We have discussed my new obsession with brown butter right? I truly had no idea of its magical powers. I want to say, “Why didn’t someone tell me?”
But you all did tell me, over and over again, I was just too stubborn (I daresay even lazy?) to listen.
I have made these Red Velvet cookies before, they are good. (I am still on the hunt for a good from-scratch red velvet cookie recipe, if you know of one feel free to share!)
But the real star of this show is the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. After I made Brown Butter Buttercream a few folks commented that they had used brown butter with cream cheese and liked it.
Thats pretty much all the encouragement I needed.
Now, the process of making brown butter for frostings is not quick. It takes about 5 hours from beginning to end, including cooling time. Normally I am all about QUICK and EASY, but in this case slow and paying-close-attention-to-detail is really worth it.
When I make brown butter for frostings I heat the butter, chill the butter in the fridge, then allow the butter to come to room temperature. Why not just cool it to room temp? Because there is one extra little step in there…
If you do not strain the butter when it’s hot (which I have never done) then once it’s chilled the darker sediments will fall to the bottom. While these don’t taste bad in any other use of brown butter (over veggies, meats, basically all savory applications) I like to remove it for frosting. And I like to remove it when the butter is slightly chilled.
So just take a knife and cut that extra dark section off the bottom. It’s ok to not remove every single speck of it… I love the look of the little bits peppered throughout the frosting. Just cut off the majority of it and discard it.
This frosting is amazing. I won’t even pull up my thesauruses and find a better word because there isn’t.
Amazing.
The end.
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 1/2 c 1 stick unsalted butter
- 8 oz cream cheese 1 package at room temperature
- 3 c confectioners' sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract use a good quality
Instructions
- In a stainless steal or light colored ceramic saucepan, melt 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter over medium heat. (You will want to be able to see the color changing in the butter.)
- As the milk solids in the butter will start to foam, gently stir the butter.
- The milk solids will subside then start to brown. You should start to smell the aromatic nutty flavors. (this takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes over medium heat. It can take 15 minutes over medium low heat)
- Remove butter from heat and set aside to cool. If you have any small brown bits that is ok, but if there areany burnt bits you will want to strain the butter in cheesecloth.
- Place plastic wrap in a bowl and pour room temperature butter into bowl.
- Set butter in fridge until solid. (about 3 hours)
- Remove butter from fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. (about 2 hours) Do not microwave.
- If you have any burnt bits you can remove them at this time; simply scrape away.
- Place all ingredients in stand mixer and start on lowest setting. After 30 seconds increase to medium speed and blend until you reach desired consistency. (It's really creamy and delicious after about 2 minutes)
- You can store this in the fridge for three weeks, but be sure to allow it to come to room temperature before using.
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Oh my goodness! This sounds amazing.. (why have I not heard of this before now!!?) Thanks for the recipe, and the giggles 😉 I absolutely love reading your thoughts with your sense of humor!! Have a great day Amanda <3
Ahhh, I agree that brown butter cream cheese frosting is THE BEST. The best!!! The recipe I used was by Laura at Tutti Dolci and saves a bit of time by browning only a bit of the butter and adding it in with the rest of the butter still solid, so that you don’t have to wait for it to chill again — but I think browning ALL of it must make the brown butter taste even more incredible. Might as well commit and go the whole hog, right?! I need to try it your way next time. Love the gorgeous red velvet cookies, too. Thanks so much for posting this!
Brown butter cream cheese frosting – YUM!!!!
These look wicked delicious. I love the tip on refrigerating the brown butter. Genius!
Wow! I attempted to make moon pies that looked similar to this but they did not taste nearly as good as I bet these do! Will definitely make and post the results on my page!
YES PLEASE. I’d brown butter just about anything (seriously) and I love the extra tip about chilling the butter before removing the extra sediment. It makes for a prettier cookie, which is so worth it sometimes- and then the rest of the time I’d just throw all that good browned deliciousness on in there with the cream cheese because why the heck not? Love how festive these look as well!
Oh, I’m definitely going to try this. I’ve been curious about brown butter for a LONG time. Finally going to take the leap! 😀
if you are still looking for a great recipe from scratch for red velvet cookies, there is a wonderful recipe on cookingclassy.com
So impressive!!
I’m excited to try the frosting recipe, but what was the cookie recipe you used for this?