovetop available. Even then, an induction cooktop is a great investment.

Place the butter in a microwave-safe bowl with high sides to capture the butter as it bubbles and cooks.
Cover the bowl with a microwave-safe top. Sometimes I will just use a plate or a wider bowl.
Microwave at intervals. Heat for 2 ½ minutes, then 45-second intervals, checking the butter between bursts. Cook for no more than 6 minutes.
Check that it is done (Carefully! Everything is still very hot!). The butter will smell nutty and there will be brown speckles in the bottom.
Allow your bowl to cool for a minute, and use something to remove the hot bowl.

Saucepan instructions

This is my preferred method. It is easier to watch and see the butter brown and make sure you don't accidentally burn it.

Place your unsalted butter in the light-colored pan and begin to cook over medium heat.
Stir the butter with a silicone or wooden spoon once it begins to melt.
Stir the butter continuously, ensuring your are scraping the bottom of the pan to evenly cook the milk solids
Remove from heat as soon as you start to see little brown bits and smell a nutty aroma. The residual heat will continue to cook the butter and removing it at this point will prevent burnt butter.

Tips

When browning butter for the first time, it is important to keep a close eye on it, which is why I prefer the stovetop method. You can go from perfectly flavorful browned butter to bitter burnt butter in a matter of seconds.

I recommend cutting tablespoons of butter into small cubes and stirring the butter frequently to encourage even browning.

The butter will at first take its time cooking, then it will start to bubble and you may have a hard time seeing the contents of the pan, that is when the butter is going to start browning.

Use your senses, smell the butter, it will become nice and fragrant. Use a heavy bottom light-colored saucepan so you can see the color. It should be a nice caramel color. For your first few times, err on the side of a lighter caramel as brown butter can easily burn and will leave you with a bitter taste.

F.A.Q.s

Can you make it ahead of time?

You can definitely make it ahead of time. In fact, once you've finished browning your butter, it will still act and behave the same as regular butter. I always recommend storing your butter in a small, airtight container.

If you plan to use it the next day, it could be okay to leave it at room temperature overnight, but my recommendation is to refrigerate it. You may also freeze brown butter. For smaller, easy to measure cubes whenever you need, pour it into an ice cube tray to solidify (or freeze)

Can it be refrigerated and reheated?

You can refrigerate browned butter. In fact, many of my recipes call for the butter to be refrigerated, even just for a short period of time to resolidify it partially.

You can reheat the butter as needed if you made it ahead of time, or if it was in a sauce you are reheating.

Is there a loss of moisture?

Yes, there can be quite a bit of it too, depending on the butterfat percentage of your butter. This is why you should always measure the brown butter after you've browned it.

If a recipe calls for ½ cup melted butter then measure your melted browned butter. If a recipe calls for ½ cup butter, room temperature, then let your brown butter solidify and measure that. If your recipe already has the butter browned the recipe, such as my brown butter snickerdoodles and brown butter chocolate chip cookies, just follow the recipe as directed.

close up brown butter frosting with flecks of brown butter

Now you've browned your butter, here's some inspiration on what you can do with it! I love making these brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodles. My brown butter banana bread and my brown butter banana snack cake are big hits here and among readers. This apple cider hot toddy uses the butter to flavor bourbon and it is life-changing. These brown butter coconut chocolate chip scones are amazing. You need to try these brown butter madeleines and these brown butter cupcakes, too! If you want something savory, try my brown butter scampi. My friend Olivia made this amazing brown butter bacon cornbread you may love.