How to Soften Butter Quickly

For many of us, it is almost a regular thing to forget stuff that we were supposed to do and then feel frustrated about it. The worst being the ones which leave as stuck in a messy situation. Though, we cannot provide you a remedy for all the situations but, what we do can do is help you to have a less hassled baking experience if you happen to forget softening the butter for cooking!

Many times, we get an impromptu itch to bake or cook a recipe that we just viewed on the television or scrolled through online. Even though having all the supplies in place we may turn down the plan because the butter is in the fridge (as always) and is too hard to be used for the recipe that insists on using softened butter!

So, yes you may microwave the slab of butter to get a quick result but not many people these days are a big fan of using this technology owing to its radiations and the harmful effects. The professional bakers also insist on using the naturally softened butter than softening it in a microwave as it imparts a different texture to the bakery goodies such as cakes and cookies. Also, thawing butter in a microwave is mostly uneven as a large part of the butter stays cool and the center part melts.

How to figure out the perfect softening stage for butter? Well, it is easy. If you are able to easily squish the butter between the thumb and forefinger you may officially label it as softened and ready to use!

To get the perfect softened butter in a pinch, you may try out any of these following ways.

• Cut the hard butter slab in to small cubes and place it near a warm place such as an oven or a cooking stove for it to turn soft soon enough. The smaller the size of chunks the quicker butter will turn softer.
• Put the slab of hard butter or cubes of butter in a clean and dry Ziploc bag. Seal the bag and pound it harder using a rolling pin or a pounder. Place this bag closer to a warm place again or on the counter to get butter at room temperature. On a side note, you will feel quite de-stressed after a hearty butter pounding session!
• Place hot water (not boiling water) in a large bowl and put another bowl in it so that the base of the top bowl is immersed in the hot water, like a double boiler. Put the butter cubes in to the top bowl and allow the butter to soften while stirring intermittently. Though this trick works really fast, you have to be watchful to not melt the butter!