Infused Butter Is Your Secret Weapon For More Flavorful Bakes
When it comes to baking recipes, it's a nearly unanimous opinion that more butter is better. And while you may have improved on this lipid's perfection by making a nutty browned version, or a 3-ingredient strawberry butter every slice of toast needs, by taking a simple step to make infused butter, you'll have a secret weapon to elevate other flavors in your baked goods, too.
It may seem as if you could just as easily do your baking with standard butter and then add herbs, spices, or other additions you have in mind on top, but one of the beauties of butter is that fat is a majorly effective carrier of flavor. When you temper or bloom herbs or spices in butter, the compounds so integral to their signature characters are amplified (in some cases, making them as much as ten times more powerful). This is especially effective with herbs and spices that are fat-soluble, like thyme, rosemary, sage, bay leaves, ginger, and lavender, and spices like cumin, black pepper, coriander, clove, and cinnamon.
Once this infused butter is worked into your recipe, it will more evenly distribute that enhanced flavor throughout your confection. And given how simple it is to create this high-impact ingredient, you may find yourself experimenting with all kinds of combinations that will give your baked goods a distinctive buttery boost.
Making and using infused butters
To create your infused masterpiece, you need only to cook your butter for about five minutes over medium heat along with your choice of herbs or spices. Temperature-wise, you'll still want to follow the recipe's instructions (if it calls for cold or room temperature butter, give it time to cool or chill in the fridge). Also assume you'll lose some of your butter's volume to evaporation, so start with a bit more than you need and measure post-infusion to ensure you have the precise amount.
When using your infusion, consider recipes that call for a substantial amount of butter, or have fewer ingredients, thus giving your infusion a chance to shine. Pound cake derives so much of its character from butter, so it's a fun playground on which to experiment. Try a strawberry cake with lavender butter, or a Chinese five spice butter with an orange cake. Infuse the butter in your lemon curd recipe with thyme and ginger for a twist on the classic. Make cinnamon and clove infused butter for subtly spicy fudge brownies. Shortbread cookies with rosemary infused butter make a lovely accompaniment to a cup of tea as well.
Next time you make classic carrot cake cupcakes, infuse the butter with all those delicious spices rather than simply tossing them into the batter. Even give basic buttermilk pancakes a slightly savory spin with sage and black pepper butter. No matter what, this easy tip will add an irresistible dimension to your buttery baked favorites.