Soften butter faster by cutting it into tablespoon sized portions.
I really need to get into the habit of reading through a recipe before I start mixing ingredients together. Last week I started making biscuits and found I was out of baking powder. Grr. So much for having dinner ready when Aaron got home! Then this weekend I realized the butter was supposed to be softened after I had worked halfway through this peanut butter bar recipe. Ironically I had recently read this tip and since I wasn’t in a hurry, I tested it out. Not because I thought it wouldn’t work-it makes perfect sense. But I wanted to see just how much faster it would soften, being all cut up!
The recipe called for a cup of butter so I cut one cube up and left the other untouched. The tablespoon sized portions yielded slightly to gentle pressure after 30 minutes, while the cube took an entire hour. That’s half the time, a significant difference! So next time you forget to soften your butter, don’t fret. You’ll only be behind by a half an hour if you cut it up!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
If you have baking soda, cream of tartar, and cornstarch, yu can mix them In a 1:2:1 ratio to make baking powder.
you can also just grate the butter w a hand-held cheese grater and use it immediately :-)
You can also put the butter, wrapper still on, in the microwave for a few seconds.