Kitchen Hacks: How Clever Cooks Get Things Done:
Butter Basics: How to Quickly Soften Butter:
You. Need. Butter. Softened. Now. (And, it’s worth noting, not 30 minutes from now.) And you want to make butter soft without melting it, either.
What to do? America’s Test Kitchen’s John “Doc” Willoughby shows you how to soften butter immediately in the coolest (and easiest) way to do so.
Conventional wisdom calls for cooks to cut a cold, hard stick of butter into smaller pieces to promote swifter softening—as more surface area is exposed, the butter softens more quickly. It works, but our method is faster. Simply take a stick of butter, place it inside a food storage bag, and beat it with a rolling pin. Not only is this the most efficient way to quickly soften butter, it’s also oddly therapeutic.
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I just leave it in the wrapper and squeeze it till it's soft.
I just use the mixer to beat it. Once it's soft, then add the sugar
Where is the best butter review?!
I squish it between my toes, but I guess this would work too.
Is that what I did wrong??? Recipe for Chewy Choc Chip cookies called for softened butter. I figured microwaving the butter would do the trick. I did. ALL the way to a liquid. Cookies came out good but cakey. Maybe I shouldn't have liquefied the butter??? lol Oh well.
tried it and it didn't work. the flattened butter doesn't seem to cream with the sugar well because it's too hard.
You're going to bake and one of the things you need is butter.
You're not going to suddenly realise you need butter.
Leave it in the kitchen at room temp and it'll be fine in a half hour.
Use a glass tall enough to cover the stick of butter, fill it with water and microwave 3-5 minutes. Stand butter on end on a small plate or bowl. Pour out hot water and immediately flip glass over stick of butter and allow butter to soften. You could even save the water to make yourself a nice cup of tea while you wait for the butter to soften.
The most useless tip I have seen on you tube. Stupid.
My favorite way is to put in zip-lock, then put in a bowl of warm water, takes like 60 seconds. And for this, I usually just leave it wrapped and unwrap it after it's been warmed up…. less likely to make a mess
And fyi, you can WASH a zip lock bag… you don't have to throw it away every time you put a piece of bread in it!
Fill it with dish soap for something like this, then use a soapy sponge, and whala, the bag is as good as new! With the warm water method there is little buttery mess, could also put a paper towel around it so that there is NO need to clean (or toss) the bag!!
OMG this would have saved me from so many undone projects! Bless you!
Or just put it in the microwave defrost for 10ish seconds. softens and I've never had it accidentally start to melt.
or just heat the sugar in the microwave before adding it to the butter to mix, and let the sugar soften the butter
Go get the butter.
Pfft! 5 seconds or so in the microwave will do it easier, faster, and cleaner. And no, it won't melt.
just cut the butter into to like 4-5 chunks and let them sit in a bowl of slightly warm water for about a minute. they won't melt but they will soften. just drain off the water, it won't mix with it because butter is pure fat.
that zipboc cost like 4.56 for one!!!
You just have to be smarter than a stick of butter…unwrap a stick, place it on the butter dish and let it sit well before you need it. Voila!
Or heat the sticks in the microwave for 5 second intervals until appropriately softened
I use a cheese grater on the finest/smallest grate. Works great!
So I'd have to waste one ziplock bag each time I need soft butter. Great.
Does this mean that if I use a baseball bat I'll end up with liquefied butter?
55 seconds. Awesome.
Good tip, but I would sandwich between wax paper instead of plastic.
shove the ziploc in your pants and let one rip.
Now try and get it out of the bag.