Browned butter is better...

I've been reading up on browned butter, or beurre noisette, and decided to try my hand at making it.  It's supposed to add a nice nutty, rich flavor to foods, and it's used a lot in culinary sauces.  Basically it's the process of cooking butter until the milk solids brown, giving the butter a darkened colour and nutty aroma.

Recommendations are to use a light-coloured/stainless steel saucepan over medium heat, as it will make it easier to judge the degree of browning.  It can be a fine line between browned butter or burned butter.  I decided to use a cast iron pot to do the job.

 I melted down 2 lbs of butter.  It started simmering away but didn't want to brown.  I realized the problem was too much butter - I wasn't supposed to be deep frying here.  So I scooped the butter out and browned it about a cup at a time - more of a "shallow fry" style. 

 Though it took a little longer than I expected, it worked!  I ended up with a nice pot of aromatic butter.  I used some right away to make a simple batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I decided to strain out the browned bits (milk solids) for the cookies as I didn't want them speckling the end product.  If I were to make a savoury dish, I would have no problem leaving the little bits in- they add flavour. 

I love Alton Brown's Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. It makes the soft-textured cookies - what drop cookies should be!

Though I got caught up watching Clash of the Titans on DVD and I ended up baking the cookies past the chewy stage anyways.  But no complaints as they tasted oh so good!  The browned butter did indeed add a deeper, richer flavour.  I really liked the crisp browned-edges that you don't get when you purposely underbake them.  I didn't even get to put them into the cookie jar - they got eaten up right off the baking pan.  (I must clarify that I had help...I didn't eat them all myself!!  Even though it was tempting...)

Now what shall I do with all that yummy browned butter sitting in the fridge?  I'm sure I'll find something else to cook up...hmmm...

- Irene