Brown Butter Biscuits with Optional Cardamom
Butter biscuits are delicious of course. But brown that butter and you’ll ramp the flavour up several notches. These brown butter biscuits are crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. If you’re not fond of cardamom, swap it for another spice or just leave it out altogether.
When you fancy something sweet and don’t have a great deal of time to spare, biscuits or cookies are the perfect bake. They generally don’t take long to prepare and, more importantly, they don’t take long to cook.
Brown Butter Biscuits with Cardamom
Once you’ve browned the butter, these cardamom cookies really don’t take long to make at all. They’re also super delicious. Brown butter gives the biscuits lovely nutty notes. I’ve also used jaggery rather than sugar in this recipe which adds caramel tones. The two together work incredibly well.
I first tried this combination many years ago when I made brown butter cupcakes. If you can’t get hold of jaggery, you can use light muscovado sugar instead. The cardamom is optional, but I highly recommend it.
First off, brown the butter. Beat in the jaggery followed by the egg and ground cardamom seeds. Then stir in the flours. I’ve used half wholemeal and half plain. Finally, form the mixture into balls and roll in cardamom sugar before baking.
What’s Brown Butter?
Brown butter, also known as burnt butter or browned butter is a lot nicer than it sounds. It’s also very simple to make. You just need to melt unsalted butter in a pan. Then let it simmer slowly until it starts to turn golden and the solids drop to the bottom of the pan and go brown.
This process reduces the water content and makes the butter richer in flavour. You can then use it as is, or filter out the browned bits of butter and use the clarified butter alone.
The French name for brown butter sums it up very nicely. Beurre noisette, means “hazelnut butter” and nutty is just how it tastes. It’s a key ingredient in traditional madeleines as well as various pastries and sauces. I really like brown butter and I’ve used it a number of times. Specifically in these recipes for basbousa and blackberry & apple pancakes with brown buttered cobnuts.
What’s Jaggery?
Jaggery is one of the most natural and least harmful forms of sugar and is traditionally eaten on the Indian subcontinent. Natural cane juice is dehydrated and formed into blocks. It has a slightly fudgy texture and a unique caramel flavour. It is also high in minerals and has a much lower GI than refined sugar.
When I’m trying to reduce my sugar intake, I’ll often use rapadura or coconut sugar. I find these easier to get hold of than jaggery, but neither of them have those same delightful caramel notes.
Other Plain (ish) Biscuit Recipes You Might Like
- Chinese walnut cookies
- Chocolate mint cookies
- Cornish fairings
- Crunch cornflake biscuits
- Pistachio & rose biscuits
- Spelt snickerdoodles
- Vanilla almond cookies (vegan)
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these brown butter biscuits, with or without the cardamom, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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If you’d like even more biscuit recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.
Choclette x
Brown Butter Biscuits. PIN IT.
Brown Butter Biscuits – The Recipe
Brown Butter Biscuits with Optional Cardamom
Ingredients
- 150 g unsalted butter
- 125 g jaggery or light muscovado sugar
- 3 cardamom pods seeds removed and ground with a pestle and mortar (I used 2 drops Holy Lama cardamom spice drops)
- 1 egg
- 125 g wholemeal flour (whole wheat)
- 125 g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 30 g golden caster sugar
- 3 cardamom pods seeds removed and ground with a pestle and mortar
Instructions
- Place the butter in a pan and simmer over a medium heat for about five minutes. The butter will foam up then become golden brown.Leave in a cool place to firm up a bit.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and jaggery (or sugar) together until well combined.
- Beat in the egg.
- Sieve in the flours and stir until just combined.
- Grind the cardamom seeds with the sugar and place into a bowl.
- Roll teaspoonfuls of the brown butter dough into balls, then coat in the cardamom sugar.
- Place well apart on a lined baking tray and bake in a preheated oven for 12 minutes at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4), or until golden.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
I’m sharing these cardamom brown butter biscuits with Apply to Face Blog for #BakingCrumbs and Feast Glorious Feast for #CookBlogShare.
These sound delicious – crunchy on the outside but soft on the inside is my kind of biscuit!
Thank you Helen. They’re my favourite kind too.
I’ve never heard of jaggery, but it sounds like something I should try baking with. These biscuits look awesome.
It’s surprising how different it is from sugar. I really like the flavour, though it’s not quite as easy to work with.
Yet another taste sensation! I have always wanted to bake with brown butter and just haven’t. So am determined to try these. They sound incredible and rather exotic. I may try them with cinnamon though as that is what I have in my cupboard.! I too go to my biscuit and cookie recipes when looking to bake something sweet and fast for the children but must admit my recipe list is a little short when it comes to biscuits. Everyone adored your jammy dodgers so they have joined the list and now these. Can’t wait to try them. Will let you know. Thank you so much for sharing them at #BakingCrumbs
Aw thanks Jenny. Glad to hear the jammy dodgers went down well. I probably have too many biscuit recipes on the blog, but then again, maybe there’s no such thing as too many.
I’ve been hearing about jaggery and brown butter a lot recently, I’d love to try them both in these biscuits!
They’re good in both biscuits and cake. Mmmm, I need to get hold of some jaggery.
The flavors are just amazing when we bake with brown butter. These cookies are very popular in our Indian bakeries and I grew up eating tons of this. I am tempted to make a batch soon after reading your post.
Ooh, I didn’t brown butter cookies were a thing in India Sandhya. There’s always plenty more to learn about food.
Oh goodness. I think I found the perfect recipe! I’m a huge fan of brown butter biscuits! Thank you for this!
There’s a lot to be said for brown butter and it works so well in baked goods too.
I love your recipes! Brown butter and jaggery and (for me) definitely non-optional cardamon sounds like a biscuit made in heaven.
Thanks Rosemary. It always surprises me that cooking butter can have such a positive effect. As for jaggery, it has such a good flavour and absolutely yes to cardamom.
These look delicious! I’ve used cardamom in cakes before and it must work really well in these biscuits. Definitely something I’d love to try.
This was an old recipe I found in my drafts folder. Since writing it, I keep a jar of cardamom sugar on the go permanently.
Many thanks for the recipe. I am really looking forward to trying them. I would just like to understand what makes them rise as I cannot see any rising agent in the recipe.
Hi Lulu. Not all biscuits require a raising agent. Egg acts as a raising agent to some extent. If you want a lighter biscuit, you can always add ¼ teaspoon of baking powder. I hope you like them.
These biscuits look right up my alley with so many quality ingredients!
Glad you like them Angie. I need to find some more jaggery.
Great looking recipe Choclette!
Thanks Chloe. Brown butter is a wonderful thing and I just don’t use it enough.
These sound like my kind of biscuits! Simple and delicious. I’ve pinned 🙂
Thanks Cat. I agree, simple is often the best.