10 Dishes You Should Be Using Brown Butter In

We're going to let you in on a restaurant "secret sauce" that's bound to make your dishes even more flavorful: brown butter. If this tasty ingredient, known in French as beurre noisette, is new to you, you may be behind the times. It's been increasing in popularity in recent years and has become a mainstream addition to menus. Brown butter is made by cooking butter in a pan until the milk solids are toasted. This process causes some of the water to evaporate and gives the fat its signature hazelnutty aroma and toffee-like flavor. Making it involves a little bit of a learning curve, as you need to ensure that the solids properly toast without burning, but once you get the hang of it, you'll be wondering why you didn't find out about it sooner. 

Whether you're just jumping on the brown butter bandwagon or are well-versed in the art of toasting the fat and skimming off the foam, you're in luck. We've created a list of some of the best ways to use brown butter in your kitchen. Not only are many of these uses beginner-friendly, but they'll also change the flavor of the respective dishes and open up more opportunities for culinary experimentation than you thought possible. 

Adding a pat of butter to a plate of waffles or pancakes is nothing new, but adding brown butter to the batter might be. These breakfast staples have soft vanilla notes and are often sweet. These existing flavors mesh well with the hazelnutty notes of the brown butter, offering a more caramel-forward flavor. The great thing about brown butter is that you can add it directly to the batter, and it will complement an array of other common pancake or waffle additions, including chocolate chips, blueberries, and of course, maple syrup. 

As with all of the applications on this list, the temperature at which you add your butter to the batter matters. You don't want to scramble the eggs and cause them to clump up, nor do you want to kill your yeast (if you're making yeasted waffles). After your brown butter is finished on the stovetop, be sure to give it a few minutes to cool off — not so long that it solidifies, though — before streaming it into your batter. 

Another way to add brown butter to your waffles or pancakes is to create a whipped butter spread as a topping. Place the brown butter in an ice bath (which will help it firm up) and whisk it by hand until its consistency resembles whipped cream. From there, you can scoop it up and dollop it onto your waffles or pancakes, reserving the extras for toast, steak, and roasted veggies.

Mac and cheese is quite the comfort food. We're not going to say there's anything wrong with your humble box of Kraft mac and cheese, but there are many ways to take this cozy classic to the next level. If you're looking to give your boxed mac and cheese an upgrade, or if your homemade recipe is tasting a little lackluster, look no further than browned butter. Brown butter has a naturally rich and nutty flavor, which will bring a unique edge to cheeses like sharp cheddar, American, and umami Parmesan. 

This flavorful fat couldn't be easier to add to your recipe. If you're opting for a boxed mac and cheese, you'll want to substitute the butter it normally calls for with browned butter. It's important to note here that the water in browned butter has been evaporated, so you'll end up with less volume than if you added a tablespoon straight from the crock. On the other hand, if you're making a homemade mac and cheese recipe, you can try mixing the browned butter together with flour to create a roux. Use equal parts butter and flour, stirring until it forms a paste-like consistency. From there, you can add your other ingredients — like cheese and cream — and create a nutty, flavorful, and memorable mac and cheese for any occasion. Try adding a pinch of nutmeg for an even more tantalizing aroma and flavor.

One of our personal favorite ways to use browned butter is in cookies. Cookies are natural fits for this nutty and complex ingredient, as they tend to already have sweet, buttery, and brown sugar flavors of their own. Adding browned butter to the mix just amplifies the toffee-like flavor of the cookie and, based on our experience, can alter its texture, too. 

If you're just dipping your toes into adding brown butter to cookies, the easily likable chocolate chip cookie is a great place to start. The brown butter will jibe not only with the brown sugar base of the cookie, but also the chocolate flavors in the chips and/or chunks. The easiest way to add the browned butter is to prepare it in a skillet (we recommend using unsalted butter, as it gives you more control over how salty this traditionally sweet cookie is) and whisk it together with your sugar, egg, and other liquid ingredients. Since the butter is melted rather than solid and creamed with the sugar, your cookies are more likely to turn out flat and crispy than pillowy and dense. If you like your cookies to be a little softer, try underbaking them for a couple of minutes. 

Browned butter pairs well with an array of different cookie add-ins, including nuts, peanut butter, and another one of our favorite ingredients, miso. Once you are comfortable adding brown butter to your chocolate chip cookies, you can venture out and try other cookies, like snickerdoodles and shortbread. 

If you find yourself with a surplus of apples in the autumn months, it might be time to pull out the pressure cooker and make some homemade applesauce or apple butter. It's a great way to make use of a ton of fruit, and you can use the spreads for everything from baking and school lunches to fun breakfast toasts. The next time you whip up a batch of either autumnal treat, try adding browned butter to your pot. Browned butter gives applesauce an excellent depth of flavor, and its naturally toffee profile is an excellent companion to the sweet fruit. You may only need a ½ tablespoon of butter for every cup of apples, since you don't want that buttery flavor to completely overwhelm the fruit. This simple ingredient can also add pizzazz to store-bought applesauce; just add a drizzle of it to your single-serving cup or scoop. 

You can also add browned butter to apple butter, which, despite its name, doesn't actually contain any butter. Apple butter is made by cooking down the apples past the point of sauce. The caramelization adds to the sweetness and offers a more jam-like consistency than applesauce. Add the browned butter to the rest of your ingredients — including the pureed apples, spices, and sweetener — and let it cook until thickened. It would be an excellent filling for buttery Christmas cookies or addition to a charcuterie board, alongside sharp cheddar and prosciutto.

There is no shortage of pasta sauce out there, from basic tomato sauces to complex, rich iterations made with heavy cream and copious amounts of cheese. Browned butter is a safe but refined option, and it couldn't be easier to bring together. Simply toss your al dente pasta in the saucepan with brown butter and whatever aromatics you like to serve it with, like sage, before plating and enjoying. 

There are numerous types of pasta you can pair with a brown butter sauce because it's just so versatile. Its flavor is nutty but not overwhelming, making it an excellent pairing for filled pastas. Lobster ravioli? Check. Ricotta-filled, store-bought tortellini? Even better. The only thing to keep in mind about the fillings is that you don't want to opt for a flavor that will conflict with the brown butter. Strongly flavored meats, like chorizo, clash with the toastiness of the butter, while tomato-based fillings (including both sun-dried tomato and tomato paste) tend to be too acidic. 

Another not-so-unlikely "pasta" pairing for brown butter sauce is gnocchi. These pillowy potato dumplings tend to be very starchy and heavy on the palate, which means that pairing them with an equally heavy cream sauce is a recipe for disaster. Toss your sweet potato, cauliflower, or regular gnocchi in a pan with a sage brown butter sauce for an elegant and sophisticated bite that won't detract from or overwhelm the pasta. 

Mashed potatoes are already a perfect food, but you can make them, er, perfect-er with a drizzle of brown butter. This extra ingredient is an excellent way to improve store-bought mashed potatoes, since the brown butter will add not only fat — helping to make the spuds richer — but also a toasty, nutty flavor that will cut through the starch. It will also offer an excellent and tantalizing aroma that helps the spuds better pair with different proteins, like chicken, turkey, and even pork. You can use brown butter to upgrade a batch of classic mashed potatoes or even mashed sweet potatoes. 

Once your brown butter is finished, simply drizzle it into your mashed potatoes, stirring to incorporate it. Since browned butter can be heavy on the richness, you may want to also add ingredients to your spuds to lighten up the bite, like a dollop of sour cream or Greek yogurt. You can also up the ante with an array of herbs and aromatics, including sage, thyme, and roasted garlic, which will highlight both the nutty undertones of the brown butter and the starchy spuds. 

Banana bread and brown butter is a match made in heaven. This quick bread is both sweet and often graced with an array of spices, including cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg, making it the perfect stage for browned butter to shine. Its high fat content will not only make the batter richer and softer, but it will also add an extra nutty undertone to the entire loaf.

Banana bread traditionally calls for oil, but in this case, you'll want to substitute it with an equal amount of browned butter. If you prefer a slightly less rich flavor, you may want to use half oil and half butter, but this is totally up to your preferences. Once your butter has cooled down (so as not to scramble the eggs), you can pour it into your batter and bake as usual. This is a really simple swap that will elevate the flavor of your loaf and have everyone asking for the recipe.

What's nice about using brown butter in a banana bread loaf is that you don't have to deviate much from your recipe. You can add whatever mix-ins you like and still have your loaf taste great. Some of the best mix-ins that will jive with the brown butter and elevate the flavor of your loaf include chocolate chips, walnuts, hazelnuts, maple syrup, and rolled oats. 

No lobster dinner is complete without a side of drawn butter for dipping, but it turns out that browned butter may be an even tastier option. This is an elevated way to enjoy your lobster — and one that will complement the sweet, salty flesh well. There are many ways to go about pairing lobster and brown butter. You can prepare a side of it for dunking, or you may want to add a drizzle atop your hot lobster roll before diving in. The meat will soak up the butter like a sponge and infuse a little bit of that toasty, complex aroma and flavor into every bite. You can also use brown butter in dishes that contain the shellfish, including pasta, salads (use the brown butter as a part of the dressing), or risotto.

Lobster isn't the only shellfish that would pair well with brown butter. It's one of our favorite sauces for dipping crab legs for the same reason as lobster; it adds a complementary flavor to an otherwise briny bite. 

We love using boxed cake mix because of how easy it is to prepare. Just toss together the pre-measured dry ingredients, oil, water, and eggs, pop it into a preheated oven, and you have yourself a batch of cupcakes or cake ready for a party or celebration. The catch is that boxed cake mix usually just doesn't taste that good. You need to doctor it up a little bit to make it taste homemade. Enter: brown butter. 

Brown butter will not only ensure that your sponge stays super moist and pliable; it will also highlight the vanilla flavors of a yellow or white cake mix well. You'll want to keep the eggs and the water that your box mix calls for and just swap out the oil for brown butter. Give the butter a little bit of time to cool before pouring it into your cake mix and baking as usual. As expected, brown butter is best used for cakes where its flavor can shine, rather than being shrouded. That said, don't use it for flavorful sponges, like chocolate or red velvet. In addition to traditionally vanilla-flavored cakes, you can also add it to a spice cake, carrot cake, or some other cinnamony, warmly spiced sponge. 

You don't just have to stick to adding brown butter to the cake base, either. You can turn brown butter into a decadent buttercream frosting by letting the fat re-solidify after browning, then whipping it with cream cheese (for structure), powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.

No movie night is complete without a hot bowl of popcorn, a cozy blanket, and good company. While we can't help you improve the latter, we can give you ways to doctor up your bowl of popcorn — one of which is drizzling brown butter on it. Regular butter (or whatever "butter" alternative the movie theater uses) is a popular adornment for this snack food, but browning the mixture ahead of time will give you an even tastier bowl that can lean either sweet or savory. Give your popped kernels a quick toss in the brown butter and add a generous sprinkle of cinnamon, apple pie spice, or pumpkin pie spice for something sweeter, or stick to salt, pepper, and thyme for something more on the savory side. 

Brown butter can be used in conjunction with other seasonings and popcorn add-ins; you just need to be careful so that their flavors don't clash. Nutty Parmesan, for example, would be a good add-in because its umami and salty flavor could use a little support from the nutty flavor. But M&Ms may not be as good a fit because the chocolate and the sweet shell would distract from the subtle flavor of the brown butter. For the most part, as long as you're intentional with your mix-ins, you should have no problem creating a bowl of popcorn that's more captivating than the movie that's on the screen.