In Baking Hows, Whys, and WTFs, food editor Shilpa Uskokovic will answer your burning baking questions and share her tips and tricks for perfect sweets. Today, how can you soften butter, quickly?
I am many things but a careful planner is not one of them. Few situations test my chaotic energy more than when abaking recipe calls forroom-temperature ingredients.Room-temperature eggs?Never used them. Tepid milk? No can do. Soft butter? Uh, oops.
Eggs are forgiving of forgetfulness. But butter, not so much. Whilecold butter, or evenfrozen butter is ideal where flakiness is required—like thisActually PerfectPie Crust—soft orroom-temperature butter is vital for the success of cakes and cookies. It more effectively incorporatestrapped air bubbles thancold butter when it’s beaten, and these air bubbles help aerate the final treat, making it tender and fluffy. Soft butter is also easier to incorporate into the dough or batter.Cold butter will fling aimlessly around the bowl and your baked treats will be denser.
So what’s a last-minute baker to do? Here are my three trusted ways tosoften butter quickly. Pick one to suit your personality.
The Only Adult in the Room
The calmest, most practical approach is tocuthard butter intosmall cubes (about ½" or the size of an almond) and set it out in a single layer on a plate or the butter wrapper. Because of the increasedsurface area, thesmall chunks will soften quickly, in as little as 15 minutes (give or take, depending on ambientroom temperature). If this is your preferred way, you are likely an older sibling and you file your taxes in February.
The Stress-Relief Seeker
Voted most disruptive but also most satisfying, thiskitchen tip involvesaggressively smacking thecold stick of butter with arolling pin (or the back of a small skillet when times are desperate). The goal is to flatten the butter into a thin sheet (about ¼" thick) by which time it will be pliable. It usually takes less than 5 minutes. I bash thestick of butter in its wrapper and then peel away the tattered paper with gentle care. You might want to take an unwrapped stick of butter and sandwich it between squares of parchment orwax paper for a more orderly approach. Go this route if today involved too many Zoom meetings that should have been emails.
The Rule Breaker
Yeah, yeah, you’re not supposed to microwave butter, but I don’t care. To begin with, many modern microwaves have a specific “soften butter” function (usually along with “melt butter” and “softencream cheese”). It’s true. Look for a sticker listing different functions and times somewhere along the door of the microwave. Failing which, the instructions from my oldPanasonic Dimension 4 Cookbookhave never let me down:Microwave 1stick of butter, unwrapped and on a plate, on low (or 30% power) for 30–45 seconds. This yields theperfect consistency for baked goods, like theseMisoChocolate Chip Cookies. (Have an unreliable microwave and ended up with a puddle ofmelted butter? Plenty ofcookie recipes, like theseObscenely Chocolately Chocolate Cookies orChewy Molasses Cookies, start there.)
PS: What isroom temperature, exactly?
The generally accepted range ofroom temperature is between 68°–72°F.Room-temperature butter is around 67° and will hold an indent of your finger when pressed into it (rather than sinking right through). Once your butter is at the correct temperature, you’re ready to make everything from lusciousbuttercream, airycupcakes, jam-belliedraspberry-tahini cookies, and sticky plumupside-down cake.
Butter me up:
Like PB&J if you made it a cookie and replaced the PB with T.
