Cooking and baking with butter: we all get these things wrong sometimes

Butter is practically indispensable in our kitchens: whether it’s the best banana bread or the juiciest steak, butter makes it possible. And if we really want to take a slice of toast or freshly baked bread to the next level, we spread the most delicious butter from (imported) Guernsey or Jersey cows on it. Yet things can still go wrong when baking with or in butter…

It sounds super simple, of course, and you probably often have a pack of butter at home. But there are still a few things you need to pay close attention to, because a mistake is easily made (and easily avoided). So here they are: five common mistakes when cooking or baking with butter:

You don’t follow the temperature stated in the recipe

“Ice-cold” butter in a recipe (usually a baking recipe) really does need to be ice-cold if you’re going for a crisp result with beautiful flaky layers or crunchy cookies. In this article, we explain what temperature butter should be for different bakes. A common mistake is thinking it doesn’t matter that much, but the texture of a cake, pie or cookie really does change if you don’t follow the temperature in the recipe.

• Tip: to soften butter, it’s better to grate it or cut it into small pieces rather than heat it in a saucepan. Melting is difficult to control, but if it does happen and you want to firm the melted butter up again, stir in a few ice cubes until it becomes solid again, then fish out the ice cubes.

You add the butter to the pan too early while cooking

If you want to start by frying a steak or a piece of fish in butter, add a splash of oil as well to prevent the butter from burning. Also, don’t think of this ‘starter’ butter as the sauce you’ll eventually spoon over your perfectly cooked steak or cod fillet in the pan. Instead, use a knob of butter that you add just before the end of the cooking time. As soon as the butter has melted, turn off the heat and spoon it over the meat or fish (or vegetables!) in a few movements. This prevents you from spooning burnt butter over your carefully cooked food, and makes you the boss of your finishing butter.

You bake sweet things with salted butter

We’re happy to join the sweet-and-salty movement (chocolate with sea salt, cookies with pretzel pieces), but baking with salted butter is a more complicated story. You never know exactly how salty your particular butter is, or what that means for the proportions in the dough. It’s better to use unsalted butter and add salt as stated in the recipe. I usually add a quarter teaspoon more because I like that, but if you want, you can also sprinkle a pinch of Maldon over, for example, your gooey brownies at the end.

You stop mixing too soon

Boring, right—standing over the mixing bowl with a hand mixer for five to ten minutes to beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy? I’m always incredibly bored (I don’t have the luxury of a stand mixer). But if you’re wondering whether it’s really necessary when a baking recipe says so: unfortunately, yes. You’re literally beating air into it, and the lighter this mixture, the lighter your cake, pie or cookies will be. You’re done when peaks begin to form.

You burn the butter in the pan

Of course, beurre noisette is delicious, but making (intentionally) browned butter does require some attention. You don’t want to cross the line into bitter, black burnt butter, because there’s no turning back from there. So never put a large piece or half a pack of butter in the pan; cut it into small, equal pieces first, so you don’t end up with a melting iceberg in the pan, with the melted part already beginning to caramelize while the top is still cold. Ideally, don’t do this in a pan with a black base either, but use a silver-colored pan so you can properly observe the browning process.

You never make butter yourself

Making butter yourself is something you really have to try! It’s so much fun to make something yourself that you may be used to always buying at the store. Like magic: turning a little cream into butter that you can also season exactly the way you like it. With spice blends such as za’atar or dukkah, or going completely in the other direction: coffee butter. Oof, that’s so good on your warm croissant… Anyway, go wild!

Read also:

• You didn’t see this hit coming: spaghetti with oyster sauce butter
• Everything about buttercream
• Emma’s food annoyances: always too little butter