Quick Tip: Quickly Softening Butter

Heather says:

While it is easiest to just let butter soften at room temperature, sometimes you just don’t have time. Such as when a child “suddenly remembers” they were supposed to bring cookies to class the next day.

I do not recommend using a microwave, as it is way too easy to skip softening and go straight to melting.

The trick is to grate it.  Grating, even frozen butter, gives it a lot more surface area causing it to warm to room temperature quite quickly.  If you are concerned about the amount of butter sticking to the grater, just grate in a tiny bit extra.