Brown Butter Brownies with Milk Powder and Dutch Cocoa

These brownies use a technique that supercharges the brown butter with dry milk powder, doubling the toasty brown bits that give browned butter its flavor. Combined with Dutch-processed cocoa and dark chocolate, the result is an intensely rich brownie with a paper-thin crackly crust on top.

The Brown Butter Base

Start by browning one cup of butter over medium heat. Once it foams, mix in a quarter cup of dry milk powder. The milk powder creates additional browned milk solids, essentially making a more concentrated version of brown butter. Once it turns rich and brown, add half a cup of Dutch-processed cocoa powder and stir for another 30 seconds.

Remove from heat and stir in six ounces of Lindt 70% dark chocolate. The logic here: bake with chocolate you would eat by itself, because the flavor carries through. Add three tablespoons of oil as well.

The Egg and Sugar Work

In a separate bowl, combine half a cup of brown sugar with three room-temperature large eggs. Whisk vigorously until the sugar fully dissolves. This step is labor-intensive but produces the paper-thin crust on top of the finished brownies. An electric mixer works too.

Next, add one and three-quarters cup of powdered sugar (this dissolves instantly, so it goes fast), vanilla, and the brown butter chocolate mixture. Fold in half a cup of flour and a pinch of kosher salt.

Baking and Finishing

Pour into a greased and lined 8x8 pan. At the last second, fold in one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. They go in last to prevent melting into the still-warm batter. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Cool for one hour, add flaky sea salt on top, and wipe the knife between each cut.

Key Takeaways

• Dry milk powder added to browning butter creates extra browned milk solids for deeper flavor
• Vigorously whisking brown sugar into eggs until dissolved is what creates the crackly top crust
• Fold chocolate chips in at the very end so they stay intact in the warm batter

Resources

• @butternutbakery on TikTok -- More baking recipes and techniques