I am kind a sick of all these cupcakes. That’s why I chose to make more of them. I am a girl of many contradictions. But these cupcakes are such that in my mind they don’t necessarily qualify as one, ( honestly anything in a cupcake shape is a cupcake. If it looks like a cupcake, it is.) Yet, the pound cake texture makes them less of a cupcake more of a dense brown sugary individual pound cake, glazed with a brown butter glaze. I loved the nutty roasted flavor of the brown butter; it really complemented the brown sugar pound cake, making the flavors a bit more intriguing.
You can find the recipe for these delicious cupcakes at Martha Stewart's website (the cupcake queen. She is even coming out with a cupcake book!) Click here for the recipe.
BROWN BUTTER?
Perhaps you don’t know what it is, or perhaps you think it is simply burnt butter. It is not and learning how to make it will prove very fruitful:
1. You can make this cupcakes.
2. Brown butter or beurre noisette in French makes such a nice accompaniment to many other things: gnocchi, pasta, winter squash, sautéed sole and much more.
How to properly brown butter:
First you need to realize what your outcome should be: Burnt will taste well, burnt, acrid and highly disagreeable. Browned butter will taste highly aromatic, nutty and roasted. Browning butter is simply caramelizing the solid milk fats. Harold McGee says:” Their flavor is deepened by heating the butter to about 250F until its water boils off and the molecules in the white residue, milk sugar and protein, react with each other to form brown pigments and new aromas.” I think the best way is to slowly heat it. This way you have much more control. You can see the colors start to slowly change. I would take it off the heat right before it hits that deeper nutty color, due to carryover cooking.
For instance, in this recipe, the butter needs to cool. By cooling it you can easily pour off the brown butter and not the milk solids floating at the top.
To see pictures and a step-by-step tutorial, check out Michael Rhulman’s blog.
ENJOY!!!
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17 comments:
Oh la la, brown butter glaze sounds so delicious.
Cheers,
Elra
Yay for browned butter, and your cupcakes sound amazing. Thanks for the detailed info. Very informative.
LL
MMM, I love a good pound cake and brown butter makes it sound even better.
Elra: thanks
Lori: for once, I did a bit of research and wanted my reader to be informed of the beauties of brown butter
Jessica:thanks for the comment, they were quite delicious,especially the glaze.
Beurre noisette has so many wonderful applications, and I love it with sweets. Lovely cupcakes you have there!
I love brown butter anything! I do have a question - I've been straining my brown butter, and I wonder if I'm losing out on extra flavour by doing so. Would you know?
Dee: I think you should strain it. I just avoided the milk fats in pouring. But if they sink to the bottom then it is best to strain. Those can be bitter or less desirable in a finished product. Thanks for the inquiry.
that's a lot of brown, and i like it. :)
the pound cake alone sounds marvelous, and how can you beat a buttery glaze?
I didn't know you were going to culinary school! Where are you going?
These look like wonderful cupcakes.
Also, I read your artichoke pizza post. That pizza looked incredible. You said you wouldn't want to eat too much because it's so creamy, but I don't think I could stop myself. Mmm.
Emily: I am going to Institute of Culinary Education in NYC. Let me know if you want to know more about it. I have mixed feelings.
I could bath in brown butter, that's how much i like it. Yay for the cupcakes that aren't really cupcakes but look like cupcakes. Put a brown butter glaze on them and you've got a happy zenchef!
Those look good. I like the sound of poundcake cupcakes!
Brown butter glaze? These cupcakes are making my mouth water.
Sounds amazing! I'm so happy to have discovered that you can brown margarine as well, so this flavor can still be made vegan.
These look and sound divine!
How interesting this post it. Do you know that brown butter is an integral part of tradiitonal Indian cooking? I love the fact that you've used thm in these gorgeous cupcakes. Ever since we did a brown butter frosting at the Daring Bakers, it's been my fave frosting!
These are my kind of cupcakes :). I like how you explained the whole process behind making browned butter. I like the glaze, it's not too thin and sounds so tasty!
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