I get questions constantly about how to brown butter, so I decided to create an entire post and video tutorial walking you through the process step by step and answer all of your frequently asked questions! The whole process of browning your butter should take about 8 minutes!
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How to Brown Butter
Ingredients
- butter
Instructions
1. Melt Butter of Medium-high heat
- I like to use a pot with a light colored bottom, so you can see the color of the butter more easily. However, if you don’t have one, don’t stress! Anything you’ve got will be just fine.
- Melt your butter over medium-high heat and stir it constantly
2. It’ll start to get cloudy
- After your butter has melted it’ll be a little cloudy
3. Then start to bubble
- Then it will start to bubble and boil, remember to keep stirring!
4.Then it will get less cloudy and start to get clear
- After it boils for a bit, the butter will go from cloudy to clear and you should be able to see the bottom of your pan
5. Then it’ll start to foam up
- It’s at this point it will start turning brown, once you’ve reached the desired color, remove from heat
- Your butter will then go from clear to foamy and then it will start to brown at this point rather quickly!
6. Remove from heat
- Once your butter has reached the desired color remove from heat!
HEY! This isn't the end of this post! Keep scrolling and we'll answer all your Frequently Asked Questions!
Video
Did you find this tutorial helpful? Comment and Rate it!
How can I tell if I burned my brown butter?
The first couple times I made brown butter I was convinced that I had burned it. With some practice you’ll stop stressing out about it and learn to trust yourself.
But, now back to the real question, how can I tell if I burned my brown butter? Easy, a good old-fashioned taste test! Give it a taste, be careful, it’ll be very hot! If it’s burned you’ll taste it immediately! Brown butter should have a salty, nutty flavor!
Music in video from bensound.com
What are the brown bits at the bottom?
You might notice that you have lots of little brown bits at the bottom of your pot. Don’t worry, this is totally normal! Those little brown bits are actually toasted milk solids, and they have tons of flavor! So make sure you get all of those little bits!
How to cool your butter fast
Sometimes you want your brown butter to return to room temperature fast! Like in my brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe the butter needs to be set up!
The first thing you need to do is to get it out of the pot you browned it in. You can then throw it in the fridge or freezer.
My number one trick for getting your brown butter to set up quickly is to place a pan or a bowl in the freezer BEFORE you start browning your butter. DO NOT use a glass bowl or pan if you are using this method. The quick change of heat from the hot butter to the cold glass can cause it to crack. After you’re done browning your butter, pour it into your frozen bowl or pan and pop it back in the freezer. It will set up much faster this way!
Replacing butter in a recipe with brown butter
Brown butter is a delicious way to elevate your favorite recipes! One thing you need to realize about brown butter, is that when you brown butter you lose some of the moisture in your butter. So you’ll need to INCREASE the amount of butter you use in the recipe. I’ve found that you lose about 25% of your butter.
For Example, if your recipe calls for 1 cup of butter and you want to replace it with brown butter, you should add 1 !/4 cups butter to your pot to brown. Make Sense?
Different ways to use your brown butter
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Butter Pecan cookies
- Gooey Butter Cake Ice Cream
- Dark Chocolate Pistachio Tahini Cookies
- Brown Sugar Pecan Pie w/ shortbread crust
- Brown Butter Sage Gnocchi
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What should I do if I accidentally freeze the butter too much.
Hi Amanda, just put the butter on the counter until it returns to the level of softness you desire. If returning to room temperature it might take an hour depending on how warm your kitchen is.
- Alyssa
How long can already browned butter stay in frig? After it’s cooled and hardened?
I would use it within two weeks!
- Alyssa
Can I use butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips in your browned butter recipe or will the finished cookie be too sweet and or rich?
Hi Monica! You can absolutely try using butterscotch chips, whether they’re too sweet will depend on your personal tastebuds. I recently added some caramel chips to a batch and did half caramel chips and half semi-sweet chips and I was happy I did because the caramel chips were very sweet! Hope that helps!
- Alyssa
This was my first attempt at brown butter and I just want to say, my kitchen smells like a mixture of vanilla and caramel. OMGoodness!
It's cooling now and I can hardly wait to finish the recipe!
Is the butter measurement in the cookie recipe for already browned butter, or butter to be browned? I keep a tub of browned butter in my kitchen at all times, and I sometimes have problems with recipes. I’m not sure if the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of already browned butter, or 1 1/2 cups of butter to be browned.
Hi Amy,
That's a great question, the recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups of butter BEFORE it it browned. In my experience, butter loses about 15-20& of its original volume when it is browned. So if you were using already browned butter, I would suggest using about 1 3/4 + 2 tablespoons o browned butter for this recipe. I hope that helps!
- Alyssa
The butter took over 2 hours to become solid in the fridge.
Yes, it does take longer to cool in the fridge than it does in the freezer. One trick i've learned when i want to cool my butter quickly, is take a metal pan and place it in the freezer while you brown the butter. Then pour the hot browned butter in the cold pan and place it back in the freezer. Having it cool in a cold shallow pan helps the butter cool much faster. It can be a little bit messier to get out of the pan, but if it's completely cold though, it can just pop out of the pan. You don't want to do this with a glass pan, because the temperature change from cold to hot can crack the pan. Hope that helps you next time Melissa!
- Alyssa
Oops I browned the butter and all of a sudden all the bubbles started rising and totally boiled over my pot. Now I lost my measurements, lol. I'll have to try a bigger pot next time.
Oh no! I've done that a few times myself 🙁
- Alyssa
Do you use salted or unsalted butter, your recipe does not specify?
Hi Crystal! For browning butter you can use either. If you are specifically asking about my brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipes it actually says in the notes 🙂
I used salted butter, so if you use unsalted butter you may want to increase the salt amount from ½ teaspoon to 1 teaspoon..
- Alyssa
Amazingly clear instructions! Thank you! Worked like a charm!
Does your recipe for Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies include the extra measure of butter for moisture?
Hi Nancy! Yes, my recipe Brown Butter chocolate chip cookies accounts for moisture lost during the browning process!
- Alyssa