A Baking Digression: Brown Butter is Like Poker

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BB Snickerdoodles

One of the great revelations for me the past few years is brown butter.  I have stopped looking for snickerdoodle recipes as the brown butter one I use, thanks to Sally, is terrific.*  The cookies are aleays great (underbaking a bit is key) and demanded by my favorite baking role model in Ottawa.  The fun of baking and cooking is that some dishes feel like alchemy--that the various ingredients mix and become something far greater than its parts.  One non-brown butter example is a gnocchi, mozzarella, basil, cherry tomato recipe that is just magical and super easy and quick. BB is a magical elixer that makes any baked good pop in a big way.  Yet it can be tricky: it is like Texas Hold Em.

How so, long layover Steve?  The classic phrase for this particular form of poker is that you can learn it quickly, but it takes a lifetime to master.  The thing about browning butter is that it goes through several stages from melted butter to yellow foam to the foam covering browning beneath it to .... burned butter.  So, the hard part is figuring when to take the butter off of the stove and pour into a heat-safe container so that it stops heating.  

BB Chocolate Chip w
caramel bits via
Betterbaker

One reason it is hard is that the fizzing foam makes it hard to see how much browning is going on, and it is one of those things where things are going great and almost done to way too done.  So far, I have only overbrowned one batch of butter, but I think most of the time, I only partially get to the joy that is a full bowl of richly brown butter.  So, an amazing baker who often helps out with Guns and Butter is now taking an entire block of costco butter and browning it so that she has a supply of it.  She has become a BB evangelist.  And I guess I am as well.

Next time you want to make a baked good, see if you can find a BB version of it.  Join the quest for the perfect brown butter.  Even though I feel as if I haven't mastered it, the BB cookies I have made are terrific. 

 

BB Cinnamon Rols

  * Her bb snickerdoodle recipe is not available online--it is in the front of her Cookie addiction book.  But in her newer book and online, there's this, which is easy and terrific https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/marshmallow-crispy-cookies/