5 Quick Methods to Soften Butter Instantly

We’ve all been there — you realize too late that a recipe calls for softened butter, and although you’ve got plenty of butter, it’s all in rock-hard sticks hiding out in your refrigerator. Softened butter isn’t just ideal for spreading on a warm muffin or for making your own compound butter for the perfect finish to your steak, it is also a key component in many baked goods, from scrumptious cookies to soft and moist cakes.

You can easily melt butter in the microwave or on the stovetop in no time at all, but melted butter doesn’t always cut the mustard. Luckily, there is no need to panic or run to the store to buy a store-bought desert to pass off as your own. There are actually a few ways to get perfectly softened butter in a pinch. You can achieve the desired results with the following tricks, which cover hacks that are almost as clever as adding caviar to your butter for an elevated, bougie twist that makes your butter taste heavenly.

The microwave is a great way to melt butter in a hurry, but if you are very patient with it and work in very small increments, it can also do the job of softening your butter. But you have to watch it very carefully.

Put the amount of butter you need in a microwave-safe bowl and set the timer 10 seconds. Continue to work in 10-second increments or shorter, until the butter reaches the desired level of softness. The key is to check it after each round and touch it gently with your fingertip, so you know it isn’t heating more than desired and starting to melt.

If you’ve got some time, let that time do the work for you by cutting your butter into small pieces and letting it sit outside the fridge until soft. The smaller the pieces, the quicker it will soften, and spreading it out on a plate rather than keeping it in a pile will allow for better air flow.

This method will still take at least 10 minutes, less if you have the butter in a warm place. A similar method involves grating a stick of butter like you would a block of cheese. While this technique is a bit messy, it does a great job of breaking up the density of the butter so warmer air can do its job.

Pounding butter will flatten it, but in the process you will be changing the dense structure into a form that will warm up to room temperature in a jiffy. Not only does this help you out if you need soft butter in a pinch, but it is a great stress reliever.

You can get ready to cream your butter with sugar while you get all your anger out and save a few bucks on an extra therapy session in the process. Simply place the butter in between two pieces of plastic wrap, place it on a hard surface, and go to town with the flat side of a meat tenderizer mallet.

This age-old hack is very effective. However, like the microwave hack, you have to pay close attention to your butter so it doesn’t soften too much and start to melt and sabotage your recipe.

Boil a pot of water and once it is nice and hot, remove it from the stove. Place a plate or bowl with your butter on it and let it sit for a few minutes, turning it if necessary to let the heat work more efficiently from all sides.

This hack comes courtesy of social media, where clever home chefs have shared great tips, like cultivating a steamy environment using boiling water to heat up a glass. However, the technique still requires some finesse to get right.

Let the hot water sit in the glass long enough to heat it, then empty it and flip it upside down over a stick of butter. This will create a heat dome effect that will warm the butter with the heat trapped inside the glass, softening it just enough to cream it with sugar to make a batch of cookie dough or cake batter.