How Butter Works: Why Recipes Call For Cold, Soft Or Melted Butter

1. Soft Butter

Soft butter creates tenderness and lift. Use it in cakes (when butter and sugar are creamed together, air is incorporated evenly in the base of a batter or dough) or soft cookies.

This gorgeous pistachio cake with orange blossom icing is extra tender thanks to both softened butter and cake and pastry flour.

Food scientist Jennifer Pallian’s extra-chewy chocolate chip cookies call for 1 cup of unsalted butter at 60 or 65F. (You can use a digital meat thermometer to gauge temperature.)

2. Cold Butter

Cold butter is ideal for baked goods that should be crisp and/or flaky. Butter that's straight from the fridge doesn't get fully incorporated into a batter; instead it gets broken down into small pieces throughout your dough. Since butter is about 18 percent water, steam is released in those pockets during baking, which helps create flaky layers.

In her scientific guide to making the perfect pie crust, Jennifer Pallian recommends incorporating the cold butter in two batches, leaving the second batch in " in perceptible shards and lumps. Larger pieces of fat create distinct pockets of steam in the baked pastry, which result in flakiness." Try her all-butter pastry dough recipe and see for yourself!

Cold butter is also essential for creating perfectly flaky scones—as in our classic butter scones, which call for grated cold butter. For best results, handle dough as little as possible, and if it starts to feel warm, pop it in the fridge.

3. Melted Butter

Because melted butter has already released much of its water content, it makes the finished treats soft, dense and flavourful.

Use it in loaves—like our glazed lemon poppy seed loaf—and brownies, but let it cool to room temperature before incorporating.

In our pumpkin brown butter brownies recipe, we melt the better until it browns, which imparts the blondies with a deliciously nutty flavour.

Watch: How To Properly Cream Butter And Sugar