How to get butter to room temperature fast

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There are so many recipes that require butter at room temperature so that it is soft when you work with it - for example when you are creaming together butter and sugar for a sponge.

I always have some butter in a dish which I keep outside of the fridge, but there isn't always enough for what I am making. I always seem to have a lot of butter in the fridge, so I've learned a handy little tip to get butter up to room temperature quickly without melting it... and it is so so simple...

...all you have to do is grate it! :D You need to hold it using the greaseproof paper it is wrapped in otherwise it melts all over your hand.

I've heard another tip that works well - cut the butter into cubes and put them into a bowl of warm water - I've not tried this myself though.
 
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Interesting! I've always softened butter in the microwave, but then you run the risk of accidentally melting it. This just might work.
 
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My husband had a bit of a shock when I did this the other day - I was in the kitchen baking, and he saw the recently used grater on the side... and picked off what he thought was cheese... and instead had a bite of butter! Yuck! :p
 
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You can use your microwave to soften it. Keep it inside the wrapper and use the defrost settings to keep from melting or cooking it.
 
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I never seem to get it right when I use a microwave, even on the defrost setting! The Oatmeal has a cartoon for what always seems to happen to me:

butter1.png


butter2.png


:D
 
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Thanks for the infographic! Now if I was smart I'd figure out the optimal time for microwaving butter in my microwave and write it down somewhere for future reference.
 
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Grate butter?! That sounds genius! I didn't realise this would work. What I usually do is put it in the microwave for a few seconds, or cut it up into cubes and leave it for a while. It's such a pain when you realise you've forgotten to take the butter out of the fridge when ready to make a cake.
 
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I like the idea of grating butter, and it seems to me that it would work really well. I have tried the microwave softening, and it always melts on me, and when I want to leave it out to soften, sometimes I do forget it, so I have tried just chopping it into little pieces so it would soften easier. The grating seems like it would do a much better job.
 
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Thanks for the tip. I always accidentally melt butter when I microwave it and them it ends up liquefied. I don't know why I never thought of grating butter.
If you can grate hard cheese of course you should be able to grate butter.
 
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It works really well - just make sure you don't hold it in your fingers, wrap greaseproof paper around it instead :)
 
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I think it is a brilliant idea. My usual way is to slice my butter and put them into a double boiler and wait for it to soften but that requires a lot of work compare to your method of grating it. After this I am going to try your method. Thanks for sharing it here.:)
 
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Those are some really good ideas to bring butter to room temperature fast and I might give then a try, but for right I don't have to worry about the butter getting to room temperature because it has been so hot and since I don't have a/c in the kitchen or living and dining rooms, all I do is set it out and in no time it is ready to use...:)
 
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That's a great tip since we have to keep it in the fridge since it's so warm here. I too microwave but I got used to the soften setting on my mother in laws microwave. Now I have my no frills microwave and keep messing it up. That Oatmeal gif will be forever etched in my brain now too, thanks.
 
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I like the idea of grating butter. I used to melt butter in the microwave but gave that idea up. I always left the butter in too long, and it turned into liquid.
 
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I always use the microwave to soften my butter. It is just the easy way to do it and it seems like the fastest way as well. I really find myself melting it too and so I have to watch it so that it doesn't melt.
 
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I just saw them do this on The Chew, and it sounded like a really clever idea. Thank you for sharing! This would also really come in handy if you wanted to make a quick compound butter to go over steaks. Just grate the butter, throw in your herbs, onions, garlic, whatever. Mix it all back up and form it into a log on some wax paper and wrap it up and throw it back in the fridge. It would probably cool and firm up a lot faster as well vs. waiting for the butter to get to room temp completely.
 
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There are so many recipes that require butter at room temperature so that it is soft when you work with it - for example when you are creaming together butter and sugar for a sponge.

I always have some butter in a dish which I keep outside of the fridge, but there isn't always enough for what I am making. I always seem to have a lot of butter in the fridge, so I've learned a handy little tip to get butter up to room temperature quickly without melting it... and it is so so simple...

...all you have to do is grate it! :D You need to hold it using the greaseproof paper it is wrapped in otherwise it melts all over your hand.

I've heard another tip that works well - cut the butter into cubes and put them into a bowl of warm water - I've not tried this myself though.
I have been doing this to my butter for a while, not for baking though, just for my toast. I hate the little square shapes left on my toast from the butter and since I like my toast 'just barely' toast to begin with, it's quite annoying when the butter doesn't melt. Oh and no, I still make my toast the old fashioned way...the oven. I have a toaster but it just doesn't cut it for me.
 
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The only way to get butter to room temperature fast is through a microwave. Heat for 15 seconds. Then, of course, you can always purchase spreadable butter for the purposes of cooking. Darigold is a good product.

mm5.jpg
 
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What I like to do is microwave it. Instead of leaving it on one side, I like to do 5 seconds and then turn the butter over. I do this until it is soft. By flipping the butter over, the heat is not as concentrated on just one side. I have noticed that I rarely ever go too far with the butter and make it melt all over the place. I'll have to try the cheese grater method! It seems quite interesting!
 

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