The little (buttery) things

Alright, so if any of you know anything about me by now, you know that I love butter. Looooove butter. Especially brown butter. That stuff is legit. In a sauce with sage and caramelized shallots, served over butternut squash (coincidence? I think not) ravioli... in homemade butter pecan ice cream... and, most relevantly to this post, in the ultimate aphrodisiac of a dessert:

Brown butter pound cake. Oh, be still my heart! I swear, if a guy ever served me a slice of this stuff on a date (ideally, accompanied by a pint of Brown's brown ale), I would take it as a proposal and marry him on the spot.


Okay... that is a bit of an exaggeration. But for reals. This cake is good.

I wanted to share this recipe with my food science class for our final lab... and wow. The way the smell of it filled the air as the butter was cooking, the ridiculously seductive smokiness but not quite to the point of burning... it was like the air was somehow saturated with breathable toffee-butter-cookies. That, my friends, is the Maillard reaction at its best.

Anyways, I've known for a while that it's weird that I'm a nutrition major (or half one), because I loooove food. It's not that I don't care about nutrients, but really, I eat food cause it is food. And food is good. It makes me happy. And, it just so happens that the food I like is usually jam-packed with good nutrients and stuff like that - yay.

However, I'll tell you exactly what this cake is jam-packed with... delicious butter. (I made it with organic sugar and a blend of flours including a good portion of whole grain, but that's beside the point!) And I practically had to hold my classmates hostage to get them to take some home with them! :'( Nutritionism is ruining us.

I'm on a tangent kick tonight, so speaking of jam...

Blackberry, to be exact, warmed up with a little red wine to make a simple sauce. It's dark and rich enough to stand up to the kick in the face that the brown butter imparts (I know, you don't usually think of butter as kicking... but that just means you need to try this cake), but the acidity and the tannic qualities of the berries and wine together cut through the sweet, smooth, complex butteryness - AND YET - it does not impart any bitterness because the tannins are balanced perfectly by the butter. It's synergy... beautiful, sweet, bold yet subtle synergy.

Yes, I'm gushing... forgive me.

Anyhoo, the moral of this story is that I took most of the pound cake home and ate it at least once a day for almost a week.

All by me onesie.

Awwww, yeah. ^_^

Hey, a girl's gotta enjoy what she does, right? Anyways, if your mouth is now watering, pick up the phone and call/text me to place an order. Or email. I do that too.
If your mouth isn't watering... you have problems and you need help. But know that I still love you.

<3