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The heavy and dense texture of butter and sugar when mixed together initially can feel like wet sand, before it is whipped vigorously to make way for a pale, fluffy foundation to which other ingredients can be added while baking cookies and cakes. Beating air into what would otherwise weight a cake down significantly allows the end product to be light and fluffy, making it a pleasure to bite into. The emphasis on using room temperature butter and the lack of specifications about how long one must continue to beat the two ingredients is often lost on us. However, using visual cues and following the technique as accurately as possible can elevate your baking experience.
Use An Electric Mixer
Image Credits: KitchenAid
For anyone who knows how long creaming butter and sugar by hand can take, the stamina to manually perform this task is almost gargantuan. Ideally, save yourself the labour and rely on the virtues of an electric mixer to do the job for you.
Avoid ‘Rooom Temperature’ Butter
While butter doesn’t begin to melt until it reaches a temperature of 32°C, the ideal temperature for creaming butter caps at a mere 20°C. Ideally, if your butter is at a temperature that is higher than 21°C, chances are that your mixture may not cream at all. Warm butter lacks the capacity to retain any air, leading to a dense dough and flat cookies.
Cube The Butter
The process of creaming involves breaking down the butter, all the while incorporating sugar to make it a homogenous mixture. Instead of simply dropping a block of butter into your mixing bowl, cut up your fat into smaller cubes before you tip the sugar in – making it more pliable and easier to combine.
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Temperature Is Key
While room temperature butter can’t always guarantee the best results given how hot it is across most parts of India, make sure that your butter is on the verge of being warm but retains a fair amount of coolness before you begin. Ensure that your butter does not reach a temperature beyond 20°C, which you can check using a kitchen thermometer just to be doubly sure.
Avoid Overmixing
Usually the standard time for 225 grams of butter plus sugar would take about 4-5 minutes to reach the light and fluffy stage. Ensure that you keep an eye on the clock and steer clear from overworking the butter – which will not only beat the air out of your mixture but also make your dough dense and warm.
One Cold Egg
When baking cookies, adding a cold egg to your sugar-butter mixture not only lowers the overall temperature but also prevents your dough mixture from eventually breaking as a result. Unless your recipe mentions otherwise, opt to use a fridge-cold egg while mixing dough or batter.
Scrape The Sides
To avoid malformed cookies, make sure to scrape the sides of your mixer to remove any residual film of flour or butter stuck to its walls. Scraping enables uniformity while making dough as well as evaluate the consistency of your fat – depending on the temperature of your surroundings.
