Betcha didnt think Christmas cookie baking could be improved with your microwave.
This weekend, the ladies in my family attempted to start a tradition of Christmas cookie baking.
Baking Christmas cookies takes a lot of planning and shopping and measuring and mixing and of course, baking (which includes cooling and sometimes rotating, if your oven lacks convection).
My soon-to-be sister-in-law chose to make theseRussian Tea Cakes for the first time ever. The recipe calls for a cup of softened butter, but because we were making 6 dozen instead of 4 dozen, we needed a cup and a half of softened butter (thats a lot). And although I am horrible baker, she asked me a question I could actually answer:
How do you get butter to soften without melting it?
Because of our early morning start, the butter I brought to my moms was still refrigerator-hard. So we needed to intercede.
Perhaps your experience with softening butter in the microwave involves you nose pressed up against the glass nuking the flavorful fat ingredient in short intervals and praying it doesnt melt.
Softening gone wrong
But thats not how its supposed to be at all.
Soften a stick of butter by microwaving it for a minute at 10% power.
To soften our cup and a half of butter, we microwaved each stick for a minute a piece at 10% power.
Based on your microwave, you might want to amp up to 20% and adjust the time or even use the defrost setting (which is 30% power).
Later, we also adjusted our microwave power to soften cream cheese for Peanut Butter Balls(which are amazing, by the way).
Microwave power levels can also come in handy for reheating foods, Ive found. Foods like pizza and French fries revive less soggier when microwaved longer at lower power.
Try it out!
How to Soften Butter - Mahalo.com Using hot water will melt the butter and will be too soft to use for baking. http://tipnut.com/soften-butter/ ... simplyrecipes.com/recipes/tip_how_to_soften_butter ... How to Soften Butter: 5 steps - wikiHow For ideal results when baking, keep butter-containing dough and batter as cold as ... http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/tip_how_to_soften_butter_quickly/ Baking tips: how to soften butter Warner Stellian Appliance This weekend, the ladies in my family attempted to start a tradition of Christmas cookie baking. Baking Christmas cookies takes a lot of planning and shopping and ... How to Soften Butter for Baking eHow.com How to Soften Butter for Baking. ... Party Tips; Experts; More eHow. home; mom; style; food; tech; money; health; Featured: New Year. eHow; Recipes; Cheesecake Recipes; No-Bake Cheesecake; Quickly Soften Butter So You Can Start Baking: How-To : TipNut.com You decide to squeeze in some baking when you realize: uh-oh, the butter is rock hard. Time is short and you dont have enough of it to wait for it to come down to ... How to soften butter - Baking Bites With just a few exceptions, most baking recipes call for butter to be softened or at room temperature. ... If you need to soften your butter quickly, ... Tip: How to Soften Butter Quickly Recipe Simply Recipes The quick way to soften butter for baking, with a little wax paper and a rolling pin. Baking Tip: How to Get Perfectly Softened Butter Fast - Musings ... need softened room-temperature butter? Of course you didn't pull the butter out before because you just decided to bake...here is one awesome tip for how to get ... How to Soften Butter Quickly: 14 steps - wikiHow There are several methods you can use to soften butter, ... method completely when baking as the butter will likely ... com/recipes/tip_how_to_soften_butter ... Butter FAQ - Cooking and Baking With Butter Land O'Lakes Tips and techniques related to butter, including how to measure butter for recipes. Learn how to soften butter, and about substituting salted butter for unsalted butter.
1. Pulse animal crackers and sugar in a food processor until finely ground. Dust work surface with cracker mixture and lay 2 overlapping pieces of the pie dough on top. (Brush water between them to help seal them together.) Sprinkle more crumbs over the top and roll the pieces of dough into a 19 by 14-inch rectangle.
2. Using a rolling pin, transfer the dough to a rimmed baking sheet. Lift and press the dough into the baking sheet, letting the excess dough hang over the edge. Brush dough with butter and refrigerate until needed.
3. Add the apple filling, then roll the remaining 2 pieces of dough together into a 19 by 14-inch rectangle with the remaining crumbs. Using a rolling pin, arrange the top crust over the apples.
4. Press the edges of the top and bottom crust together. Trim the excess dough to inch, fold the crust underneath, and crimp the edges using the tines of a fork.