You’re ready to bake, but the butter is cold. What do you do? Don’t wait for the butter to reach room temperature on its own; use these kitchen hacks instead. Learn the five best ways to soften butter quickly!
Hello, this is Heather from Kitchen Concoctions and I’m excited to share with you today my tried and true tips and tricks for how to soften butter quickly! I’ve been baking for as long as I can remember, first learning to bake by helping my Mom make sugar cookies for various holidays or Blueberry Coconut Banana Bread for weekend breakfast.
Even with all those years baking with my Mom, and years spent in professional kitchens, I still love to spend time in the kitchen baking. It’s so therapeutic for me and I could spend all day whipping up sweet treats to deliver to friends and neighbors. However, I really never have time to bake like I want and I never think ahead to get things prepped, like take the butter out to soften. I never let that stop me though! Over the years, I’ve discovered many kitchen hacks to help me save time in the kitchen and these tips for how to soften butter quickly help me every time I want to whip up my favorite Cherry Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Toffee Cookies on a whim!
First, you may or may not be asking why you need to soften butter. Well, while there are a number of recipes that call for cold butter, like this Gluten-Free Apple Pear Galette or this French Toast Casserole with Cinnamon Pecan Streusel, or even melted butter, like these Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Egg Truffles or this Cappuccino Pie, most recipes for baked goods call for “softened” or “room temperature” butter. To successfully make these recipes, you want to ensure your butter is in fact room temperature and not cold or melted. If you’re like me, you may not want to wait 30-40 minutes for butter to soften on the counter just to bake up your favorite dessert recipes.
5 great kitchen hacks on how to soften butter quickly:
Cut cold butter into small cubes: This is my favorite hack for softening butter! Since the butter is in small pieces, it softens much more quickly.
Pound the butter out: Place the cold butter in a durable plastic food storage bag, release the excess air, and seal the bag. Alternatively, you can place the butter between two pieces of wax paper. Using a rolling pin or the flat side of a meat mallet, pound out the butter until it is only about 1/4-inch thick.
Place the sticks of butter on the top of the oven while it preheats: This is another quick and easy hack, just be careful that you don’t leave the butter on the warm oven too long as it will start to melt.
Soften butter with a warm glass: Cut the amount of butter you need to use and place it on a cutting board or plate. Fill a glass with hot water. Let the glass sit, filled with hot water, for about one minute. Next, dump the water out and turn the glass over to enclose the stick of butter and let sit for one to two minutes or until the butter is softened.
Microwave: Place the stick of butter on a plate and microwave on 10% power for 20 seconds. Check butter by pressing into it gently. If it is still hard, microwave for another 15-20 seconds or until softened. Use caution when softening butter this way, as it can melt quickly and you don’t want to use any melted butter in recipes calling for room temperature butter.
Now that you know how to quickly soften butter, head into the kitchen and whip up some Fleur de Sel Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Lemon Blueberry Cupcakes, or make some homemade honey butter to serve with these Simple Homemade Biscuits!
We hope you find these Kitchen Hacks from SoFabFood Home Chef, Heather from Kitchen Concoctions helpful! For more informational posts like this, be sure to stop by our Kitchen Hacks section to help you save time and money in the kitchen. For daily recipe inspiration, subscribe to our newsletter, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Pinterest. Enjoy!
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