Softening Butter

When a recipe calls for room temp butter there are a couple of quick ways to soften it without melting it, and you do not want to melt it. The recipe will likely have you creaming the butter with something (most often its sugar) and this creaming process incorporates air into the mixture that you need for lift in your baked goods. Hard butter or melted butter won’t incorporate the air but soft butter does.

If you don’t have an hour to let it soften on the counter here are several things you can do to hasten the process along:

• Shred (can be used almost immediately) – the more surface area the faster it will warm up to room temp. Use the largest opening on your grater to create a pile of shredded butter that looks a lot like shredded mozzarella. Leave the wrapper on the end where you hold it for as long as you can but do not let the paper get grated into the pile of butter. Depending on how cold or warm your kitchen is you can use the butter almost immediately. If you do this as the first step in assembling the needed ingredients you will likely have perfect room temp butter when the recipe calls for it.
• Roll or pound (can be used almost immediately) – same principle of more surface area applies here as well. Place the butter between 2 sheets of waxed paper or parchment and use your kitchen mallet to pound it flat or your rolling pin to roll it flat. The pounding and rolling create friction that warms the butter and make it malleable and soft. If you do this as the first step in assembling the needed ingredients you will likely have perfect room temp butter when the recipe calls for it.
• Hot glass method (takes about 10 minutes and is low effort) – using a glass tall enough to cover the butter, fill about 3/4 with water and microwave for 2-3 minutes. Dump out the water then invert the glass over the butter and let sit for 5-10 minutes.
• Cube or slice the butter (about 10 minutes) – Here again, surface area is your friend. Cut the butter into small cubes to thin slices, spread out on Parchment, and let sit for about 10 minutes.