The Quick Way To Soften Butter Calls For One Common Appliance

Is any baking snafu as frustrating as when you're about to whip up some delicious treats and realize belatedly that a recipe calls for softened butter? While some folks challenge food science regarding how long butter can be left out on the counter, a lot of us keep our sticks in the fridge, meaning that their default state is chilly and firm. Not ideal for many forms of baking, that's for sure. In a perfect world, we'd all soften butter the "right way," by letting it thaw at room temperature until it is tender. Of course, real life is a completely different story. In butter emergencies, you may instead want to reach for your grater.

Grating butter is an ingenious hack for quick softening that will take you from a cold stick to a downy pile of soft flakes in no more than 10 minutes (depending on how much you need, of course). Most people already have a grater on a shelf in the kitchen, and the process is neither complicated nor labor intensive. Whether you favor regular butter or the sweet cream variety, this is a kitchen shortcut that you definitely want in your arsenal. Baking isn't the only use for soft grated butter, either. It spreads wonderfully on toast, eliminating the ever-troubling question of how to apply stick butter to your breakfast. Whether you grate a little or grate a few sticks at a time, you'll find your culinary life changed.

Interestingly, you might find that grating butter works best when the butter is cold ... really cold. Freezing the sticks will make your job even easier, although it's understandable that might not always be practical considering this is a time-saving hack. The colder the butter, the easier it will be to flake it through the grater and not get any of it stuck. The process will therefore be less messy, too. Overall, however, grating butter is pretty foolproof. A hand grater will make quick work of a single stick, or you can use a box grater for big jobs. Use the big holes on the grater, as the small ones could get gummed up with butter and make your life difficult.

Speaking of big jobs, you might be interested to know that you can pre-grate butter and store it in the fridge for later use (though be sure to use an airtight container, as fats can readily pick up fridge smells). This is an extremely efficient hack for having softened butter almost on-demand, given that you will simply need to portion out what you need and give it a quick 10 minutes to come to temperature. Reach for the best butter brand at the grocery store, and you will have a snowy drift of golden, creamy butter at your beck and call.