The Unexpected Way To Take Brown Butter To The Next Level
A big part of butter's magic is its stable emulsion of fat and water. As butter is heated, it separates into butterfat, water, and milk solids. Keep heating it, and the water evaporates. After the foaming subsides, the water is gone, and the milk solids caramelize. Those golden-brown bits bring a hazelnut color and some nutty, toasty flavor to the butter. Brown butter is a classic move in French cuisine. According to Food Network, it's called beurre noisette (hazelnut butter), and it's the perfect sauce for fish, vegetables, and pasta. It's also a great way to take chocolate chip cookies to the next level.
Lemon is the classic addition to bring some acidity to balance brown butter's richness. A splash of vanilla amplifies brown butter in more dishes than you'd think. Fresh herbs like sage, parsley, or citrus zest provide a bright counterpoint to the deep, roasted flavor.
It's tough to imagine improving something so tasty and universally applicable. But what if there were more of those tasty brown milk solids? That's where most of the brown butter's flavor is based. Finding a way to add more of those would make brown butter even more potent. Where can you find more milk solids?
More milk solids means more potent brown butter
Cook Til Delicious uses powdered milk for many baking applications. The reason? Basically, the ingredient is composed of dried milk solids, which can be used to add the proteins found in milk to baked goods without worrying about adding extra liquid to a dough (or recipe in general). For example, powdered milk can add height to sourdough while keeping it tender. It can also be used to make "extra-strength brown butter" for some variations of chocolate chip cookies.
To do this, you can whisk non-fat milk powder into butter while it melts, and then continue whisking it until it's brown. In this case, there will be a lot more of the tasty brown bits collecting in the bottom of the pan. Those milk solids can burn quickly, so use Michael Symon's top tip to avoid burning your brown butter sauce.
Use lower heat to brown the butter for the best results, and whisk constantly. If the milk powder is clumpy, sift it into the butter. Cool the butter in the refrigerator until it's spreadable before proceeding with the recipe. If a recipe calls for a liquid, it can dissolve the clumps of milk solids. Or the cooled brown butter can be creamed with sugar to break up the tasty bits.
Go even further for an unexpected version of brown butter
ChefSteps uses this same technique but separates the "nutty brown flecks" from the brown butter. The strained brown butter retains a toasted flavor even without the milk solids, and the resulting brown butter solids are little nuggets of concentrated flavor. ChefSteps turns it into a sea foam powder used as an over-the-top carrot cake garnish.
Utilizing next-level brown butter doesn't have to be so fancy. These powerfully flavored specks of brown butter are a great way to upgrade cream cheese. Or, for next-level onion dip, fold in some of this at the end. They make a brilliant addition to compound butter. An amplified compound butter can be served on top of a steak or rubbed under the skin of roasted chicken before it hits the oven. The options for these tasty bits are virtually endless.
These nuggets can be dissolved into cream before whipping or added to buttercream for sweeter options. An excellent opportunity to appreciate how flavorful this extra-strength brown butter can take simple recipes to the next level is to make a batch of rice krispie treats. Add a few tablespoons of milk powder to the butter, and once it's brown, add the marshmallows and proceed as usual with the rice krispie treats.