Hi again! I finally got around to doing this and it took me 4 hours (to be fair im a snail and that includes cooling times) but after all that I think it's burnt. 😭 I think i know where i went wrong. My sieve was just a tad to large so a bunch of brown bits fell through into the hot butter browning it more and I used a bowl that wasn't deep enough at first so the powder touched the hot butter browning it more. I tasted it and it didn't taste acidic or off so I continued and made the milk powder part. I think i over cooked that a tad as well. I was confused about where you said to set the toasted milk solids aside on a papertowel did you mean dump them on or just set the strainer on a paper towel? I drained mine in a strainer for 30 minutes and spread it as thin as possible on the baking sheet and it took 57 minutes to not look oily or feel oily. I let it cool over an hour then blended and followed the directions for the second dry dabbing it several times with a paper towel. Do you have any photos of what color the butter and milk solids should be before the oven? I think I was afraid to under brown and ended up over browning. I know this was 100% my fault and I went wrong somewhere. I am going to try again next week! I also halved the recipe just incase it went wrong and it's a good thing i did haha. I used non fat milk powder and kerrygold unsalted butter. Could the butter type be why it's so oily? Any advice is appreciated I'd like to get this right. I won't give up! Thank you
First off, thank you so much for trying this out! It's by no means an easy task and it took me a couple times to get it right. I really appreciate you taking the time to reach out. This feedback is extremely valuable to me. I’m about to write a lot so I apologize in advance lol.
When I mention setting the milk solids aside on a paper towel, the intent was for the milk solids to be placed directly on the paper towel. Sorry about the confusion there.
If I were to focus on the most important parts of this recipe it would be the following (with some new tips):
"Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer set over a heatproof bowl. The toasted milk solids will remain in the strainer. Gently press to remove excess fat. Set the toasted milk solids aside on a paper towel."
For this step, it's important to press the milk solids thoroughly so you can remove some of the excess fat. Once you are done pressing the solids, I would transfer them to a bed of paper towels. Once placed on the paper towel bed, get an additional paper towel that you will use to dab the milk solids thoroughly. You'll see oil being absorbed by the paper towel as you press down on the solids.
Once that paper towel is no longer dry, grab a new one and repeat the dabbing process. Stop once oil is no longer being absorbed. Transfer milk solids to parchment paper.
The next part of the process is using your leftover butterfat to brown the milk powder. A couple tips for this:
Milk powder browns fast, so you'll have to keep a close eye on it. There will be foaming which is normal. The important thing here is to remove the mixture from the heat once the foam is a golden brown (not a deep brown).
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, press down on the milk solids in the sieve (like step 1), then place the milk solids directly on a bed of paper towels.
Once placed on the paper towel bed, repeat the dabbing process from before. The goal is to remove as much oil as possible.
In my revision, I'll be emphasizing absorbing excess oil through paper towel dabbing. Also, I will see about adjusting the dry time range since there are many variables that can impact how long it takes to dry the milk solids.
Lastly, when it comes to grinding the solids, you might want to let them dry after the first session. It's normal to see the milk solids become paste-like. It actually makes it easier to remove most of the remaining excess fat. However, once you dab with a paper towel and complete the dehydration step that follows, I'd let them sit out in the air for a couple hours to be safe.
When you come back you should have dry solids. They may look like a thin sheet of dry paste, but once you scrape it into a pile you’ll see that they have dried. A little clumping and residual moisture are to be expected. What matters is that by this point, your solids are shelf stable!
Getting a super fine powder would be crazy work, so I don't want you to think it's necessary. Even my powder can be seen with some fairly sizable clumps.
Sorry for the long response, but I wanted to give you some insight while I'm revising parts of my recipe to be more clear and detailed.
Some fun news: I have been doing some research into compounds that can absorb fat (namely, tapioca maltodextrin) without altering taste. I think tapioca maltodextrin is promising and it's non-GMO! Having an ingredient like this would surely lessen the workload.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! I'm glad you shared your experience with me and I will be revising this recipe to be a bit clearer, with some safeguards for success.
I’ll come back here once my updates are done, take care!
Thank you so much for the feedback I will update my recipe according to your notes and changes. I really appreciate it. Out of curiosity why do we add the milk powder to the butter? Milk powder can be browned dry in a pan. Does it change the flavor cooking it in butter? I won't give up and of course will try again. After the second dry and dab I let them sit out on the pan with a papertowel on top and something to weigh it down without being to heavy that did the trick and in the am they were completely dry I blended and put in an airtight container. Even slightly burnt (my fault) they were wonderful and I used them already in a key lime pie crust I just made a few minutes ago! Oh wow I haven't heard of that ingredient I'd be curious to know what your test results yield. Thank you again for all the help 😊
Great question, the reason I opted to toast the milk powder in the butterfat instead of a dry pan is because I wanted to develop the brown butter flavor as much as possible. I liken it to how spices are bloomed in fat. They become more aromatic and the flavor can be released a bit more. From what I could gather with this powder, it had the true aroma of brown butter which can be hard to get with just dry toasting. I’m a brown butter junkie, so I wanted to push this powder to match the brown butter flavor as much as possible haha. Also, weighing down the powder as it dries is a smart play. I’ll try that when I make it again in the coming days! That key lime pie sounds amazing 🤤
Happy you found this useful and detailed! I always appreciate a recipe that gives enough information upfront for troubleshooting or notes that give reassurance that things are going well during your baking session.
Loved this article - I have only used browned butter and toasted milk powder independently, can't wait to try combining them for the ultimate batch! How long does this keep for?
Hi Miles, I have been amping my brown butter flavour for my cookies by melting butter with full fat milk powder, until the solids are golden brown. It takes some looking after so it doesn’t burn, but it does leave an almost Biscoff flavour to the cookies.
Will give your method a try, it will be good to be able to get the flavour into other goodies
That’s a cool method and it overlaps with mine too. It’s funny that you mentioned the Biscoff flavor because mine has hints of Biscoff too, but the powder itself smells like true brown butter. I’ve found the powder to work well in glaze/frostings and cookies with solid fat content!
This Is amazing I bet in cream cheese frosting it would shine. I was curious though you say to remove the butter from the stove when it's brown but then to put it back on the stove on low with the milk powder. Wouldn't this cause over browning? What if you browned the butter and strained it then separately toasted the milk solids. Then combined them and proceeded with your drying method?
Ooo you're so right about the cream cheese frosting! I actually make a carrot cake that uses brown butter cream cheese frosting and it's a favorite. As for the part of the browning process you mentioned, I agree with you fully. I decided to edit that step so the original milk solids are removed from the butter before further browning takes place with the addition of milk powder.
That's so funny you mention carrot cake I made one this year using brown butter cream cheese frosting for the first time and wow the flavor broke my brain in the best way but after chilling I felt the brown butter flavored dulled down. But with your amazing recipe I bet I could alter the frosting so it didn't fade! This is truly an amazing recipe. For people like me who have an obsession with brown butter and find themselves frustrated repeatedly that their baked goods smell amazing with brown butter then as soon as they are baked the brown butter flavor disappear..this is going to change the game! I've been obsessively trying to get that flavor to stick for months in cookies and so on and I think you cracked the code. Thank you so so so much. I'm so glad I could give a little advice to help alter it as well!
Haha great minds think alike! Also, I can relate to how brown butter flavor fades quickly with baked goods. I actually have been considering using real brown butter in the creaming stage of recipes and adding the powder to the dry ingredients. The idea would be to layer the brown butter aroma and flavor in more than one place to help with the longevity of brown butter. Not sure if it will work, but I'll have to report back! Thanks so much for your advice!
Yes please do report back I'd love to hear about the outcome of that I think it's a genius idea! I hope it works because it really would be a game changer the only time I've gotten the flavor to stick a little bit was with a shortbread crust I'm guessing that was due to the short bake time and the fact shortbread is 50% butter haha. It really is frustrating especially because everyone loves to put it in their recipes it's always brown butter this and that but it's like why bother it's not going to show up ugh. I'm currently working on perfecting a raspberry cheesecake and jam swirl brownie recipe and was thinking of trying your powder trick in the brownie base for a brown butter raspberry brownie fingers crossed it shows up.
This is genius! 🤩🤩
So happy you like this idea, it means a lot!
Hi again! I finally got around to doing this and it took me 4 hours (to be fair im a snail and that includes cooling times) but after all that I think it's burnt. 😭 I think i know where i went wrong. My sieve was just a tad to large so a bunch of brown bits fell through into the hot butter browning it more and I used a bowl that wasn't deep enough at first so the powder touched the hot butter browning it more. I tasted it and it didn't taste acidic or off so I continued and made the milk powder part. I think i over cooked that a tad as well. I was confused about where you said to set the toasted milk solids aside on a papertowel did you mean dump them on or just set the strainer on a paper towel? I drained mine in a strainer for 30 minutes and spread it as thin as possible on the baking sheet and it took 57 minutes to not look oily or feel oily. I let it cool over an hour then blended and followed the directions for the second dry dabbing it several times with a paper towel. Do you have any photos of what color the butter and milk solids should be before the oven? I think I was afraid to under brown and ended up over browning. I know this was 100% my fault and I went wrong somewhere. I am going to try again next week! I also halved the recipe just incase it went wrong and it's a good thing i did haha. I used non fat milk powder and kerrygold unsalted butter. Could the butter type be why it's so oily? Any advice is appreciated I'd like to get this right. I won't give up! Thank you
First off, thank you so much for trying this out! It's by no means an easy task and it took me a couple times to get it right. I really appreciate you taking the time to reach out. This feedback is extremely valuable to me. I’m about to write a lot so I apologize in advance lol.
When I mention setting the milk solids aside on a paper towel, the intent was for the milk solids to be placed directly on the paper towel. Sorry about the confusion there.
If I were to focus on the most important parts of this recipe it would be the following (with some new tips):
"Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer set over a heatproof bowl. The toasted milk solids will remain in the strainer. Gently press to remove excess fat. Set the toasted milk solids aside on a paper towel."
For this step, it's important to press the milk solids thoroughly so you can remove some of the excess fat. Once you are done pressing the solids, I would transfer them to a bed of paper towels. Once placed on the paper towel bed, get an additional paper towel that you will use to dab the milk solids thoroughly. You'll see oil being absorbed by the paper towel as you press down on the solids.
Once that paper towel is no longer dry, grab a new one and repeat the dabbing process. Stop once oil is no longer being absorbed. Transfer milk solids to parchment paper.
The next part of the process is using your leftover butterfat to brown the milk powder. A couple tips for this:
Milk powder browns fast, so you'll have to keep a close eye on it. There will be foaming which is normal. The important thing here is to remove the mixture from the heat once the foam is a golden brown (not a deep brown).
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve, press down on the milk solids in the sieve (like step 1), then place the milk solids directly on a bed of paper towels.
Once placed on the paper towel bed, repeat the dabbing process from before. The goal is to remove as much oil as possible.
In my revision, I'll be emphasizing absorbing excess oil through paper towel dabbing. Also, I will see about adjusting the dry time range since there are many variables that can impact how long it takes to dry the milk solids.
Lastly, when it comes to grinding the solids, you might want to let them dry after the first session. It's normal to see the milk solids become paste-like. It actually makes it easier to remove most of the remaining excess fat. However, once you dab with a paper towel and complete the dehydration step that follows, I'd let them sit out in the air for a couple hours to be safe.
When you come back you should have dry solids. They may look like a thin sheet of dry paste, but once you scrape it into a pile you’ll see that they have dried. A little clumping and residual moisture are to be expected. What matters is that by this point, your solids are shelf stable!
Getting a super fine powder would be crazy work, so I don't want you to think it's necessary. Even my powder can be seen with some fairly sizable clumps.
Sorry for the long response, but I wanted to give you some insight while I'm revising parts of my recipe to be more clear and detailed.
Some fun news: I have been doing some research into compounds that can absorb fat (namely, tapioca maltodextrin) without altering taste. I think tapioca maltodextrin is promising and it's non-GMO! Having an ingredient like this would surely lessen the workload.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment! I'm glad you shared your experience with me and I will be revising this recipe to be a bit clearer, with some safeguards for success.
I’ll come back here once my updates are done, take care!
Thank you so much for the feedback I will update my recipe according to your notes and changes. I really appreciate it. Out of curiosity why do we add the milk powder to the butter? Milk powder can be browned dry in a pan. Does it change the flavor cooking it in butter? I won't give up and of course will try again. After the second dry and dab I let them sit out on the pan with a papertowel on top and something to weigh it down without being to heavy that did the trick and in the am they were completely dry I blended and put in an airtight container. Even slightly burnt (my fault) they were wonderful and I used them already in a key lime pie crust I just made a few minutes ago! Oh wow I haven't heard of that ingredient I'd be curious to know what your test results yield. Thank you again for all the help 😊
Great question, the reason I opted to toast the milk powder in the butterfat instead of a dry pan is because I wanted to develop the brown butter flavor as much as possible. I liken it to how spices are bloomed in fat. They become more aromatic and the flavor can be released a bit more. From what I could gather with this powder, it had the true aroma of brown butter which can be hard to get with just dry toasting. I’m a brown butter junkie, so I wanted to push this powder to match the brown butter flavor as much as possible haha. Also, weighing down the powder as it dries is a smart play. I’ll try that when I make it again in the coming days! That key lime pie sounds amazing 🤤
Very useful information with details. Thank you very much for sharing!🙌🍀
Happy you found this useful and detailed! I always appreciate a recipe that gives enough information upfront for troubleshooting or notes that give reassurance that things are going well during your baking session.
Loved this article - I have only used browned butter and toasted milk powder independently, can't wait to try combining them for the ultimate batch! How long does this keep for?
Hey, thanks for reading! It will keep peak flavor for about 3 weeks. After 4 weeks, the aroma and flavor will fade noticeably.
Hi Miles, I have been amping my brown butter flavour for my cookies by melting butter with full fat milk powder, until the solids are golden brown. It takes some looking after so it doesn’t burn, but it does leave an almost Biscoff flavour to the cookies.
Will give your method a try, it will be good to be able to get the flavour into other goodies
That’s a cool method and it overlaps with mine too. It’s funny that you mentioned the Biscoff flavor because mine has hints of Biscoff too, but the powder itself smells like true brown butter. I’ve found the powder to work well in glaze/frostings and cookies with solid fat content!
Shut.Up. Totally a pantry stock I couldn't have imagined I needed 🤗
Omg thanks! I'm always trying to come up with stuff to store in the pantry to save time for more time consuming bakes lol
This Is amazing I bet in cream cheese frosting it would shine. I was curious though you say to remove the butter from the stove when it's brown but then to put it back on the stove on low with the milk powder. Wouldn't this cause over browning? What if you browned the butter and strained it then separately toasted the milk solids. Then combined them and proceeded with your drying method?
Ooo you're so right about the cream cheese frosting! I actually make a carrot cake that uses brown butter cream cheese frosting and it's a favorite. As for the part of the browning process you mentioned, I agree with you fully. I decided to edit that step so the original milk solids are removed from the butter before further browning takes place with the addition of milk powder.
That's so funny you mention carrot cake I made one this year using brown butter cream cheese frosting for the first time and wow the flavor broke my brain in the best way but after chilling I felt the brown butter flavored dulled down. But with your amazing recipe I bet I could alter the frosting so it didn't fade! This is truly an amazing recipe. For people like me who have an obsession with brown butter and find themselves frustrated repeatedly that their baked goods smell amazing with brown butter then as soon as they are baked the brown butter flavor disappear..this is going to change the game! I've been obsessively trying to get that flavor to stick for months in cookies and so on and I think you cracked the code. Thank you so so so much. I'm so glad I could give a little advice to help alter it as well!
Haha great minds think alike! Also, I can relate to how brown butter flavor fades quickly with baked goods. I actually have been considering using real brown butter in the creaming stage of recipes and adding the powder to the dry ingredients. The idea would be to layer the brown butter aroma and flavor in more than one place to help with the longevity of brown butter. Not sure if it will work, but I'll have to report back! Thanks so much for your advice!
Yes please do report back I'd love to hear about the outcome of that I think it's a genius idea! I hope it works because it really would be a game changer the only time I've gotten the flavor to stick a little bit was with a shortbread crust I'm guessing that was due to the short bake time and the fact shortbread is 50% butter haha. It really is frustrating especially because everyone loves to put it in their recipes it's always brown butter this and that but it's like why bother it's not going to show up ugh. I'm currently working on perfecting a raspberry cheesecake and jam swirl brownie recipe and was thinking of trying your powder trick in the brownie base for a brown butter raspberry brownie fingers crossed it shows up.