My chat with a pastry chef at the farmers market changed how I look at butter temperature

So I was at the Piedmont farmers market last Saturday grabbing some peaches and this older guy was selling croissants. We got to talking and he asked what I bake. I said mostly bread and cookies. He looked at my peaches and said "you know when you cream butter for cookies, most people get it too cold or too warm. The real trick is not the temperature itself but how uniform it is." That hit me because I always just stick a thermometer in the middle and call it good. He said if the outside is warmer than the center by even 5 degrees your sugar won't dissolve right. I tried his method with my chocolate chip recipe that night made sure the whole stick was exactly 68 degrees before mixing. First batch came out way flatter and more even than usual. Anyone else ever think about butter uniformity or am I overthinking this?

3 comments

3 Comments

jesse_williams6227d ago

Used to think the butter temperature thing was mostly about not melting it, but this chef's point about uniformity makes a lot of sense. Tried checking the whole stick with a quick poke test and a thermometer at different spots, and the difference was eye opening. My last batch of sugar cookies spread way more evenly than before, so I'm sold on this approach now.

jordan_webb26d ago

Four hours in the fridge and a quick poke test works fine for me without all that fussy temperature checking.

victor_jones9926d ago

Did you ever try the poke test before and think you had it right, only to find out later you were wrong? That's what gets me about this whole butter temperature thing - it's easy to think you know what room temp feels like, but the actual difference in firmness across the stick is wild when you really pay attention. I've been chasing even spread for a while with my chocolate chip cookies, and I'm curious if you noticed any weird hot spots near the center of the butter that made the dough more oily in one spot. Seems like this method would catch that before you ruin a batch of dough.