Butter 101: Baking Hacks

Ingredients

• Butter (Temperature varies by application (cold, softened, melted, or browned))

Steps

1. 1

   For flaky items like biscuits, pie crusts, and scones, use cold butter. Keep it as cold as possible to ensure it holds its shape until the heat of the oven turns the water content into steam, creating layers.

2. 2

   If the cold butter is too hard to work with, use a box grater to shred the 'brick' of butter into manageable pieces.

3. 3

   For fluffy cakes or cookies that hold their shape, use softened (room temperature) butter. Test the temperature by pressing a finger or knife into it; it should give easily but still hold its shape. If your finger goes all the way through, it is too soft.

4. 4

   Cream the softened butter with sugar. This process whips tiny air pockets into the mixture, which helps the baked goods rise.

5. 5

   For dense and chewy textures like blondies, brownies, or banana bread, use melted butter.

6. 6

   If a cookie recipe calls for melted butter, ensure you follow the resting step for the dough. Baking immediately with melted butter dough will result in 'cookie puddles' rather than structured cookies.

7. 7

   To upgrade recipes like cookies, banana bread, or mashed potatoes, use brown butter. Melt the butter and continue cooking until the milk solids at the bottom toast and turn brown.

Notes

Butter is composed of fat, water, and milk solids. The fat content can vary by brand, which affects baking results. The box grater trick also works for quickly 'softening' butter when you've forgotten to take it out of the fridge.

Nutrition per serving

• baking hacks
• kitchen tips
• butter
• technique
• vegetarian