How a Grater Can Help You Quickly Soften Butter

You’re ready to make a batch of cookies. When getting started, you realize you didn’t let your frozen or cold butter come to room temperature. Now, what do you do?

A cheese grater is an easy method for getting butter to room temperature quickly.

To use this trick, your butter will need to be cold or frozen. Measure out what you’ll need, but leave the wrapper around the rest. Then, grip the butter around the wrapped portion and grate it on a metal grater as if it were a piece of cheese. It’ll shred, and thanks to the thin pieces, will be softened in just a matter of moments.

Now, it is important to note that this might make for a messy situation—especially if your grater isn’t dishwasher safe. Getting all that butter off the kitchen gadget as well as your slippery hands might not make it the best method for you. But there’s an alternative.

You can also quickly cut the butter into small cubes and let it sit out for about half an hour. While this method might take a bit more time than grating, it’ll save the clean-up and still get your butter to soften without melting it (like a microwave would).

The next time you’re baking cookies and forget to set out your butter, don’t sweat it—just grate it.