Is there anything that smells better than bread fresh out of the oven?

Oh, the aroma is intoxicating.

Sometimes, I have great restraint and can wait until the bread is fully cooled.

Other times, I just can't help myself. Needs no butter, jam or jelly. I'm in heaven.

Making soft butter

Butter is expensive. But our family really prefers butter over margarine, for several reasons. Butter is also rock-hard fresh out of the fridge. You know what I mean? Like when butter is so hard that it tears up a slice of bread. 

So, to address both problems (expense and spreadability), I make my own soft butter. 

Our cost for vegetable oil is quite low, about 69 cents per pound, when bought in an institutional-size container (for a post on buying in institutional-size quantities, see here). While real butter is around $1.90 per pound (on sale, and usually limited to one or two pounds, and only with a coupon). By blending vegetable oil into the butter (using about 1/3 cup of oil, for every 1 cup of butter), the cost of my soft butter is about $1.59/lb.

I have two methods for making soft butter. The ratios are the same, just a different technique mostly determined by the amount I want to make at one time.

The first is a simple process, using a spoon and dish or crock.
To make soft butter, I soften 2 sticks (1 cup) of butter on the counter for several hours. I mash it up with the back of a spoon, in a small crock, until soft and spreadable. Then I add 1/3 cup of vegetable oil, a tablespoon at a time, mixing in well.

When the oil is all mixed in, it looks quite soft  and sloppy (and will have some lumps of butter here and there. I'm not a perfectionist about this).

I cover and refrigerate. Within a couple of hours in the fridge, it will be firm, but spreadable.

The second method I use when I am making a pound or more of soft butter at a time. I use my hand mixer. I do this just prior to using my mixer to bake a cake or make a batch of cookie dough, and then use that buttery bowl afterwards for the baking batter/dough.

I put 1 or 2 pounds of butter into a large mixing bowl, and allow to soften on the counter for an hour or two. I then use my mixer to cream the butter, and add in the oil, in proportions of 3 parts butter to 1 part oil. I blend until all is incorporated, then scoop into containers for the fridge. My buttery bowl and mixer are then used to mix some cake batter/cookie dough -- no extra washing. (Obviously, this is a much more efficient method for making soft butter, than one crock at a time.)

Soft butter only takes a few minutes to make, but it really slows our consumption of an expensive ingredient.