Want to know how to soften butter quickly? We've got the trick.

And no, it’s not the one you’re thinking of.

It’s a common holiday baking aggravation: The oven is preheated; the flour, sugar and spices are all measured. That’s when you come upon “softened butter” in the ingredient list — but your butter’s in the fridge, hard as a rock.

Food hack investigator Katie Quinn checks out several methods for softening butter and chooses the best of the bunch (hint: Step away from the microwave). See which technique worked best for Katie, then weigh in with your own butter softening techniques.

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The hot water technique.

Place the piece of butter in a sandwich bag and put it in a pot of boiling water.

Unfortunately this method produces similar results to placing butter in the microwave: Most of the butter melts completely.

The rolling pin method.

Put the butter in a sandwich bag and beat with a rolling pin until soft.

This technique produces great results in only thirty seconds of beating. The downside? The noise.

The cheese grater method.

Slice the piece of butter up into bite size bits.

Grate each piece.

Although it takes a little longer and it's a bit messy this hack does the trick.

So which method is the winner?

The rolling pin method. Despite the noise, it's the quickest and cleanest method of softening butter.

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Tags: baking , cooking , hack , life-hack

The best trick for quickly softening butter.

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