Tips for softening butter quickly and without the microwave! 

Tips for softening butter quickly from bakedbyrachel.com

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed a trend. I like to share what new movies we get from Netflix. Not necessarily all of them, because do you really want to know if we’re watching things like Ducktales or Epic? Probably not. There have been some total doozies, like The Host. Don’t even bother with it. Seriously. Horrible. But then there have been seriously good movies like Olympus Has Fallen and Silver Linings Playbook.

Our most recent movie night featured World War Z. Now, I’m not one for horror movies. Seriously. I’m the girl that is sure to have nightmares all night long and freak out for the rest of my life over the simplest creaking I hear in the middle of the night. No joke… Freddy Krueger doomed me for all eternity. I’ll never be able to enjoy a true horror movie.

So World War Z is classified as Sci-Fi Horror/Horror. Great. I honestly had no clue what I was getting myself into. The first 20 minutes are non-stop ridiculous intense action. Fear not… the rest of the movie isn’t quit as intense. It has it’s moments and the ending was pretty decent. Best of all… I slept pretty good and didn’t have a single bad dream. I’m not saying that watching horror movies or zombie movies will become my new thing. Don’t get any silly ideas like that. ;)

Tips for softening butter quickly from bakedbyrachel.com

Now let’s talk butter…

I’m a planner. I almost always have butter ready and warming to room temperature. I kind of even take an old school approach a lot and will leave it out, overnight or longer and it’s just there for the ready. But say you suddenly have a craving and need to bake some cupcakes, or muffins or maybe a batch of chocolate chip cookies pretty much right away and you don’t have butter out and softened… what’s a baker to do?!

Stop. Don’t use the microwave. Just don’t. No matter how much you try to soften your butter in the microwave at reduced power levels, you’re still bound to soften it too much. It’s going to melt and not be the consistency you really want. So just don’t.

Instead, try these simple tricks for softening butter quickly.

Tips for softening butter quickly from bakedbyrachel.com

If you don’t need it immediately but still don’t have time for it to sit out, cut your butter into small chunks.

Need it faster? Grab your cheese grater and shred your butter! Yup. Seriously. I used this trick for a cookie recipe coming soon. I only had enough butter for half of it, so I needed to think quick. This was my go to method.

Don’t have a cheese grater? Buy one. But no seriously… maybe you want your kids to help you and they’re little or maybe you just don’t want to mess with the shredder… Place your desired amount of butter into a plastic bag, sealed tight, and smash away at it with a rolling pin. Keep doing this until it’s flat and soft.

Another option for when you want soft butter but don’t need it immediately, place your butter into a plastic bag, sealed tight, and add it to a bowl or slightly luke warm water. Not warm enough to melt the butter! It should be just slightly warmer than room temperature, barely warm.

Lastly, if you’re really impatient, toss your butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat it to death. It’ll soften, just give it some time. Now of course, this method will only work if you need the butter for the first step in the recipe.

Do you have a favorite method to soften butter that wasn’t mentioned? I’d love to hear your tips!

Now go on… get baking! :)

Must make recipes with softened butter:
Soft batch chocolate chip cookies
Perfect s’more cookies
NY Times chocolate chip cookies
Pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies
Gingerbread Kiss cookies
Funfetti cupcakes
Carrot cake cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting
Devil’s food cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

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