Soften Butter and Cream Cheese Quickly
If you want to learn how to soften butter and cream cheese quickly using the defrost setting on your microwave, keep reading.
How to Soften Butter and Cream Cheese Quickly
I can’t count the number of times I have forgotten to set my butter or cream cheese out to soften before starting a recipe. So I had to come up with a way to soften them quickly. After a lot of research and many failed attempts with an oven light and warm glass, I took matters into my own hands and came up with a solution using the defrost setting on my microwave.
If you don’t have a microwave, this method will not work for you as a microwave is crucial. So I’ll tell you some of the other ways I have tried to soften butter and cream cheese quickly that proved to not be as quick as I had hoped for. They worked, just not in the short timeframe I was looking for.
Warm Glass Method
Heat a glass of water in your microwave, discard the water, and turn the glass upside down over top of your butter or cream cheese. The heat trapped in the glass will soften the butter, but it doesn’t happen quickly, so please keep that in mind. I have also noticed that with this method, the butter melts around the edges right away instead of softening.
Oven Light Method
Another method others swear by is the oven light method. You just turn on the light in your oven, place your butter or cream cheese on a plate and place it in the oven and close the door. The heat from the light bulb is supposed to be just enough to soften your butter or cream cheese. Y’all, this takes almost as long as just leaving it out on the counter does.
The Easiest Way to Soften Butter and Cream Cheese Quickly
USE A MICROWAVE on the defrost setting!
The defrost setting on the microwave heats at about 30% of the power used to cook something. This means it gets warm in the microwave, but it does not get hot, so your butter and cream cheese will not melt, but they will soften as if they had been sitting at room temperature for hours.
It’s important to remove your butter and cream cheese from their wrappers and place them on a microwave safe plate before placing them in the microwave. This is for safety reasons because we don’t want metal in the microwave, and most cream cheese wrappers and some butter wrappers contain aluminum foil. Metal in the microwave can spark a fire and damage your microwave, so it’s best to remove the wrappers and err on the side of caution.
Using the defrost setting, set your timer for 30 seconds. After the 30 seconds, you’ll want to rotate the plate and set the defrost timer for 15 seconds. After that 15 seconds, if your butter and cream cheese have not softened, continue defrosting in 15 second increments until it is at your desired softness. It usually takes between 60 and 90 seconds total to soften butter and cream cheese.
Once you have softened the butter and cream cheese quickly, you can go ahead and use it in your recipes. With this method, you need less than 2 minutes to soften your butter or cream cheese, so the next time you forget to set those out ahead of time, you can still make the recipe!
A few of my favorite recipes that use softened butter or cream cheese:
Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls (Cinnabon Copycat)
*Affiliate link “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.*
Join My Gluten-Free Kitchen Crew
Get my favorite gluten-free recipes, tips, and grocery store finds delivered right to your inbox! Just pop your email below, and let’s start cooking up some magic together!
4 Comments