Tip Tuesday – Softening Butter

I’m convinced that my husband believes that there is a direct correlation between the amount of chocolate in the chocolate chip cookies (that he’s been requesting for the last three weeks) and how much I love him. These are his one of his greatest weaknesses… and mine, too. But when the request comes after supper is over (read 7:00 PM) and you haven’t softened the butter, you have a real problem. I’ve tried softening butter in the microwave, but the texture of the dough never comes out quite right. It looses the creamy fluffiness that cookie dough should have and seems more runny – like melted butter – giving flat, shapeless cookies.

What’s a loving wife to do? Check her Pinterest pin boards, of course! I saw this “tip of the day” from the Daily Dish Magazine, and was very thankful that I had the foresight to pin it – just in case.

This is so simple, but worked amazingly! All you need is your cold butter and a grater. I think a box grater works really well for this since the shredded butter stays confined, but any course grater will work. The site says to grate over a bowl, but I found that a cutting board was easier with the box grater.

Quickly grate the cold butter. If you go too slowly you’ll end up with melted butter fingers. (Sorry, but I couldn’t resist.)

I put the butter shreds into the mixing bowl. The rest of the ingredients we all ready to go, so it only took a couple minutes to put the sugars and vanilla in the bowl.

The butter was softened and creamed beautifully! I used a modified Nestle Toll House recipe. Rather than using a bag of semi-sweet chocolate, I used 4-oz of dark chocolate chips, 4-oz of milk chocolate chips, and 4-oz of semi-sweet mini chips. I also threw in about 4-oz of walnuts.

Those were some really amazing cookies. They evaporated, or I would show a picture of them. (The picture above was a photo that I found online. There was no source to credit, and it is used in a few different unrelated websites.)

I love tips that save time, money or the day, so I’m going to make Tuesdays “Tip Day”. Has anyone else been saved by an awesome tip found on Pinterest? Please share in the comments!

Overall Rating: 5 Pins

Accuracy: The little pieces of shredded butter softened in no time, just like the site said. The shredded butter gave the same results as butter than had been left out at room temperature. 5 Pins

Difficulty: Grate the butter. Super Simple. 5 pins

Time: It took about 3-4 minutes to grate 2 sticks of butter. This is a great time saver. 5 pins.

Cost: I checked online at Target, Walmart and Bed, Bath and Beyond, and the cost of most box graters was in the $15.00-$20.00 range. Hand held graters were a little less. I believe this is a necessary tool in the kitchen and have had mine for about 25 years (and it still looks good enough to photograph without any embarrassment), so I’m giving it 5 pins.

Practicality: This is a SUPER easy tip and huge time saver. 5 pins