Forum

This winter I stumbled upon a great new way to soften butter for my baking projects.  A while back Darcie did a column about how people were noticing that butter didn't soften at room temperature the way it used to.  I had also noticed that my butter didn't soften to the right consistency when I left it out on my counter.  I do not like using a microwave to soften butter because I have had too many experiences with over softened butter coming out of the microwave.  But now all I do is put the number of butter cubes I need on a plate and set the plate on top of my refrigerator.  It is warmer up there than the rest of the kitchen but not too hot.  I use the plate because no matter how hard I try to keep it clean the top of my refrigerator tends to be dusty.  Butter softens about twice as fast on top of the refrigerator and gets to the right temperature better than on the countertop. But beware if your kitchen is extra warm that it takes no time at all to soften up there and can even get too soft.

I have used a few different methods eg fill a pyrex jug with boiling water.  cut the butter you want to soften into small pieces and arrange them into a stack which will fit inside the inverted pyrex jug.  Empty the jug of its water and invert it over the stack of butter pieces, and leave for about 20 minutes.  The warmth of the atmosphere inside the jug will soften the butter.

An alternative method is to fill a mixing bowl with room temperature clean water and then float pieces of butter in it.  Then scoop out the butter and use it in your recipe.  You might end up with a few drops of water in your recipe too.