How To Swap Regular Butter For Brown Butter In A Recipe

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Baking

How To Swap Regular Butter For Brown Butter In A Recipe By Haley McNamara Sept. 1, 2025 4:00 pm EST

If a recipe calls for butter — whether it's cold, room temperature, or melted — 99% of the time I automatically swap it for brown butter. The final result is always 10 times more delicious than if regular butter is used, like in Alton Brown's chewy chocolate chip cookies . However, this isn't an exact one-to-one replacement in baking. If you're not yet familiar with brown butter, it's regular butter that's been melted low and slow until the milk solids separate and brown, creating a nutty, rich, and caramelized flavor. We have more instructions on how to brown butter and become a better baker here.

Regular butter contains about 15% water, which evaporates during