Brown Butter Snickerdoodles Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Does browning butter make a difference in cookies? ›

In his recipe, he made the ingenious discovery that browning the butter before adding it to the mixture would give the cookies a much more pronounced nuttiness.

Stir the butter the entire time to keep it moving. Once melted, the butter will begin to foam and sizzle around the edges. Keep stirring. In about 5–8 minutes from when you started (depending on the amount of butter you used), the butter will turn golden brown.

Butter contains a good 13 to 17% water, which has to go before the fat's temperature can rise enough to brown the milk proteins. Once the butter reaches a temperature of 212°F, the water in the butter starts to evaporate much more quickly. As a result the butter will start to bubble and splatter dramatically.

This is why you should never step away from the pan while browning butter – it can go from perfect to burnt in seconds. Perfectly browned butter should be deep amber in color and have a nutty fragrance, with darker milk solids visible on the bottom. Check out the side-by-side photos below!

Check for doneness: To check if the butter is browned to your liking, while the butter is in the saucepan, clear away some of the foam and spoon a little of the butter onto a white plate. Account for evaporation: Brown butter reduces in volume by 20-25% as water content cooks off.

The key to browned butter is getting it browned just enough, which requires some attention. Too dark, and the flavor will taste burnt. If you don't cook the butter long enough, it won't have the deep, nutty flavor you're after.

Why is my butter not browning? If using American butter, there is a higher percentage of water that needs to evaporate before the proteins in the milk solids will start to brown. Stick with it, the butter will turn eventually.

Tasters reported that the browned butter smelled and tasted “nu*tty,” “toasty,” and “complex.” The plain melted butter was, well, plain by comparison! Some tasters thought that the plain melted butter tasted sweeter than the browned butter.

How will I know if my butter is burnt? Your butter will smell and taste burnt. When your butter is perfectly browned it will smell slightly nutty, warm and a bit caramelized. It shouldn't look black.

What kind of butter is best for brown butter? ›

You can use either salted or unsalted. We like using unsalted butter, especially for baking, because you can control the quantity of salt in your dish.

It's important to note that a light colored pan works best for browning butter. As the butter cooks it turns a golden amber color and a dark pan will disguise the color which could result in burnt butter.

It's important to remove the butter from the heat as leaving it in the hot pan or on the stove can push it over the edge from deliciously golden brown to burnt. If your butter goes too far and burns sadly there is no saving it.

As soon as the butter is fully melted, turn the heat to medium and cook, stirring constantly, 7 to 10 minutes or until you notice the butter turning a dark golden brown color along the bottom of the pan.

“Browning all the butter removes the water content, but the dough still needs some of that water to come together. Browning only some of the butter is enough to achieve that signature nuttiness, while the remaining unbrowned butter provides enough water content for the dough to come together.”

Just like regular butter, browned butter (also called just brown butter) improves the texture of baked goods and adds richness to savory dishes. But unlike regular butter, brown butter has a distinctive, bold flavor that otherwise can't be recreated.

Browned butter has a sweet and savory flavor, almost like toffee, which makes these cookies rich, delicious, and a little caramelly!