This post comes courtesy of Heather Libbey, blogger at DIY du Jour.
Does this happen to you as much as it happens to me? You get yourself all geared up to do some baking, preheating the oven, measuring out your ingredients, and the first thing the recipe says to do is “cream together sugar and butter.” As often as I bake, I still forget to set out my butter at room temperature ahead of time so it would be soft enough to mix into a batter.
Forget about using your electric mixer to smash a hard stick of butter — it’s nearly impossible (I tried!). You don’t want to melt it, because that will yield a completely different and unwanted end product, so, we wait….and wait….it’s like watching paint dry. Who has time for that when there are cookies to be made?
There is a little trick I use when the butter I need for my recipe is still hard as a rock. Simply unwrap the amount of butter you need and use the larger grate of a cheese grater to shred it. It softens immediately.
Happy baking!
About the author: Heather has always had a love for cooking and baking. Now she loves to plan meals for her family. She looks for ways for ways to make comfort dishes a little healthier without sacrificing flavor, but she also believes all things are fine in moderation and has recently started experimenting with making French pastries at home. She shares her tried recipes and other projects on her personal blog, diydujour.com. Heather is also a contributing author at thebakeryspot.com.
9 comments
I TRIED YOUR ‘ ‘ GRATING ‘ ‘ COLD BUTTER . I HAD MELTED BUTTER ALL OVER MY HAND . I TRIED ‘ ‘ THE 10 SECOND METHOD ‘ ‘ & IT WORKED ALOT BETTER BY FAR .
Put it in your pants. Your best girl will soften it in a hurry.
Microwave it for 10 seconds on high, it will just be spreadable enough for your toast, cooking, or baking.
Glock Guy made me laugh, big time.
If you don’t have a microwave try and putting it in your front pocket. Like most Hicks.
A microwave is the key here. Just 6-8 seconds and you have softened butter but not melted. If you cannot wait an hour for your butter to soften this is the best way, grating takes too long.
Wow, I use my mixer all the time to whip up hardened butter. Its not that big a deal.
Don’t you have a microwave?
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