The Look and Feel of Soft Butter

• Touching butter can tell you whether it's soft enough. Chilled butter is clearly cool when you press it, and your finger will leave a small indentation. Soft butter allows your finger to sink in 1/4 inch or so -- you'll see a large depression where you've pressed and the edges of the butter stick will crack or bend slightly. Butter that is too soft will yield too much when you press and, instead of cracking at the edges of the stick, the butter will seem to melt at your touch.

Taking Butter's Temperature

• To more definitively determine whether butter is "soft," you can use an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature. Insert it into the center of the stick being careful not to push it so far that it passes through it. Chilled butter registers about 35 degrees Fahrenheit, soft butter should register between 60 to 68 F and butter that is too soft to use will be over 85 F. Creaming butter with sugar warms it up more, so you want the butter at a temp that is less than 68 F to begin.

Why It Matters

• Butter that is too soft results in over-creaming when you mix the butter and sugar, trapping and holding just the right amount of air bubbles that will allow your cake or cookies to rise properly. Butter that is too warm is unable to form microscopic crystals of fat to trap the air bubbles, so your cake will be flat with a dense or gummy texture.

Getting to Soft

• It's tempting to microwave butter from the refrigerator to soften it up, but the inevitable result is that you over-soften it. If you cut the butter into chunks and leave it at room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes, the butter will be perfect. You can speed the process along to some extent by wrapping a warm towel around the bowl to create a warmer environment to soften the butter quickly.