Brown butter shortbread showcases tart sweetness of summer fruits

This month I think I’ve found the perfect summer dessert — browned butter peach shortbread.

Stone fruits are amazingly versatile; they’re great on their own, ripe off the tree, and also hold up well in baked dishes and desserts. The shortbread base for these is slightly different than your typical shortbread (which by the way is delicious), because of the browned butter that gives it a rich nutty flavor. The cookie base is on the thinner side, giving the bars a crunch that’s a perfect compliment to the fruit.

The natural sweetness of the peaches (or nectarines or plums) is amplified by cooking and contrasts with the richness of the cookie. These are rich tasting, so a small one is satisfying.

My kids loved these — the older one said she definitely could pick up the richness of the browned butter in the shortbread and said she’d like to try it with other fruits like strawberries or cherries.

My little “Mikey likes it” is a big fan of peaches and plums (I used both when I made it), so she really liked the flavor of the fruit in these.

I also handed out samples to a few foodie friends who gave them a stamp of approval, which makes it pretty unanimous among my camp that they’re a keeper.

If you’ve never browned butter before, don’t be intimidated, it’s not difficult. Once butter is melted over medium heat, it will start to foam and bubble as the water evaporates and it will start to develop browned bits at the bottom of your pan. If you have a light colored pan, like enamel, that’s ideal so you can see what you’re working with.

Once you start to see the browned bits, keep a close eye, it only takes a minute to go from browned to burnt and if you burn it, there’s no salvaging it. Those little browned bits, which are toasted milk solids, give the butter that nutty toasted flavor so scrape them from the bottom of the pan as they develop and make sure to keep them with your finished butter.

Watch a video tutorial if you’re not feeling confident to get a look at how it goes. Once you do it, you’ll see that it’s not as intimidating as it may seem.

Since I only had one peach on hand when I made these, I used that plus a couple plums and I liked how the flavors melded, so feel free to experiment with peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots or even other fruits.

The bars hold up well in the refrigerator, but if your experience is anything like mine, you won’t need to worry about leftovers.

Peach shortbread

Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients:

1 cup (7 ounces or 200 grams) white sugar

1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking powder

2 3/4 cups, plus 2 tablespoons (12 5/8 ounces or 359 grams) cups, all-purpose flour (or you can measure 3 cups and remove 2 tablespoons flour)

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon (2 grams) salt

1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces or 227 grams) cold, unsalted butter

1 large egg

2 peaches, pitted and thinly sliced (between 1/8 and 1/4-inch thick)

Brown your butter: Melt butter in a small/medium saucepan over medium-low heat. It will melt, then foam, then turn clear golden and finally start to turn brown and smell nutty. Stir frequently, scraping up any bits from the bottom as you do. Keep your eyes on it; it burns very quickly after it browns and the very second that you turn around to do something else. Set it in the freezer until solid (about 30 minutes).

[Don’t have time for all this brown butter madness? Check the head notes to use regular softened butter instead.]

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Butter a 9-by-13-inch pan, or spray it with a nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, stir together sugar, baking powder, flour, salt and spices with a whisk. Use a pastry blender, fork or your fingertips, blend the solidified brown butter and egg into the flour mixture. It will be crumbly. Pat 3/4 of the crumbs into the bottom of the prepared pan, pressing firmly. Tile peach slices over crumb base in a single layer. Scatter remaining crumbs evenly over peaches and bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes, until top is slightly brown and you can see a little color around the edges. Cool completely in pan before cutting into squares.