Unpopular opinion: I used to put cold butter straight into cookie dough

For years I always followed the recipe that said room temp butter, but I thought it didn't matter until last month when a batch came out flat and greasy. A friend who bakes professionally pointed out my dough was too cold to cream right, and now I wait an hour before mixing - what took me so long?

2 comments

2 Comments

robert_roberts1mo ago

Wait, so you were just tossing cold butter into the bowl all along? I always thought that was the big baking sin everyone talked about but I figured it was just a suggestion. Props to you for finally figuring it out though, even if it took a pro to point it out.

joseph5291mo ago

30 years of baking and I've creamed cold butter plenty of times without it ruining anything. The trick is just smashing it against the side of the bowl for a couple extra minutes until it softens up. Yeah, room temp butter is better for getting that fluffy texture, but cold butter works fine for cookies and pie crusts if you're in a hurry. A lot of these "baking sins" are just guidelines for perfect results every time, not hard rules that make your food taste bad.