Sohla El-Waylly Instagram – brown butter solids = nuggets of pure flavor
Milk powder fries in butter, transforming into rich nuggets of brown butter. Butter isn’t a pure fat but rather an emulsion of fat, water, and protein. When you make brown butter, those proteins toast, developing nutty aromas that make everything feel oh-so-cozy. When you add milk powder to butter as it browns, you’re up-ing the protein, thus creating bonus brown butter solids.
It’s a simple technique with limitless uses in both sweet and savory cooking. To make brown butter solids:
Melt the butter in a saucepan
Whisk in the milk powder (use no more than 1 cup of milk powder per 1 pound of butter, otherwise the solids will absorb all the butter and toast unevenly)
Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until light golden. The solids will continue to color off the heat, so make sure to stop a few shades lighter than your final desired color; otherwise, they may burn.
Strain immediately to halt the browning.
With these solids, you can ramp up a dish’s brown butter flavor without going overboard on the fat. Plus, the strained-out butter is now essentially ghee and suitable for high-temperature cooking. Blend the solids into dressing, gravy, bechamel, vegetable puree, ice cream base, pudding, and more. You can add it to frosting, cookie doughs, and cakes, but note that it’s not a 1 to 1 swap for butter. You will have to make adjustments for more precise pastry recipes, like cakes and cookies, for the recipe to work. | Posted on 04/Dec/2025 23:38:15
