Why Ina Garten Starts Prepping The Night Before She Bakes Cookies

How to soften butter and eggs for cookies

Using butter and eggs at room temperature is essential for baking cookies. Properly creaming the butter, sugar, and eggs ensures that the ingredients blend well and that the butter can incorporate air. This process results in cookies that are lighter and chewier once baked. Although Ina Garten suggests leaving butter and eggs out overnight, this practice contradicts the guidelines for refrigerated eggs in the United States. To follow her advice effectively, allow your butter to sit out overnight and take your eggs out of the fridge two hours before you start baking. The specific time of day is not critical for bringing the ingredients to room temperature (ideally between 65 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit). When Garten mentions "overnight," she likely means around 8 to 10 hours. Therefore, if you intend to bake in the evening, you can take the butter out of the refrigerator in the morning.

While the most effective way to bring cold ingredients to room temperature is to let them do so naturally, there are several reliable methods to soften butter more quickly. One tip is to stand the butter stick upright while it softens, as this exposes more surface area to the warmer air. Another technique, recommended by Mary Berry, involves cutting cold butter into cubes and placing them in a bowl of warm water for about 10 minutes.