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Thursday, May 8, 2014

Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments

Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments
I know, it's ANOTHER brown butter recipe. I'm sorry. I'm addicted! The call of that golden, nutty, delicious elixir cannot be denied. This time it's in biscuit form. I have a special place in my heart for melting moments (also known as yoyos).  They are one of the first things I ever learnt how to bake, and they never disappoint. Melt in your mouth shortbread biscuits sandwiched with a buttery icing? You can't go wrong.
Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments
These melting moments are made with loads of browned butter, and the icing is mixed with strawberry jam to make that lovely pink shade. If you have read my blog before, you know my fondness for using strawberry jam as an icing flavouring. It's a really quick and easy way to get a fantastic strawberry flavour into an icing with very little work.
Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments
It's like the most girly version of milk and cookies ever. Just in time for Mother's Day! These biscuits were extremely well received by my friends and family. I brought the whole batch to my brother's house expecting them to have a few so that I could take most of them to work the next day but we sat down with a pot of tea and destroyed about 15 of them in one go. So I'm warning you now, they are super, super moreish. One will not be enough!
Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments
Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments (Shortbread Biscuits)
(adapted from this Gourmet Traveller recipe, makes about 22-24 biscuits)
For the brown butter:
250g (about 2 sticks + 2 tbsp) butter for the biscuits (I used salted, add 1/2 tsp salt to flour mixture if using unsalted)
+ an additional 100g (7 tbsp) butter for the icing

Prepare the brown butter ahead of time as you will need to chill it, you can do the two amounts listed above in the same pan and separate them later, or brown each amount separately:
  1. Place butter in a small saucepan on low-medium heat and stir until it melts completely.
  2. Continue cooking, stirring frequently until the milk solids turn brown and the butter smells nutty, about 5 minutes longer (or as long as it takes to turn golden brown). Take care not to burn (it will continue to brown even after you remove it from the heat, so take it off early).
  3. Scrape the melted butter and browned bits into small bowl and chill until solidified (about half an hour in the freezer, an hour or so in the fridge). When ready to make cake, remove from the fridge long enough that the butter is soft enough to be beaten with an electric mixer.
For the brown butter biscuits:
250g (weight before browning) brown butter, softened (prepared above)
80g (about 2/3 cup) icing (confectioner's) sugar, sifted
1 tsp pure vanilla extract/vanilla bean paste or scraped seeds from 1 vanilla bean pod
75 g (½ cup) cornflour/cornstarch
225 g (about 1½ cups) plain/all-purpose flour
  1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line two baking trays with baking paper.
  2. Place brown butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high until light and fluffy.
  3. Add vanilla and beat until just combined.
  4. Sift flours over butter mixture and, using a wooden spoon, stir to form a soft dough.
  5. Keeping your hands lightly floured, form level ½ tablespoons of mixture into balls, then place 5cm (2 inch) apart on baking paper-lined oven trays, flatten slightly to 3.5cm (1.5 inch) rounds, then, using a floured fork, press tines gently into dough rounds, to create grooves.
  6. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly coloured. Allow biscuits to cool on trays for 5 minutes, before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments
For the strawberry jam icing:
100g (weight before browning) brown butter, softened (prepared above)
275g (about 2 and 1/4 cups) icing (confectioner's sugar)
3 tbsp strawberry jam 
  1. Place butter and icing sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat on low until just combined, then beat on high until smooth and fluffy.
  2. Add strawberry jam and beat until combined. Icing should be soft enough to be spooned or piped, but stiff enough to hold its shape.
  3. Spoon or pipe mixture between cooled biscuits. Serve immediately, or can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for several days.
Strawberry Jam & Brown Butter Melting Moments

19 comments:

  1. They're so cute! I love them ... and so would my Mum!

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  2. Never apologize for brown butter, because that stuff is friggin amazing. :) I bet my Mom would adore these.

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  3. These are really beautiful, perfect for spring!

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  4. Melting moments with brown butter! How do you manage to combine all my loves in the one delicious mouthful!

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  5. These sound excellent - I love Melting Moments and the brown butter and strawberry jam would certainly take them to a new level - thank you!!

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  6. Gorgeous looking bikkies! Dying to eat one. Mental note - must try brown butter!

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  7. these look great, may whip up a batch for mother's day.

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  8. Your photos are absolutely beautiful and as for the biscuits.. just wow. Hopefully I'll have time to try this recipe out soon xxx
    La Lingua : Food, Life, Love, Travel, Friends, Italy

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  9. Those biscuits are looking so delicious! I'm definitely going to try the recipe!

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  10. These are so pretty!! And there can never be enough browned butter in my opinion!

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  11. Oh Steph, these are gorgeous! Melting moments were the first thing I learned to bake about 28 years ago and I still adore them. We are moving house and I was planning on kinda ignoring Mother's Day but I think I can whip these up ☺️👏

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  12. I love melting moments too! the crumbly biscuits then the smooth buttercream filling :) I love the photos here~ what a cute cup and saucer!!

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  13. Mmmm. These look absolutely delicious.

    http://jenniferbakes.blogspot.ie

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  14. I made these for my mom and mother-in-law for Mothers Day yesterday, and, oh my word, they were soooo good! Thank you!

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  15. I made these for my mum on mother's day and she said these beat the honey jumbles from Merle's Kitchen on her "favourite treats" list. That's right, you beat Merle!
    I spent about 20 minutes stirring my butter trying to make it brown until I got impatient and turned the heat up from 4 to 7. After that, it browned perfectly in just over a minute. Maybe it was my induction stove? But apart from that, these were great and easy as well.

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    1. Haha that's awesome! Not sure about the induction stove, I have gas so it heats up super fast and I have to be so careful not to burn it!

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  16. Yum, I love yoyos, they're some of my favourite bikkies!

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