Alton Brown's Simple Butter Tip For Elevated Bakes

Anyone who frequently bakes knows that butter is a crucial part of the majority of recipes. In pastries and pie dough, it contributes to a flaky texture, while in cakier desserts like brownies, it adds decadence and a soft texture. If you're looking to improve your baked goods, upgrading the butter is a reliable way to do so. One of the best approaches is to brown the butter, because it adds depth of flavor. But while there are certainly benefits to browning your butter, Alton Brown believes there's an even simpler upgrade.

According to the celebrity chef, investing in more expensive butter makes a bigger difference than you'd think. As he shared in the Precise Advice segment of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," pricier butter is usually higher in quality, meaning it's less diluted. "Cheap grocery store generic brands can contain up to 12 percent water which very often is not factored into in the recipe," Brown explained.

When Alton Brown says "expensive butter" he's referring to European butter and Irish butter. Though both butters are technically produced in Europe, European butter is cultured and unsalted. Irish butter on the other hand is uncultured and salted, and also has a deeper yellow color because the cow pastures in Ireland are high in beta-carotene, making the dairy less pale. Compared to American butter, European and Irish butter have a lower water content and higher butterfat content, about 82% to 90%. American butter by contrast contains 80% butterfat.

Some water in butter is beneficial, because in the oven, water turns to steam, allowing baked goods to puff up and become fluffy. Butter with high water content however lacks richness and has a more bland flavor. The cheapest butter on the shelf can still technically produce tasty baked goods, but if you want bakery-quality results, consider reaching for European or Irish-style butter.

Any "expensive" butter with a higher butterfat percentage can realistically work in your baked goods, but Alton Brown seems to favor Irish butter specifically. As he raved about in one of his YouTube videos, Kerrygold is his go-to brand. Brown opts for expensive butter even in his Rice Krispy treat recipe, but the truth is not every single baked good necessarily requires it.

Since one of the main benefits of using European butter is its taste, it may not make a noticeable difference in baked goods where it would be overpowered by a lot of other flavors. If your recipe also has very moist ingredients — like banana bread or anything with peanut butter — a higher butterfat butter may only serve to make it heavy and greasy. Therefore it's best to save Brown's tip for doughy pastries where the butter flavor would shine through, or for when you want to improve an otherwise dry or bland baked good with extra softness and richness.