brown butter

Brown Butter Banana Bread Waffles

January 21, 2015

Brown. Butter. Banana. Bread. Waffles.

Boom.

At least I didn’t try to make it 5 B’s in a row and say Baffles. I’m lame. Ha!

Well, here we are with another Wednesday Waffles post. 3/52 I can’t believe that I’ve only just begun this adventure and it’s already on week three. It’s weird all around.

Plus, I just turned 30. And we are currenty on a cruise. I’m going to say that we are enjoying ourselves emensely although I’m currently writing this on Saturday night before we even depart as wifi on the boat is $$$ so I’m scheduling this post in advance.

Speaking of which, I am HORRIBLE about scheduling posts. I try quite often and I mess up the date, or time, or just don’t schedule it like a dummy. FACEPALM.

Anyway, we are on the cruise having a blast and enjoying the warm weather and sun. And you can enjoy these waffles. Totally the same. ha!

We always have bananas around as Autumn eats them most days but even then some gets ahead of us and get brown and soft. No worries, it’s just perfect for banana bread. Or in this case banana bread waffles.

But not to leave well enough alone, I browned the butter as well. The banana bread recipe I use most often uses melted butter so I just amped this up by browning it and it really makes the waffles fantastic. I just love that rich nutty flavor.

These are waffles that will knock your socks off.

Enjoy these Brown Butter Banana Bread Baffles… with bacon.

Brown Butter Banana Bread Waffles

Makes 12 4″ square waffles

Ingredients

12 ounces butter
3 large very ripe bananas
1/2 Cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Cups flour
1/2 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 Cups milk
chopped pecans, banana slices, butter, and syrup for serving

Process

Make the brown butter following this process. Let cool.
Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl. Set aside.
Beat together the bananas and sugar. Once combined add the eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract, beat well.
Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the banana mixture, gently mix. Add half of the milk and mix to incorporate. Repeat with the remaining flour mixture and milk.
Cook in your waffle iron until golden brown and crisp. Place on a wire rack to cool.
Enjoy with chopped pecans, slices of banana, butter, and syrup.

Brown Butter Sea Salt Cookies

December 15, 2014

I love cookie season!!!!!!!

This is cookie season right? Let’s go with it. It’s basically the only thing I like about winter.

I just love the variety of it all. Cake it great but you can’t eat 4 slices of different cakes without someone raising some concern for your well being. But eat 4 cookies, eh not so horrible.

So that is exactly why I was so excited for the First Annual Cookie Carnival from Secret Recipe Club. I’ve had so much fun with my monthly Secret Recipe Club posts the I knew this cookie themed post would be a blast. It’s just a blast to try a new recipe, especially cookies.

I was given Kates’s blog, A Spoonful of Thyme. I checked out her recipe index, which boasted plenty of cookie recipes. I checked them all out but the one that caught my eye was her Brown Butter Sea Salt Cookies.

I made browned butter recently and now I want to browned butter all the things. So I was gavitated to this recipe. Plus, Kate kinda put up a challenge for the recipe as she felt it could use some tweaking as it wasn’t as sweet as she preferred and a bit to dry. Of course, I wanted to give it a try then. I figured I would play around with it, like I do with more recipes anyway, and see what resulted.

I amped up the butter amount from 1 1/2 sticks to 2 sticks since she thought they were too dry. Plus, instead of browning both sticks up butter I would just brown 1 stick and cream the other stick of butter with the sugar, before adding in the browned butter. That would keep great browned butter flavor, but lighten up the texture.

Next I added more sugar to the original recipe. I noticed the recipe called for 1/2 Cup of browned sugar, but most cookie recipes I see use more so I added some more granulated sugar to help sweeten things up.

While I didn’t have the bakery cookies that inspired Kate to make her own, I can say that these are kick butt cookies. They are buttery, tender, crumbly, and totally amped up from the seat salt sprinkled on top.

I brought these into my office to share and they were a huge hit. I would love it for Kate to try out how I adapted her recipe and see what she thinks of it.

Brown Butter Sea Salt Cookies

Makes 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

2 sticks of butter
1/2 Cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 Cup sugar
1 teaspoonp vanilla extract
2 Cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Sea Salt for sprinkling

Process

Using 1 stick of butter, make the browned butter following these directions. Let cool.
Cream the other stick of butter with the brown sugar and vanilla extract. When that is light anf fluffy, pour the brown butterand mix to incorporate again.
In a small bowl whisk together the flour and the baking soda. Add to the butter and sugar mixture and mix. The dough will be slightly crumbly.
Roll the cookies into 1″ balls and sprinkle with sea salt. Press the top of the cookies lightly- to shape and help the salt stick. Let chill for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 325° F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper/silpat. Arrange the cookies on the baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Overcooking will make them dry and crumbly. Let cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes prior to removing.

Adapted from A Spoonful of Thyme

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There are TONS of Secret Recipe Club members posting cookie recipes today. Check them out!!!

How to Make Perfect Brown Butter

December 11, 2014

Do you remember that moment when something just clicked for you? It was like the stars aligned.

Like when you were learning to ride a bike and then all of a sudden you got it? Or when you were practicing a piece of music and you played it through without any mistakes?

That is what I felt like when I made brown butter for the first time. Exactly that.

Everything else before then had been practice and okay, but once I made browned butter things were so much better. There was a richer flavor to things that just brought things to life. Cookies! Rice Krispie Treats! Pan Sauces! Pastries! Pies! Mashed Potatoes!

I basically want to use brown butter in ALL THE THINGS.

Side note: is it Browned Butter or Brown Butter? I’ve seen it both ways. I dunno.

Anyway, it’s so super simple to make that you will be kicking yourself that you didn’t make it earlier.

Let me walk you through the process…

Cut your butter into small pieces. This helps the butter melt evenly.

Over medium low heat, slowly melt the butter.

Once the butter has completely melted, turn the heat up slightly and begin to whisk it. Whisk the butter while it boils and gets frothy. Just don’t stop whisking it as it can easily burn.

The butter will start to turn a light golden color. It’s really important to keep a close eye on it can easily and quickly go from toasted, golden perfection to burned butter that you are tossing in the trash. If you’re phone rings while you are doing this… just ignore it. Call them back.

The process will be complete when the butter of a light brown color and the solids in the bottom of the saucepan are brown as well. Immediately pour into another heat proof container once the bits at the bottle of the saucepan are a light brown color.

And that’s it!!

Seriously, give it a try and head over to Pinterest and look up all the delicious recipes that use brown butter. You will love it!

Brown Butter

Ingredients

Butter- any quanity will do. I typically do it in half or whole stick incriments

Process

Slice the butter into thin pieces.
Add to a saucepan and melt over low heat.
Once the butter has melted, turn the heat up slightly and begin to whisk.
The butter will begin to bubble, just remain whisking. The butter will then get frothy on top, again, remain whisking.
The butter will start to turn a light golden color. Keep whisking while being cautious as the butter will continue to darken and then quickly burn.
Remove from the heat and pour into another heat proof container once the bits at the bottle of the saucepan are a light brown color.
Cool per the recipe that you are using the brown butter in or store in the refrigerator until needed.