How to Get Butter to Room Temperature Without Microwaving

Chilled butter can be nearly impossible to mix or spread.

For a keen baker, there are few things more annoying than getting reading to bake a cake only to find that you neglected to take the butter out of the fridge the night before. Mixing chilled butter into a cake mix is a hard and thankless task. But fear not, even if you're a bit of a culinary purist and don't own a microwave, there are ways and means of getting your butter to room temperature.

Things You'll Need

• Wax paper
• Sharp knife
• Rolling pin
• Grater
• Bowl
• Saucepan
• Plate

Instructions

Rolling Pin

1. Place a large piece of wax paper on your work surface.

2. Cut a stick of butter into small blocks and place it on the wax paper

3. Lay another piece of wax paper over the butter and use a rolling pin to flatten the butter. The heat generated by the rolling motion will soften the butter to room temperature.

Grater

1. Unwrap a stick of butter.

2. Hold a grater over a large bowl and grate the chilled butter.

3. Allow the grated butter to stand for around 15 minutes. The small bits of butter will reach room temperature very quickly due to their size.

Warm Water

1. Boil a large saucepan of water and allow to stand for five minutes.

2. Place a wrapped stick of butter in a bowl, and put the bowl in the saucepan of warm water.

3. Place a plate over the saucepan to keep the heat in and check the temperature of the butter every five minutes. If you're working with a particularly large piece of butter, cut it into smaller pieces first.

References

• Simply Recipes: Tip: How to Soften Butter Quickly; March 2009
• Bon Appétit: How to Get Butter to Room Temperature Quickly