Brown Butter Dessert Recipes
Brown butter is eight minutes at the stove for a flavor you cannot get any other way. The milk solids toast, the water cooks off, and plain butter turns nutty and a little caramel. Thirty desserts that put it to work, from cookies and bars to the frostings that go on top.
Six to Bake First
One out of every category below. If you are browning butter once this week, spend it on one of these.
Malted Milk Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Malted milk powder in the dough, brown butter as step one, and flaky salt on top. The malt keeps the toasted-butter flavor going after the browning has done its part.
Brown Butter Layer Cake with Brown Butter Buttercream
Brown butter in the layers and again in the buttercream, which is twice the work and about four times the payoff. A spoonful of malted milk powder in the frosting takes it further.
Chewy Brown Butter Blondies
The reference blondie: crackly top, chewy edges, browned butter doing all of the flavor work. Stir in a spoonful of malted milk powder and it starts tasting like a candy bar.
Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie with Brown Butter Crumble
Spiced apples under a crumble made with browned butter, which is the version of Dutch apple pie worth the extra pan. Scatter sparkling sugar over the crumb if you want more crunch.
Brown Butter Maple Scones
Browned butter in the dough, maple glaze on top, and a scatter of coarse sparkling sugar before they bake. Scones that earn the ten extra minutes.
Brown Butter Frosting
A cake decorator's brown butter buttercream, pipeable and stable, with the chill-and-rewhip step spelled out. Add a spoonful of malted milk powder and it tastes like a milkshake.
Brown Butter Cookies
Cookies are where browning the butter pays off fastest, because there is nothing else in the dough to hide behind. Nine of them, from malted chocolate chunk to a snickerdoodle worth the extra step.
Malted Milk Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Malted milk powder in the dough, brown butter as step one, and flaky salt on top. The malt keeps the toasted-butter flavor going after the browning has done its part.
Brown Butter Malted Chocolate Chunk Cookies
The 2021 recipe most brown butter malt cookies trace back to. Dark brown sugar, big chocolate chunks, and enough malted milk powder to taste it in every bite.
Kamut Chocolate Chip Cookies
Whole-grain KAMUT flour and browned butter are a natural pair, both nutty, neither subtle. Two full cups of the flour go in, so the grain is the point rather than a footnote.
Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies with Brown Butter and Sea Salt
Rye brings an earthy edge that brown butter rounds off, finished with flaky sea salt. Swap in KAMUT flour for the same whole-grain depth with a butterier, sweeter note.
Brown Butter Espresso Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
Espresso Powder sharpens the chocolate while toffee bits melt into the edges. Bake these when plain chocolate chip has stopped being interesting.
Soft Baked Brown Butter Sugar Cookies
No chilling, no mixer, and a roll through sparkling sugar before they bake. Soft in the middle with a crackle on the outside, which is the whole point of a sugar cookie.
Nutty, Chewy, Toasted Brown Butter Snickerdoodles
A pastry-trained baker's fix for snickerdoodles that spread flat, mixed by hand in a single bowl. Browning the butter first gives the cinnamon something toastier to sit on.
Brown Butter Cookies with Toasted Milk Powder
Toasted milk powder goes in alongside the brown butter to push the nutty flavor further. Malted Milk Powder does the same job and brings a caramel note the plain version misses.
Brown Butter Oatmeal Sandwich Cookies with Chocolate Ganache
Chewy spiced oatmeal cookies with whipped chocolate ganache in the middle. The browned butter and cinnamon do enough that you could skip the filling, though nobody ever does.
Toasty, meet toastier
Browning butter takes it nutty and caramelly. Malted Milk Powder gets there from the other direction, which is why a spoonful in the dough or the buttercream makes brown butter taste more like itself. Real malted barley, wheat and milk, non-GMO sourced.
Brown Butter Cakes & Cupcakes
In a cake batter, brown butter reads more like caramel than nuts, and it gets better after a day on the counter. Six that brown the butter for the cake itself, rather than stopping at the frosting.
Brown Butter Layer Cake with Brown Butter Buttercream
Brown butter in the layers and again in the buttercream, which is twice the work and about four times the payoff. A spoonful of malted milk powder in the frosting takes it further.
Single-Layer Brown Butter Cake
A one-layer cake with a crumb so soft it is nearly creamy, from a baker who explains the science behind it. Toasty caramel flavor, no frosting required.
Salted Caramel Gooey Brown Butter Cake
St. Louis gooey butter cake, rebuilt with browned butter and salted caramel. The top sets, the middle never quite does, and that is exactly right.
Brown Butter Pumpkin Layer Cake with Maple Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Real pumpkin and browned butter under maple-cinnamon cream cheese frosting. The browning cuts the sweetness enough that a third slice still sounds like a good idea.
Brown Butter Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting
Twice browned, once in the cupcake and again in the frosting, from a cake-book author who knows how to keep a crumb tender. Easy to halve when a dozen is too many.
Southern Brown Butter Bundt Cake with Bourbon Glaze
Sour cream keeps it damp, browned butter runs through the batter, and a bourbon glaze soaks into the ridges. The newest cake here and the easiest to carry to somebody's house.
Brown Butter Bars & Blondies
A blondie is brown butter on home turf: no cocoa in the way, nothing competing with the toasted flavor. Six pans, including two brownies that let chocolate have a say.
Chewy Brown Butter Blondies
The reference blondie: crackly top, chewy edges, browned butter doing all of the flavor work. Stir in a spoonful of malted milk powder and it starts tasting like a candy bar.
Brown Butter Toffee Blondies
Toffee bits, a dark chocolate layer, and flaky salt over a browned butter base. Almond extract is the quiet move that makes the whole pan taste nuttier.
One Bowl Fudgy Brown Butter Espresso Brownies
Whisked by hand to a crinkly top. Dutch-Process Cocoa builds the fudgy base and Espresso Powder pushes the chocolate darker without leaving any coffee behind.
Brown Butter Pecan Pie Bars with Salted Caramel
Pecan pie without the pie: browned butter shortbread underneath, sticky pecan filling on top, salted caramel over everything. Cuts into squares that travel better than a wedge.
Browned Butter Brownie Blondies
Half blondie, half cocoa brownie, baked in one pan so nobody has to pick. Swap Black Cocoa in for part of the cocoa if you want the dark half genuinely dark.
Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Blondies
Under 25 minutes in the oven, with Espresso Powder in the batter to sharpen the chocolate chunks. The fastest bake on this page, start to cooling rack.
Brown Butter Pies & Tarts
Browned butter turns up in pie two ways, stirred through a custard filling or worked into a crumble. Three that do it properly, two with apples and one from the South.
Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Pie with Brown Butter Crumble
Spiced apples under a crumble made with browned butter, which is the version of Dutch apple pie worth the extra pan. Scatter sparkling sugar over the crumb if you want more crunch.
Brown Butter Bourbon Chess Pie
Southern custard pie with browned butter and bourbon in the filling, and a set top that cracks when you cut it. Sweet enough that a thin slice is plenty.
Apple Galette with Spiced Brown Butter
Apples get roasted in five-spice brown butter before the dough ever gets involved, which is why this one tastes like more work than it actually is.
Brown Butter Breakfast Bakes
Scones, crumb cake and muffins, all of them improved by eight minutes at the stove. Brown the butter the night before, let it set up, and bake in the morning.
Brown Butter Maple Scones
Browned butter in the dough, maple glaze on top, and a scatter of coarse sparkling sugar before they bake. Scones that earn the ten extra minutes.
Brown Butter Coffee Crumb Cake
Cinnamon swirl through the middle, crumb topping over everything, brown butter in the cake itself. Cut it warm, then cut it again cold the next morning.
Brown Butter Pumpkin Crumble Muffins
Pumpkin muffins with a crumble lid and browned butter underneath doing the heavy lifting. Sparkling sugar on the tops if you want them to look bakery-bought.
Brown Butter Frostings, Sauces & Extras
The three that go on top of everything above. A buttercream that pipes, a caramel sauce to keep in the fridge, and an ice cream that needs no machine.
Brown Butter Frosting
A cake decorator's brown butter buttercream, pipeable and stable, with the chill-and-rewhip step spelled out. Add a spoonful of malted milk powder and it tastes like a milkshake.
Browned Butter Salted Caramel Sauce
Dry caramel finished with browned butter, which means two toasted flavors instead of one. Keep a jar in the fridge and every bar on this page gets better.
Brown Butter Ice Cream
No churn, no custard, and crispy browned butter bits folded through vanilla bean. The one on this list you can make while something else is in the oven.
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We've Got Answers
How do I brown butter without burning it?
Medium heat, a light-colored pan so you can see what is happening, and a whisk you actually use. The butter melts, foams up, quiets down, and then the milk solids on the bottom go golden and start to smell like toasted nuts. That is the moment. Pour it straight out of the hot pan, scraping the browned bits in with it, because a pan off the heat keeps cooking.
How much butter do I lose when I brown it?
About 15 to 20 percent, and all of it is water cooking off. A cup of butter comes back as roughly three-quarters of a cup. If the recipe was not written for brown butter, weigh the butter before and after and add the difference back as water or milk. Skip that and the dough bakes up dry and tight.
Can I use brown butter in buttercream?
Yes, but it has to go solid again first. Pour the browned butter into a bowl, chill it until it is the texture of softened butter, then whip it the way you normally would. Rush that step and you get soup. A spoonful of Malted Milk Powder in a brown butter buttercream is the best use of both.
Salted or unsalted butter for browning?
Unsalted, so you control the seasoning, and because salted butter foams differently and hides the color change under the froth. Add the salt back in with the dry ingredients. If salted is what is in the fridge it still works, just cut the recipe salt by about a quarter teaspoon per stick.
What flavors go with brown butter?
Anything already toasted or caramelized. Malted milk, whole grains like KAMUT flour, dark brown sugar, pecans and hazelnuts, maple, bourbon, and coffee. Brown butter is also why Espresso Powder works so well in a blondie: two roasted flavors pulling in the same direction instead of competing.
Can I swap brown butter into a recipe that calls for softened butter?
Not straight across. Creaming softened butter with sugar is what puts air into a cake, and brown butter is liquid while it is warm and grainy once it is cold. Chill it back to a soft solid and cream it as usual, or pick a recipe built on melted butter, which most cookies and blondies already are.
More Baking Adventures
Malted Milk Powder Recipes
The other half of the toasty pairing, from malted cookies to shakes and frostings.
Fall Cookie Recipes
Soft pumpkin drops, spiced cut-outs, and the rest of the season in cookie form.
Best Apple Dessert Recipes for Fall
Crisps, pies, cakes and galettes for everything that comes home from the orchard.
Best Pumpkin Dessert Recipes
Bars, cheesecakes and cookies for the season brown butter likes best.
The Best Sheet Cake Recipes
One pan for a crowd, and a brown butter frosting suits every one of them.
The Best Quick Bread Recipes
Loaves and muffins that take a spoon of brown butter as well as any cookie.