Brown Butter Frosting
An easy frosting recipe with brown butter departing a delicious depth of nutty flavour perfect for playing up your simplest recipes
Ingredients
- 250 g Butter* or 200g browned butter
- 454 g Icing Sugar**
- 6 tbsps Milk
- 1 tbsp Good vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and continue to cook stirring occasionally so the milk solids don't stick to the bottom of the pan
- Cook till caramel in colour and it smells nutty and fragrant.
- Immediately pour into the bowl of a stand mixer and place in the fridge to harden (this can be done at room temperature but it will take longer)
- Monitor the butter you want it to be firm but if you leave it too long it will be rock hard and you'll have to leave it out a few moments before moving on to the next step. It's a bit of a tango but it's worth it.
- Cream the chilled browned butter till light and fluffy then sift in the icing sugar in 3 additions, mixing well after each.
- Add the milk and the vanilla extract mixing well to combine.
Notes
This recipe makes enough frosting to fill and frost an 8-inch round with 3 layers. I made a 6-inch cake and opted to frost only the top, I freeze my left over frosting for another use. You could make half the recipe but will still likely have a bit left over if you only frost the top.
*Once browned the butter will reduce to about 200g, if you're substituting vegan butter/margarine, use 200g and not 250g
**I never used to like these types of frosting till I discovered the grittiness you sometimes get is due to cornstarch. I now use an organic brand that uses tapioca starch and the finish is much smoother