Brown Butter Muffins
Crazy tender muffins, tall and domed with warm, cozy flavors of brown butter and cinnamon. This one bowl brown butter muffin recipe is so simple & you only need a whisk!
Crazy tender muffins, tall and domed with warm, cozy flavors of brown butter and cinnamon. This one bowl brown butter muffin recipe is so simple & you only need a whisk!
I am absolutely, utterly, crazy for these muffins. I cannot get over how easy the are to make. You don’t need a mixer, there’s no beating butter and sugar! Speaking of butter, it’s BROWN butter baby and it brings the best flavor to the muffin base. Third, once you’ve just literally whisked everything together in a bowl, you set it in the fridge and voila – you wake up and toss them in the oven and they’re ready for breakfast in 20. Before this, I could only dream such a recipe was possible.
Also, in case you are looking at me funny wondering why I’m giving you the option for a berry *or* chocolate chips; the answer is I initially started out creating these as a blueberry brown butter muffin but I was so enamored with the muffin itself I made them (the third or fourth time, idk) with chocolate chips (for *research* ok… which actually means I wanted to see if they would taste like a brown butter chocolate chip cookie and yes they do and it’s amazing) and I was (one) bowled over.
And now I don’t know which is better but I’m guessing for you it’s going to be a mood thing: do I want my most delicious muffins ever to have dark chocolate chips or warm bursting blueberries? You do you babe.
Ingredients for Brown Butter Muffins
Butter: Cold is fine, try not to use salted and if you must then use only a pinch of salt.
Sugar: Both granulated and brown sugar work; if using chocolate chips I’d definitely recommend the brown over white as it’ll be more akin in taste to a chocolate chip cookie (always welcome!).
Flour: I’ve tried these with all purpose flour, a mix of ap and oat flour and a mix of whole wheat and cake flour and all worked out well. If you wanted to make them heartier and add whole wheat (use white whole wheat) and only substitute 130g of the flour so you’ll still have 130g ap which will help them stay soft and moist.
Buttermilk or Kefir: Either will work here. Use plain kefir or vanilla.
Egg: I’d venture these *could* be made with a flax egg but I can’t say for sure until I tried it. If someone does, be sure to leave a comment so I can update!
Add-ins: I’ve made these with blueberries and chocolate chips and couldn’t tell you which I liked better, each had its own charm. Blueberries gave a nice pop of sharp berry, the chocolate chips soul-warming in that way only they can be. What else could work? Raspberries would be great as well as some nuts.
How to make Brown Butter Muffins in four simple steps
- Brown the butter
- Whisk everything together in a bowl
- Chill overnight
- Bake!
Tips to make muffins bakery-style domed muffin tops
Don’t overmix the batter: An overmixed batter causes more gluten to develop, this happens after the flour has been added. Do your best to use swift moves to incorporate as much of the flour without over mixing.
Chill the batter: I usually make my muffin batter the night before and chill it in the fridge overnight. The batter is very thick in the morning, almost like a cookie dough – fret not, they will bake up into perfectly moist and soft muffins.
Bake muffins with spaces between them: this will give you those high rise domes like the ones sold in bakeries. This is harder to do with a jumbo muffin pan but very easy in a standard 12 cup muffin tin: simply line it so you have every other cup filled. Each pan will carry only 6 muffins.
Recipe for Brown Butter Muffins
Brown Butter Muffins
Ingredients
- 113 g butter cold is fine
- 170 g granulated or brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 190 g buttermilk or kefir
- 260 g all purpose flour 130g of the flour can be substituted with oat flour or white whole wheat for a heartier muffin
- 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- 150-200 g blueberries or chocolate chips
- Turbinado sugar for topping
Method
- Brown the butter: place the butter in a frying pan and turn heat to medium low. Cook as the butter melts then begins to sputter and spit. Once it starts to go quiet, stir so it browns evenly. Once the bits at the bottom turn golden and the butter is almost completely quiet, pour into a medium sized heatproof bowl - you should have exactly 90g of browned butter. Seat aside to cool.
- Add the sugar to the brown butter and whisk very well. Add the vanilla, salt and cinnamon and whisk well. Add the egg and whisk until the mix is smooth and shiny.
- Whisk in the buttermilk, then add the flour and baking powder and stir with a rubber spatula until you can’t see any more flour bits. Fold in the berries or chocolate chips.
- Cover the batter with plastic wrap and set in the fridge overnight or minimum of 2 hours.
- The next morning: preheat the oven to 400 F. Line your muffin tin with liners, if using standard liners only use every other one (this will help the muffins rise higher) so there are no two muffins baking next to each other.
- For standard size liners fill each with about ¼ cup batter (2 oz). For jumbo, simply divide the batter between the six cups. If you like, add a few more blueberries or chocolate chips to the top of the muffin, then sprinkle ½ tablespoon turbinado sugar on top.
- Bake standard size muffins for about 20 minutes, checking doneness by pressing the center top (careful not to touch the chocolate or berry) to see if it bounces back. Bake jumbo muffins for about 25 minutes.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Share & tag me on instagram @buttermilkbysam
Made these for breakfast and they were a huge hit with the whole family! Great flavor, soft crumb. I used strawberries for my mix-in. Love that you mix them up the night before! I will be making again very soon.
This recipe is amazing: delicious, easy enough to throw together for a weekend breakfast treat or to wow a brunch gathering, and uses mostly pantry staples. Had to use thinned out Greek yogurt in place of buttermilk bc I didn’t realize ours was way past the expiry date but they came out fluffy and moist all the same. Eager to try again with the buttermilk! Once you set them out they will be devoured! New fav recipe.
Hi!
I’m sorry to be a bother, but do you think these muffins would still turn out okay with a buttermilk substitute? Like with whole milk and vinegar possibly?
If not, do you have any other recommendations? I know they won’t turn out exactly the same as your recipe, but that’s okay 🙂
I usually use kefir as a buttermilk sub and if not, thin out some greek yogurt to be pourable (think consistency of buttermilk).
These muffins turned out amazing! I loved that I could prep them the night before and then have have fresh hot muffins in the morning. Definitely the best blueberry muffins I’ve ever made.
These muffins come together easily and are delicious. I used blueberries and they only sat in the fridge for about 2-3 hours because I didn’t plan enough ahead. I will definitely make these again!
These muffins are excellent. I’ve made them multiple times, and even with the step of browning the butter I can get them prepped pretty quickly the night before. And I secretly used frozen blueberries from last summer- save until right before you portion out the batter and then they don’t turn everything purple.
Just finished up a batch of these lovelies. I rested the batter for about 12 hours. I did the oat flour sub for 130g and brown sugar. I used a flax egg, which worked well (real eggs are super expensive right now). Also, I had to mix chocolate chips with those TJ salted caramel chips, which turned out to be a great idea. Team brown butter all the way!
These were very good; love the brown butter and cinnamon in the base! Made the chocolate chip version, and still got nice domes at the shorter end of the rest suggested.
Made these this week and they were so flavorful. The nuttiness from the brown butter really comes through. I think I’m partial to a streusel on top, so I might try that next time, though the turbinado does make for a nice textural contrast. My husband said these were the best blueberry muffins he’s ever had and I have to agree with him.
So so good! My favorite muffins from now on!
These are soooo good!! I had some leftover buttermilk to use and I’m so glad I tried this recipe. I made the batter the night before baking and what a treat it was to have for breakfast the next morning. I followed the recipe exactly and used blueberries. I used a 1/4 cup measuring cup to scoop the batter and got 12 regular muffins. Will definitely be making these again!
These are delicious! Love that I can prep everything the night before and quickly bake in the morning. I made 15 in total and they took exactly 20 minutes as written in the recipe. This is a keeper and something I can’t wait to share with friends and family. One of those recipes that makes you look (and feel!) like an all-star baker 🙂
Laura I’m so glad you made and liked them!!! 😀 Thank you !