Let's make browned butter!

Ok, so I'm pretty late to the browned butter party but over the past few years I've seen the term creep up now and again and it's usually accompanied by the sentence 'life changing' so I figure it's a must try.

It's very simple to make and I *urge* you to try it once. Browning your butter brings out a caramelly-nutty flavour that you can't get any other way. It adds a new dimension to your standard butter flavour and changes the flavour of your baking with one simple substitute.

You can use browned butter in any recipe and just swap the normal butter for the browned version. Once made, you can keep it in your fridge for as long as you can keep the standard butter (so don't forget to check the date on the pack!) but it's simple to make in small quantities so I just make it as I need it.

I used my usual unsalted butter brand but I did find it quite cloudy compared to photos I've seen online so I might try it next time with another brand to see how I get on. I browned 150g of butter (a tablespoon over 1/2 a cup) and used it to make some cookie cups I hope to share next week!

It's advisable to use a pale colour pan to melt your butter in so you can see the granules browning as you go but I don't have one so I used a pale colour spatula and just kept checking the colour by pulling it through. This is a job you need full attention for so don't wander off and do something else or you'll burn your lovely butter!

1. Melt butter on a medium to high heat and bring it up to a slow simmer. Keep stirring/whisking with a spatula or whisk. Your melted butter will go foamy (this is the water evaporating so don't worry, just keep whisking!) and after 5mins or so the foaming should start to disappear allowing you to see the little granules at the bottom of the pan.

2. Keep stirring and you'll start to see the little granules turn a pale brown colour. At this point you need to keep an eye on them and wait until they turn a nice golden brown colour - the smell of the browning butter will start to turn nutty and you'll see the change as well as smell it.

3. As soon as they look nice and uniformly brown remove from the heat and keep stirring to cool it down. I let my butter cool to room temp before using in my cookie recipe or else my cookies would have spread too much.

And there you have it! Look at that gloriously golden butter - I can't wait to try it in more recipes but for now I made some yummy cookie cups so stay tuned and I'll share the recipe next week.