Have you ever browned butter? Have you melted butter until it spits and bubbles and then fills your kitchen with a warm nutty aroma and fills with flecks of browned goodness? If not you need to make this a priority.

I am of the opinion that any baked good is improved by the addition of brown butter. Oh you want me to add a stick of butter to that cake? I’m gonna go ahead and brown it first, you just watch.

Did I mention I finally received my Joy the Baker Cookbook in the mail?

There it is. I pre-ordered this baby way back in November and am so happy to finally have it! And there are multiple mentions of brown butter in here.

The first recipe I delved into was Brown Butter Blueberry muffins. Fresh out of the oven these were the absolute best muffins I had ever put in my mouth. Crumble topping, loaded with blueberries, rich caramelly brown butter flavor. I made mini muffins and I’m pretty sure I immediately ate four.

My husband has a preference for strawberries so a few days after I made the muffins I swapped out the blueberries for strawberries and made them again. This time I made them into gorgeous little mini loafs.

I lowered the sugar a bit too as I tend to like my muffins(and sweet breads) a little less sugary. I also swapped out the vanilla extract for vanilla bean and a touch more milk. I dunno it just felt right.

Plus it looks like some sort of eggy milky nebula.

I ended up with amazingly moist little loafs bursting with strawberries and topped with crunchy sweet crumble topping. And don’t forget the brown butter. It’s that important! I’m pretty sure you should go make these tonight.

Brown Butter Strawberry Loafs

Adapted from the Joy the Baker Cookbook

For the muffins:

7 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup milk plus 2 tablespoons
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 vanilla bean scraped for seeds
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoons salt (don’t use if using salted butter)
2 cups fresh strawberries

For the topping:

3 tablespoons salted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Place the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease your pan. I used a mini loaf pan that makes 8 individual loafs. Set aside.

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Keep an eye on the butter. It will melt, froth and begin to crackle. That’s the water cooking out of the butter. The crackling will subside and butter will begin to brown fairly quickly. Remove from heat when butter solids become a medium brown color and butter smells slightly nutty. Immediately pour hot putter into a small bowl or it will continue to cook and possibly burn in the hot saucepan. (I put my pan on a cool marble surface to cool off).

3. Whisk milk, egg, yolk and vanilla seeds. Add brown butter and whisk to combine.

4. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Add the milk mixture all at once to the flour mixture and stir gently to combine. Gently but thoroughly fold in the strawberries. Divide batter in prepared pan.

5. To make the topping: combine all the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with clean fingertips until crumbly. Sprinkle topping evenly over the loafs.

6. Bake 18-20 minutes until golden and crisp and a skewer inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean. Cool muffins in the pan for 15 minutes before removing. Serve warm(they’re best warm!) or at room temperature.