You need softened butter – and you need it now. Do you risk it all and put it in the microwave? Do you rearrange your schedule and wait hours for it to come to room temperature on the counter? Or try another hack: a hot water bath or DIY butter sauna or more?
Countless tips, tricks and techniques abound to soften butter quickly. Some are worth it, some are not. We tested them all to find the best way to soften butter quickly. But first…
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
How to tell if the butter has softened
The best way to tell if the butter is perfectly soft is by pressing your finger into it. It should feel like clay – you can easily press an opening, but there is some resistance. The butter shouldn't be greasy and your finger shouldn't be able to press the butter down to the surface – if it is, it's too hot.
Why should you use softened butter?
Butter should usually be soft when cremation with sugar. During this step, the sugar is whipped into the butter, creating small air pockets from the sugar crystals that lighten and aerate the butter. This translates into air pockets in the final baked product, which results in fluffier, longer baking.
If the butter is too cold during the creaming, the sugar will not be able to create air pockets effectively and the baked goods will be denser; if the butter is too hot (and thus too soft), it won't hold its shape and will be able to hold a network of air pockets from the sugar, making it well-baked again.
Butter also needs to be soft for other baking steps, like brushing the flour on a cake made using reverse creaming method. If the butter is too hard, it will not be able to mix into the flour; too soft and will make the flour mixture greasy. Similar principles apply to manufacturing butter cream OR enriched bread, in which you have to beat the softened butter into a mixture. It should hold its shape but blend easily and emulsify into the mixture.
Butter softening methods
All tests were done using Land O Lakes unsalted butter at 73°F kitchen. Note that different temperatures and butter with different water content will result in slightly different time intervals for each of these methods.
First, the classic method, used here as a control:
They are left out on the counter
- Method: Leave a stick of butter out on the counter
- Total time: 2 to 5 hours, depending on the temperature in your kitchen
- Verdict: It's hard to mess up and make your butter very soft (unless your kitchen is very hot) and it doesn't require any active work. However, this method takes a long time and requires advance planning, limiting spontaneous ripening.
- Rating: 6.5/10
To speed up softening in the pan, some bakers recommend cutting the butter into slices to expose more surface area and bring it to room temperature more quickly:
Cut into slices and leave out on the counter
- Method: Cut the butter into slices, then leave on a plate
- Total time: 30 minutes
- Verdict: While this is quicker than leaving a whole stick of butter out on the counter, it still involves a bit of waiting. However, it is difficult to overdo it and make the butter too soft, which is a benefit.
- Rating: 7.5/10
Other bakers praise various sheaves that create a warm environment for the butter to soften quickly. We tried them:
Bowl of hot water
- Method: Pour hot water from a kettle into a bowl, let it sit for about two minutes, then discard the water and place the bowl upside down over the butter for about 10 minutes.
- Total time: 12 minutes
- Verdict: This method did not completely soften the butter – the inside was still hard and cold. It's difficult to set two timers (water in bowl, then bowl over butter) and 12 minutes is still a bit long.
- Rating: 4/10
Hot water bath
- Method: Place the wrapped stick in a bowl of barely warm tap water for 10 to 15 minutes
- Total time: 10 to 15 minutes
- Verdict: This method is surprisingly hard to nail – if the water is just a little too hot, the butter can easily become too soft and greasy. Additionally, the stick of butter was inconsistently softened – it was warm and extremely soft on the outside, and still cold and hard on the inside.
- Rating: 5/10
Microwave water
- Method: Microwave a cup of water for two minutes until very hot, then place the sliced butter in the hollow, microwave for 10 minutes
- Total time: 12 minutes
- Verdict: The butter was quite soft. The two-step process is a bit clunky and 12 minutes is still a bit to wait.
- Rating: 6.5/10
And then there's the microwave. Everyone says you shouldn't microwave butter to soften it, but are they just being dramatic?
Microwave (horizontal)
- Method: Place the stick of butter horizontally on a plate and microwave in 5-second intervals, turning a quarter turn each time.
- Total time: Approximately 20 seconds
- Verdict: The butter was unevenly softened – some patches were greasy, others a bit too hard. It is very easy to overdo it and make your butter too soft.
- Rating: 5.5/10
Microwave (upright)
- Method: Place a stick of butter on its edge (so it should be vertical) on a plate and put it in the microwave for 8 seconds; twist it so it rests on the other end, then microwave for another 8 seconds
- Total time: 16 seconds
- Verdict: Completely and evenly softened, without any greasy parts or cold, hard parts. Mine took some also soft; next time, I'll try 7 seconds on each side.
- Rating: 9/10
Rossi Anastopoulos
The best way to quickly soften butter involves your microwave (shocker!)
That's right: After testing, our favorite method involves microwaving butter, but in a very specific way. It should be placed vertically, which exposes more surface area and results in even smoothing, with no patchy hot or cold spots. And it all takes less than 20 seconds, so you can choose a recipe and start baking in minutes.
Note: All microwaves are different, so play around with a few seconds or so to determine the perfect setting for your butter. These tests were performed in a 1000 watt microwave.
If you don't have access to a microwave, we recommend cutting the butter into slices and leaving it on the counter. You can use the 30 minutes or so that it takes to soften to prepare your food and get organized to bake.
And remember, if you accidentally go too far with any of these methods and end up with butter that's halfway to melting, we have some recipes that call for melted butter. Try Pie Crust with Melted Butter, CrumpetsOR Chocolate chip cookies with rye. And if your plans change and you're wondering if you can put the softened butter back in the fridge – here we have the answer.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
