#brown-butter

#brown-butter

Pancakes are a global favorite with unique recipes on every continent. Stateside, they're the fluffy stack of griddle cakes that we douse in maple syrup and butter. While pancakes' airy and light crumb is a huge part of their appeal, their flavor doesn't stand out as much. We interviewed Jeffrey Williams, Executive Chef at Willowsong, who admits, "The basic recipe is flour, sugar, a leavening agent, some oil, and a pinch of salt-so it's not heavy on flavor to begin with."

These delicate espresso shortbread cookies - a simple recipe with not too many ingredients - strike the perfect balance of coffee and brown butter. The brown butter has just enough caramel-y oomph to stand up to the espresso. Fiona Zhang says she bakes them so that they're fairly soft - 12 minutes in her oven - but for a snappier, crunchier cookie, they could stay in the oven for a couple minutes longer.

That secret ingredient? Butter - but not just any kind. We're talking about brown butter, made by melting it slowly until the milk solids turn golden and release a nutty, caramel-like aroma. The transformation is simple. Just melt your butter in a pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, and watch as the foam subsides and those brown bits begin to form. Then, pour it over your ravioli, season it up, and just like that, you've upgraded dinner with liquid gold.

Farrotto is like risotto but made with farro instead of riso, Italian for "rice." It's a traditional Italian dish, not a whole-grain stand-in for risotto. Since Italians cook for flavor, not for health, farrotto is delicious. And just happens to be healthy. This farrotto is made from stock cooked with corn cobs, which makes for an intense corn experience, and is my way of making sure you don't try making this with frozen corn. Don't try.