How to Make Brown Butter (Easy Recipe)

Brown butter is one of the easiest ways to elevate your baked goods to the next level. By simply cooking butter until the milk solids toast, you create a rich, nutty flavor that transforms cookies, cakes, brownies, biscuits, and more. The best part? It only takes about 10-15 minutes.

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I first discovered brown butter when watching Kids Baking Challenge with my daughter Autumn. I knew I had to try using it, so I developed these chocolate chip cookies with brown butter, and I was hooked. These cookies are a.ma.zing. They are my go to dessert for parties because they are often one of the first things to disappear.

What is Brown Butter?

• It is butter that has been cooked so that water evaporates and the milk solids toast.
• It is amber in color.
• It has a nutty, toffee flavor and smell that is out of this world.
• Great for cookies, brownie, vegetables, and sauces

Ingredients in Browned Butter

• butter

Yep, perhaps obvious, but the only ingredient in brown butter is butter.

How to make Brown Butter

This is pretty simple to make. It takes about 10-15 minutes to do. Here are a few tips to help it go well.

• Use a light colored pan so you can really see when the butter turns brown. I am using a Lodge Enameled Dutch Oven here (so you can really see the brown butter) but I usually use a stainless steel sauce pan.
• Cut your butter pieces evenly for better melting
• The most important part is keeping an eye on the butter near the end. It can go from browned to burnt quickly.

I hope that the picture below can help give a visual for you in how the butter goes from a stick to browned butter. I also have a YouTube video linked below if you’d like to see the progression that way.

Put Butter in Pan

Cut your butter into equal pieces. I usually do about 8 tablespoons per stick. Turn the burner onto medium heat, and start to melt the butter.

Butter starts to foam

Keep melting the butter, stirring it every now and then. As it melts it will start to bubble and foam. This is the water evaporating off. You can see the start or the bubbles in this picture.

Butter foams more heavily

As you continue to cook the butter, it will bubble and foam more. These pictures all show how the bubbles change as the butter cooks. In the last picture you can see how the butter is just starting to turn brown.

Milk solids get toasty

Near the end of the water evaporating it’s time to keep a close eye on your butter. You will start to see the milk solids at the bottom of the pan when you stir.

Transfer to Heatproof Dish

After the milk solids start to toast, your butter will develop a nutty/ toffee aroma. When that happens transfer the butter (including the milk solids at the bottom of the pan) to a heatproof dish immediately. If you keep it in the pan you are cooking it in, even if you take it off the heat, the butter can go from browned to burnt.

Those toasted milk solids are where the nutty flavor comes from, so don’t leave them n the pan.

Use it in Your Recipe

You now have brown butter! While you can use this in place of butter in recipes, if the recipe isn’t specifically made for brown butter you may need to make adjustments.

• If your recipe calls for softened butter, you need to let the brown butter solidify before using it the recipes
• Remember that most of the water in the butter evaporated. If your recipe calls for 2 sticks of butter that means 226 grams. You will need to brown more than two sticks to insure you have 226 grams at the end.

Brown Butter Troubleshooting

My butter is not browning

Give it some time. Butter can take 8-15 minute to brown depending on your stove and pan you are using. Also make sure your heat is set to medium.

My butter burned what can I do?

Unfortunately there isn’t much you can do with burned brown butter (try saying that ten times fast), except throw it away. Either the heat was too high on your stove, or you left it in the pan too long.

Should there be this much foam?

Yes, foaming and bubbling is normal when making browned butter. When you get to this step it is important to stir the butter frequently so you can tell when the milk solids start to brown. Be sure you are scraping the bottom of the pan when you do this.

Questions about Browned Butter

How do I store brown butter?

It can be stored in the fridge for up to two weeks. Remember it will solidify in the fridge so you may have to soften or re-melt it to use in a recipe.

Brown butter can be stored in the freezer for up to three months. Let cool completely, then store in a freezer-safe container.

If you go to use it, and it smells off or rancid, throw it out.

How do I substitute brown butter for regular butter?

You can totally substitute brown butter for regular butter. Because there is a loss of moisture (from the water cooking off) you may need to brown slightly more butter than the recipe calls for. Typically brown butter loses about 20% of its weight as the water cooks off. For example, if a recipe calls for 1 stick of butter, you may want to brown 1 stick and 2 tablespoons of butter so the end result is 1 stick.

It is also important to use the form of butter the recipe calls for. If the recipe needs softened butter, you will need to wait for the butter to solidify some before using.

Can I use salted butter to make brown butter?

Yep, you totally can. I just like to use unsalted to have better control of the salt content of my baked goods.

How can I use browned butter?

1. brown butter chocolate chip cookies
2. brownies
3. on top of biscuits
4. in mashed potatoes
5. in your favorite cake recipe
6. muffins
7. drizzled over vegetables
8. in a zip sauce for meat
9. pancakes
10. blondies