Jennifer Garner Just Shared a Hack for Softening Butter (and Another Food Queen Gave It Her Approval)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever been the victim of a cold stick of butter when you want to make cookies on a whim. As the saying goes, if you’re not cutting corners in the kitchen, you’re doing it wrong. (No one says that. But we’re all thinking it, right?) EvenJennifer Garnerisn’t immune. But thankfully, she has a solution to that problem, which she shared on her Instagram over the weekend.

She captioned her post, “My daughter says if I ever go to court they’ll make me take my oath on a stack of cookbooks. If so, @cooksillustratedwould be in there, for sure. So I took their butter softening idea to [heart emoji]. #doesthiscountasalifehack?”

In the short video, she shows us her trick (courtesy of the kitchen geniuses atCook’s Illustrated):

Step one: Procure a stick of cold, hard butter from your fridge.

Step two: Fill a drinking glass with hot water and let it warm up for 20 seconds.

Step three: Pour the water out and cover the butter with the glass. Let it hang out for ten minutes.

Step four: Revel in your softened butter and kitchen skills.

We’ll definitely be trying this trick at home, and not just because it’s Jennifer Garner’s favorite method. We didn’t have to scroll far through the comments to see that not only didCook’s Illustratedsay, “We love your style @jennifer.garner,” but none other thanINA GARTENgave it her seal of approval. All she said was, “Love this so much!!” but that’s good enough for us.

Another day, another “Pretend Cooking Show” episode. Somebody give this woman a cable deal already.



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Katherine Gillen

Senior Food Editor

Katherine Gillen is PureWow’s senior food editor. She’s a writer, recipe developer and food stylist with a degree in culinary arts and professional experience in New York City...
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