Recently America’s Test Kitchen posted the “perfect chocolate chip cookie” recipe online. As a cookie monster, I was intrigued. A perfect chocolate chip cookie? Better than Levain Bakery on the Upper West Side?! How was this possible?
While I’ve yet to try ATK’s version, I was totally intrigued by their use of browned butter instead of my standby “room temperature butter” in the perfect recipe. Browned butter is nutty and rich and flavorful and delicious… it makes perfect sense to add it to baked goods… why didn’t I think of that?
So I wanted to make a strawberry something in this strawberry season, and a recipe for blueberry muffins with melted butter caught my eye. Why not make strawberry muffins, and instead of adding melted butter, add browned butter instead? It sounded good enough to test.
To brown butter, just put it in a saucepan on a medium heat. The butter will melt, foam, and then eventually turn brown. When it’s ready, you can smell the nutty flavor. But be careful – once it browns it’s only a few moments away from burning so keep your eye on it! Put the browned butter off the heat to cool down while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Sift your flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together in a large bowl. In another bowl, crack your egg and whisk it until it’s frothy and foamy. Add your milk and the cooled browned butter, whisking all the time. Make sure all the browned butter bits get scraped from the pan and into your batter—those are delicious!
Pour the egg/milk/butter mixture over your sifted flour mixture. Barely stir to moisten the flour. Toss your chopped strawberries in a little dusting of flour before adding them to the batter. Stir just to combine (flour lumps are ok!), and pour the batter into 12 muffin holes lined with baking cups.
They’ll bake in a 400⁰ oven for 20-22 minutes, or until the tops brown and the sides of the muffins shrink from the sides of the pan. They’re best right out of the oven!
Recipe:
- 1 stick of butter, browned and cooled
- 1 ¾ cups of flour (plus some for sprinkling on the strawberries)
- ½ cup of sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1 cup milk
- 1 ½ cups strawberries, cut into small pieces
Makes 12 muffins
