Softened butter

I love butter and in our house we use that over margarine. My only problem with butter is that I either forget to take it out of the fridge in time for it to soften properly or it’s too cool in our kitchen in the winter for it to be soft any time. Add to that the fact that we don’t own a microwave and softening butter became a pain in the butt.

So now I use this trick which works for me every time.

You will need boiling water, a plate, a heavy ceramic mug or bowl, and your butter.

Fill a ceramic bowl or mug with boiling water. A heavy ceramic will hold heat better which is how this trick works. Leave the water in the mug for about 5 minutes or until it’s nice and warm.

While that’s happening, put a piece of butter on the plate. Nothing too big, but maybe 1/2 or 1/4 cup at a time.

Once the mug is warmed up, dump out the hot water and turn the mug over onto the plate, covering the butter. It makes a little warming chamber. 10 minutes like that and you should have soft spreadable butter for bread, biscuits, or whatever else you want.

Alternatively, if you want spreadable butter right out of the fridge and don’t want to switch to margarine, you can mix 1C butter with 1/2C to 3/4C of olive oil. It’s recommended that this is done in a blender or food processor so it mixes well and doesn’t create lumps.