Food and Recipes Fats Butter 5 Genius Butter Hacks Everyone Should Know Get a (better) grip with these tricks. By Southern Living Editors Published on December 13, 2016 Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Melinda Josie This article originally appeared on Real Simple 1. Cutting To chop butter into small pieces quickly (for pie dough or dotting on vegetables), place about 4 tablespoons of cold butter in an egg cutter. Slice, rotate a quarter turn, and slice again. 2. Measuring When you unwrap a new stick, cut the entire thing into tablespoons. That way, you'll know exactly how many tablespoons you have left for cookies and cakes. 3. Spreading To make cold butter spreadable for toast, sliver pieces off the stick with a Y-shape vegetable peeler. 4. Greasing For mess-free greased pans, rub a butter wrapper around the inside. (Save your empty wrappers folded in a plastic bag in the refrigerator.) 5. Softening To soften cold butter quickly, place it in a plastic bag and smack it with a rolling pin until it's malleable. Related: 6 Fancy Flavored Butter Recipes When to Substitute Olive Oil for Butter in Recipes 7 Vintage Cookbooks Worth the Thrift Store Hunt Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit