This week I discovered Spiced Brown Butter in a recipe for Brown Butter Spice Cake in the December 2016 edition of Food & Drink magazine. I made the cake for dinner with friends and it was a hit and since then (7 days ago) I have browned and spiced 2 pounds of butter! The aroma of this browned butter is incredible- so incredible that I think it would make an amazing scent for a candle. If you want to make your house smell Christmassy just put a pan of this butter on to simmer. Spiced Brown Butter could be used in any recipe as a replacement for regular butter that also calls for similar spices. One of the my co-workers thought it would also be yummy as a spread for fresh muffins or on pancakes…the ideas are endless.
Making the browned butter is simple, but you have to be patient and attentive. The butter and spices are added to a medium sized saucepan and melted over med-low heat. Let the butter bubble away stirring frequently. It will start to foam up and then it will settle down. At this point you have to keep a close eye on it for it to start to turn colour. Move the foam aside and check to see the colour of the liquid portion. As soon as it goes from yellow to light brown it is finished – it will also become very aromatic at this point. Cover with a lid and let it steep for 15 minutes, then strain through a fine mesh strainer into a glass measuring cup. My experience is that 1 cup of butter results in 3/4 cup of browned butter. Now you can use the butter or refrigerate until it is the desired consistency for your recipe.
My first recipe to adapt to the Spiced Brown Butter was Shortbread and the results were fantastic. They look like a very plain Jane cookie but once you smell them, they are anything but plain.
- ¾ cup Spiced Brown Butter
- ¼ cup room temp salted butter
- ½ cup icing sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- Make the Spiced Brown Butter:
- Melt 1 cup of butter together with 2 cinnamon sticks broken into small pieces, 1 vanilla bean-split and scraped, ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg. Simmer on medium heat until the butter turns brown and fragrant. Remove from heat and cover. Let steep for 15 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate 1 hour until it solidifies.
- Blend together the spiced brown butter, regular butter and icing sugar until well combined.
- Add in flour and mix until a smooth dough forms.
- Form into a log and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 1 week.
- Slice into ¼ inch pieces.
- Bake at 350 degrees F 12-14 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through baking.
- Let cool on baking sheet to firm up, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely and then store in a tin up to 2 weeks.