Suddenly realizing that a recipe you're preparing calls for a stick of softened butter can leave any home cook in a scramble. After all, it can take hours for a butter stick right from the fridge (longer from the freezer) to transform into a spreadable, softened consistency when it's left on the kitchen counter. Instead of microwaving it, which runs the risk of quickly melting the butter, try breaking the butter up into small, thin pieces by way of a cheese grater.
Rock-solid though it may be, a cold stick of butter is no match for a cheese grater. Simply grate the whole stick into a bowl or on a piece of parchment paper. Now, instead of waiting for an entire block of butter to soften, those teeny tiny pieces will soften up swiftly, and in no time at all, they'll be ready to incorporate into your cake batter, cookie dough, frostings, and brioche loaves.
Many types of cheese graters will do the job, from flat graters to rotary ones (like ), but box graters might be the most comfortable and stable, plus they contain all of your grated butter in the middle until you remove the grater. If you need lots of softened butter, you can even use the grating plate on your food processor. You may use this method more often than you think Soft cookie dough and fluffy buttercream icing may be what comes to mind when you consider the times you need to grate your cold butter in a box grater, but you might be surprised at how often this method could come in handy.
Few things are more frustrati.
