OMG - serious miscalculation led me to take out only half of the butter I need out of the freezer.

If it's frozen, can I put it in a bowl of room-temp water to speed thawing? I use this trick to bring cold butter to room temp but I'm not sure if it's okay to use this tip with frozen butter.

It's one of those days, CC!

You can shred it. Or cut it and spread it out on a sheet pan so the air hits it. Might have to cut it as you can as it thaws.

Oh yeah--or you can put it on marble and flip it every 15 minutes or something. Marble pulls the temperature out of stuff.

grate it into a bowl

Save yourself some trouble. Put in the microwave for 25 seconds at a time until it's soft.

I second the microwave....putting it on half power will help with it softening more evenly.

I put it in a ziploc bag and then put it in a bowl of warm water.

I've used the microwave about 5 seconds at a time until it's soft enough

I put it in the microwave on power level #2 or 20% for about 45 seconds a lb. It depends on your microwave, start at level #2 for 20 seconds, and see how it goes.

microwave, definitely.

i soften it in the microwave on defrost, i find doing it on the defrost setting i get a more even softening.

Hi i just grate mine done it loads good luck.

I use the microwave, 5 or 6 seconds at a time, always turning the stick of butter between each cycle; otherwise is may melt on one side and still be hard on the opposite side

Thanks, everyone! I ended up microwaving it then putting it in a ziploc bag in room temp water and my dough turned out fine.

Now if only I could get my 3 kids to cooperate while I bake. I managed to bake 80 cookies - only 130 left to go!