Browned Butter Glaze, Vegan

Rich and buttery with a strong hint of vanilla, this browned butter glaze takes donuts, bundt cakes, and soft cookies to a whole new flavor level. With the classic glazed icing ingredients enhanced by browned plant-based butter, this tasty glaze brings out the best in your home-baked goods.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never really been a fan of the type of glazed icing that just uses powdered sugar, vanilla and, milk. It always tastes a little…chalky and fake to me. So I’ve always added in a little butter. Because I don’t like chalky fake icing!

My browned butter near disaster…and serendipity

Photographing pumpkin donuts this last weekend, I was having one of those days. You know what I mean – a delivery guy at the door, dogs barking, a dropped bag of powdered sugar, with my little dog was running through it, trailing a white sticky powdery mess all over everything! I totally forgot that I had been melting some (plant) butter on the stove for a buttery glaze.

By the time I remembered, I noticed my lovely melted vegan butter had started to turn brown. Yikes! Had I ruined my glaze? I was out of ingredients and didn’t want to have to run to the store for more.

And then I remembered browned butter icing! Of course I used to make that all the time in my pre-vegan days. Browned butter lends a certain enhanced depth of flavor to frosting and icing. I just didn’t know if it would work for vegan butter as well. After all, vegan butter is basically oils and flavors and lacks the milk proteins found in dairy butter.

As it turns out, it was pretty perfect anyway!

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Ingredients needed to make browned butter glaze

• butter, I use plant butter – use stick butter rather than tub
• powdered sugar
• milk, I use oat milk
• cornstarch
• vanilla extract
• The tiniest pinch of salt

How to make browned butter glaze

It’s actually pretty easy to make; it’s the icing part that’s a little tricky. Be sure to read further for some tips and tricks.

Step 1: Melt the butter

Over med/high heat, melt your plant butter while watching and stirring. When it begins to slightly brown, turn down the heat to med/low.

You should not let the melted butter boil or burn.

Step 2: Whisk together the plant milk and cornstarch

You can do this quick step while melting (and watching) the melting butter. You just want to get the lumps out of the cornstarch. Set it aside.

Why do we use cornstarch in glaze?

Cornstarch will thicken your glaze. This glaze is thicker than the standard thin donut glaze but thinner than fluffy icing.

Step 3: Add the plant milk, powdered sugar, and vanilla

Do not remove the pan from the heat – but make sure it’s turned to med/low. Add the milk/cornstarch mixture to the browned butter and whisk together.

Add the powdered sugar to the pan and stir stir stir.

Add the vanilla and mix well till everything is nice and smooth.

How to use your freshly-made browned butter glaze

Making the glaze was the easy part. Using it is a little bit trickier. There are a few things to keep in mind when using this glaze for the best success:

A few tips for the best results

• Use your browned butter glaze while it is still warm. It will cool and harden quickly.
  • If you are just pouring it over a bundt cake or sweet quick bread then go ahead and do that while it’s warm.
  • If you are dipping cookies or donuts or other small baked goods, work quickly and keep the pan of glaze over a bowl or pan of hot water. If it starts to harden, you can do a quick reheat or microwave; but the more you do that, the grainier the glaze will get.
• The baked goods you are glazing/icing should still be warm for the best results. It they are too cool/cold, when the glaze sets, it will easily crack as it dries.
  • This is the opposite of when you frost with a thick buttery frosting. You do want the baked good to be completely cooled for that type of icing. This cooked glaze icing is different.
• Handle with care. Once you have iced your baked goods with the glaze, minimize moving anything around too much until everything is thoroughly cooled and dried.
• This glaze colors very well with gel or liquid food colors. Again, work quickly and keep it warm and runny.

A tip about safety

I hope you understand that this glaze will work better if very warm – the warmer the better. This brings up some safety issues.

• If you are baking with a child, do not let the child dip the baked item into the glaze. They might get burned. If your child wants to participate then they can quickly sprinkle with decorations after you’ve iced each individual cookie or donut.
• Keep a glass of ice water nearby in case you burn a finger. You can quickly plunge it in the ice water.
• Have a large ladle, spoon, or fork handy to fetch the baked item out of the glaze in case you drop it so that you don’t need to touch the hot glaze with your fingers to fetch it out.

Let’s have some decorating fun!

Remember you need to:

• use warm baked goods
• use warm icing
• handle with care
• work with one item at a time

To ice, dip the donut or cookie into the warm glaze and gently swish around to cover. Remove and sprinkle immediately while it’s still wet and warm

If you are pouring on top of a bundt cake or sweet quick bread, the same rules apply. It’s best done on warm baked goods and done quickly. If you are going to sprinkle, then do so immediately while the icing is still warm and wet.

Some yummy vegan baked goods to ice with browned butter glaze

• Baked Pumpkin Spice Donuts
• Apple Cider Donuts (coming soon)
• Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake
• Banana Cookies
• Pumpkin Cookies
• Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Spice Crescent rolls

The printable recipe card for Browned Butter Glaze