How to Soften Butter for Baked Goods That Look Professional
Here are 4 ways to soften butter fast so you’ll always be ready to start baking.
Knowing how to soften butter is a basic skill, whether you bake chocolate chip cookies, buttermilk biscuits, or yellow cake. Soft butter mixes much easier with flour and sugar in batters or cookie dough than hard, cold butter. But whether you're a new or experienced baker, it's easy to forget to set out butter sticks to give them enough time to come to room temperature.
If you're trying to get ahead in your holiday cookie baking or are mid-recipe and need to know how to soften butter quickly, you're in the right place. Here are butter softening methods for both salted and unsalted butter.
Softened Butter
When a recipe calls for softened butter, it means butter that still holds its shape but dents when pressed. No part of it should be melted. Softened butter is not the same as melted butter and the two cannot be used interchangeably.
Related: 21 Baking Tools Every Home Cook Needs (Plus 16 Handy Extras)
BHG/Andrea Araiza
How to Soften Butter at Room Temperature
The easiest way to soften butter is to remove a cold stick from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes until it becomes room temperature or until just spreadable. The timing will vary depending on the room temperature and how cold the butter is. If the butter starts getting quite soft but is not yet melted, place it back in the refrigerator for a few minutes to keep it from melting before you are ready to use it.
This is easily our favorite method for how to soften butter for baking cookies because it guarantees consistency. Plus, when it comes to holiday baking, it gives us time to assemble all the ingredients, cookie cutters, and sprinkles.
BHG/Andrea Araiza
How to Soften Butter Quickly Four Ways
For the baking sessions where the traditional sit-and-wait route isn't an option, these methods for softening butter will speed up the process. Here's how to soften frozen butter or refrigerated butter without melting it.
Cut Up the Butter: Cutting a stick of butter into smaller chunks or slices will soften it more rapidly at room temperature. If you need a specific measurement of butter, measure it while the butter is whole, using the measurements on the wrapper as a guide.
Pound It: To shorten softening time, place the wrapped stick of butter between two pieces of parchment or wax paper and pound it several times on each side with a rolling pin to partially flatten.
Beat It: Some recipes call for softened butter that's then beaten with an electric mixer along with other ingredients. For these recipes, you can cut the cold butter into small chunks and beat it by itself with the electric mixer until it softens before adding the additional ingredients.
Microwave It: This method works best for softening butter meant to be used as a spread. If using this method for baking, ensure the butter doesn't start to melt, since this would be too soft for baking recipes that call for softened butter. Place the butter in a microwave-safe bowl and use the soften/melt function or, if your microwave does not have one, microwave on 30 percent power (defrost) for 15 seconds. Check the consistency of the butter and repeat, if necessary. Take note, we're not softening butter at full power here, which will result in a melted butter mess all over the microwave.
Test Kitchen Tip: If the butter you are softening for cookie dough has melted, use it for another purpose and soften new butter for your cookies. Once melted, the butter reacts differently with the dough and will give your cookies a different consistency.
Dressed-Up Softened Butter Recipes
Not only is softened butter ideal for baked goods, but it's also great for mixing in other flavors to create compound butter or seasoned butter such as lavender butter or herb butter. Experiment with adding your own mix-ins.
Test Kitchen Tip: These flavored butters are also a great way to use butter that got too soft if you tried something like microwaving butter to soften it, but didn't use our defrost setting tip.
Though softening butter seems like a step that could be easily skipped for the sake of time, it only takes a bit of thinking ahead. Those few extra steps of prep work will pay off when you bite into that perfectly baked chocolate chip cookie.
Baking Tips and Tools
For more Better Homes & Gardens news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!
Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens.
