When that recipe calls for ‘softened butter’ and your butter is still cold in the fridge, you’ll be happy you know how to soften butter quickly using this simple trick!
We try to keep the butter dish on the counter full most of the time, but that’s not always quite enough for a recipe because you often need a full stick and the butter on the counter gets used for toast and veggies and various other buttering tasks. That’s why we’re glad we know how to soften soften butter quickly with this trick that’s saved us when we’ve run into this situation more than a few times.
If you’ve ever found yourself in this predicament, then you know you usually have 2 options: Either take the stick of butter out and wait for an hour or so before you can actually start with your recipe, or pop it in the microwave, which usually results in some spots on the stick being completely melted and others being still hard and pretty much useless to you. This little butter in a glass trick is one that you will use over and over again and (hopefully) pass on to the next generation so they don’t end up having the same butter issues that we do whenever we want to whip up a tasty treat for our families!
So here’s what you do!
The Butter in the Glass Trick
Start with a stick of butter, fresh out of the refrigerator! If you want to keep the wrapper on, that shouldn’t affect things too much.
Take a large glass, one that’s big enough to fit over the stick of butter, and fill it up to the top with hot water. You can use very hot water from the tap or boiling water. I used water from the insta-hot tap on my water dispenser.
Leave that to sit for a minute or so and then dump the water out.
Turn the empty, but still warm, glass over and cover the stick of butter with it. Like this:
Now leave it for a few minutes, and you’ll have a perfectly-softened stick of butter!
I know! It’s a revelation, isn’t it? It’s a little thing, but it’s also kind of a big deal for people who like to bake!
The warm glass slowly and thoroughly radiates heat into the stick of butter from all angles, softening it perfectly, without overdoing it and melting it.
Try it with this recipe: The Creek Line House – Shortbread Cookies
Now that you know how to soften butter using this simple trick, you’ll have no issues next time your recipe calls for softened butter! You’ll save yourself a lot of frustration and a little time, bringing you closer to those delicious baked goods!
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.