Brown Butter Shortbread Recipe

Hello everyone! I'm so happy to be able to start posting some more recipes! If you don't know by now, shortbread is a favorite at my house and I always like to try new flavors. This recipe was adapted from a magazine called Where Women Cook, I switched around the directions a bit because theirs didn't make much sense to me. They still turned out delicious, so here's what you'll need:

• 1 cup browned butter (2 sticks) softened

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 tsp salt (if using salted butter, 1 1/2 tsp if unsalted)

• 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

The first step of this recipe is browning the butter. Your average stick of butter is made of butterfat, water, and milk solids. Brown butter is made by melting butter until the butterfats and milk solids separate, then the milk solids will sink to the bottom of your pan, and as they cook, they will turn brown and take on a nutty scent and flavor that is delicious in baked goods.

I used plain salted butter, because I hardly ever have a good enough reason to go buy unsalted butter. Just take note that if you use unsalted butter, you will have to use more salt in the final product!

As you melt the butter it will bubble and foam a lot. Keep an eye on it, stir it a lot, and don't be like me and try and take photos of it at the same time. It will foam over very quickly once you get it going, so pay attention to it and don't make the mistake I did and then have to clean up melted butter afterwards.

You will see the color start to change gradually and the smell will change as well. The darker milk solids will be at the bottom of your pan, so stir frequently to make sure that everything is cooking evenly. Use your best judgement to decide when to take it off the heat, either when you've reached your desired brown-ness or if it's about to burn. Mine ended up a beautiful golden color.

I poured it in a bowl and stuck it in the fridge for a day, and remembered to take it out so it could soften before I started baking. You can see that the color is darker than that of regular butter.

Time to make cookies! Combine your brown butter, vanilla, salt, and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until combined.

Once you've got those ingredients combined, add in your flour and mix until combined. It'll have the texture of grainy sand and mine seemed a little loose, so I added a few tablespoons of water to help it come together.

I rolled my dough out onto a floured surface to about 1/2" thick and used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to get uniform shapes. Preheat your oven to 375F and place your cut cookies onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I highly recommend parchment paper for non-messy things like shortbread, it makes cleanup a breeze.

Bake your cookies for 6-8 minutes, I did seven and it was perfect. I let them cool on the pan for a few minutes to set, and then transfer them to a wire cooling rack.

And now you've got a delicious, simple shortbread that goes well with tea or coffee. I'll recap the recipe below for easy screenshotting, thanks for reading!

xx, Hannah

Brown Butter Shortbread Recipe

What You Need:

• 1 cup browned butter (2 sticks) softened

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp brown sugar

• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

• 1/2 tsp salt (if using salted butter, 1 1/2 tsp if unsalted)

• 2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375F and make sure your brown butter is soft. Combine brown butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and combine. Add flour and mix, adding water by the tablespoon if the dough is dry.

Roll dough out onto a floured surface to desired thickness and cut out desired cookie shapes. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet for a bit before transferring to a wire rack. Cool completely before storing and enjoy!