4 Ways to Soften Butter Quickly

Today I am discussing 4 ways to soften butter quickly so that something as simple as hard butter doesn’t stop us baking!

Sometimes I’m not as organised as I should be and when I start baking I realise that I haven’t taken the butter out of the fridge and then I have to wait for it to soften – it’s so annoying!

I usually chop the butter into smaller pieces to try and speed up the softening process but it still takes a while. It is not quite so bad at the moment because the weather is warmer but in the winter it takes forever!

I wondered if anyone had shared any other methods so I went online and found the following 4 methods. I decided to give them a go and share my thoughts with you.  I have ranked the methods from 1 to 4 with number one being the best method that I have found to soften butter quickly!

How to Soften Butter Quickly (4 Ways!)

4. Placing Warm Glass Over Butter

I didn’t have much success with this method. It might be an option if you only need to soften a small piece of butter but I didn’t see any results with a largish square of butter.

3. Grating the Butter

I tried this method using a hand peeler/curler rather than a grater and found that it was a good way to soften butter. The main reason that I would not use this method again is because it’s quite messy. My peeler got very greasy so I can only imagine what it would be like to clean a cheese grater that was covered in butter!

2. Using the Microwave

This is another method that I have tried in the past and had success with. You just need to be very careful that you don’t melt the butter. I find that it is best to make sure the microwave is set to low power and only heat it in very short bursts.

1. Pounding Butter with a Rolling Pin

This method was completely new to me but I was very pleased with the results. I put my butter into a snap lock bag and got beautiful soft butter very quickly. It wasn’t very hard to pound the butter and when it was soft I turned the plastic bag inside out to remove the butter. I thought the butter might stick to the inside of the bag but it wasn’t too bad. I just used a butter knife to scrap off any bits of butter that had stuck. This method was also very easy to clean up because you can just throw the bag away.

Overall I think that the best way to soften butter is to pound it with a rolling pin. It is definitely a very easy method and you get perfectly softened butter without worrying about it getting too soft! I would not hesitate to use this method in the future!

For more kitchen tips check out my Kitchen Tips board on Pinterest.