WTF is “Light and Fluffy” (How to Cream Butter and Sugar)
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- WTF is “Light and Fluffy” (How to Cream Butter and Sugar)
00:00 Intro
01:52 Mixer Bowl Adjustment
03:24 Butter Temperature
04:40 Mixer Speed
06:20 Scraping
07:15 Small Batches
Stella Parks Article in Seriouseats.com: www.seriouseats.com/cookie-sc...
Stella Parks Video: • Cookie Science: Why Cr...
Tips on creaming:
Make sure the mixer bowl clearance is correct
Start with the butter at 60-64F (15-18C)
Use medium speed on a stand mixer with a paddle attachment
Beat the butter for 30-60 sec to break it up. Add the sugar and beat until incorporated, scape. Beat for 2 min, and scrape. Beat for another 2 min, and scrape. Beat for another 1-2 minutes until the color lightens and the volume increases slightly. It’s not like whipped cream -- it won’t increase dramatically. The final temperature should be around 68F (20C).
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So many people asked about using a hand mixer. Based on what I've seen in the videos, a hand mixer does seam to rearrange the butter and scrape it up from the bottom of the bowl quite well, so you might not need to scrape as much. I haven't tried it for myself since I don't have a hand mixer and here is why. Hand mixer can't be used for bread dough, pasta dough, etc. You can't attach a pasta roller to it either. A stand mixer is a very useful tool to me and a hand mixer wouldn't replace it. I considered buying a hand mixer just for the creaming butter purpose, but a good one costs $50-100. If I would use it at least 5 times a year, it might be worth it. But at this point, I would need it at most once a year. This would save me roughly 5 minutes a year and it doesn't seam to be worth it.
The bowl adjustment and scraping part of this video might be mixer specific, but the temperature range would apply to a hand mixer as well. I hate it when recipes say that something should be "room temperature," when the real acceptable range is really tiny.
On the stand vs hand mixer issue, while I agree with the limitations, I love how the hand mixers allows me to "get personal" with the process of transforming the products, but I will admit that's purely subjective and in reality a good stand mixer (side note: soo envious of your kitchenaid, they're so expensive here on europe) is just the better tool
a solution to this might be an immersion blender with a whisk attachment! the one i have comes with a blade, a whisk and a ricer so it wont be as single purpose.
You definitely should not be needing to adjust your stand mixer so much. I think you should contact KitchenAid technical support and get their feedback on this issue.
Hahaha, NOW I read what you commented here. A hand mixer does do a better job in my experience, and I do have both. I agree with how handy the stand mixer is. It is the attachments that the reason I got it. That and I have wanted one for so long. ;-)
As a student, I dream of having a stand mixer; seems so versatile, but, for now, a 30$ hand mixer will suffice for my weekly baking. As you said in your cooking for college students video, focus on acquiring the tools you will use and can afford!
So I understand why you went for the stand mixer Helen :)
Did everyone else literally bust out laughing at the “no f-bleep-ing way” I love Helen oh so much. She’s such a gem! ❤❤
No, Im American and very disappointed with WTF on the title. Really is it necessary. My grand daughter is 8 and asked what it "meant. Maybe Russians are okay with it. I better unscribe now. Profanity is not acceptable to me in a cooking show.
Actually, I thought it was vulgar and was disappointed.
I too love her
Nope, it doesn't become her.
I had to replay! She is only human and the first time I have ever heard that out of her mouth. Sure had a good giggle!
For anybody who wants to try this without the blue food dye, try a recipe where you cream butter with dark brown sugar. You can totally see what’s going on in this same way as the mixture lightens!
great tip ! thanks!
Exactly. You're beating air into it, and the microbubbles make the fat turn white. The sugar dissolves so it's colour disappears.
When you're sifting flour, you're getting air into it.
Now, this is where we part company. A chiffon actually separates the eggs and beats the whites until they too are stiff with air. The yolks act as a binding agent, but even here, you can beat air into them.
Now you combine things, flour and eggs, then fold the fat in and finally the whites. Don't over-work it!
very true.
I have been doing this for 40 years, since childhood, and professionally taught in high school by old school cooking teachers. Then I ran a cake business for 20 years. I use small bowl with hand beaters. You start with beating the butter, then add the sugar. The other trick is to put the sugar in the blender, which makes it a finer powder, and this dissolves into the butter better. Then wait until its white. Beat butter first adding the sugar a bit at a time. Same with eggs. They must also be room temp to prevent curdling of the mixture. Youre doing great!
Great video--as usual. Now let me interject the next point of failure. So very many recipes call for creaming the butter and sugar just as you now taught us. After that, the next task is almost always beating in eggs. I have seen so many professional chefs and videos immediately destroy their creamed butter/sugar by dumping in their eggs too quickly. The best way to protect your investment of ingredients and time is to crack all the eggs into a liquid measuring cup and then lightly beat them with a fork or small whisk. You can then SLOWLY stream those lightly beaten eggs into your creaming mixture (while beating at speed 4 or 6, of course); this will continue to add air and volume. At the end of adding eggs, if the mixture looks curdled, then you dumped in too much egg too quickly.
I've enjoyed many of your videos before, they're always good. But this one! This one blew my mind. I've been baking with a KitchenAid mixer for twenty years and never knew it even _could_ be adjusted, much less how to do it. And I've also never really known what "light and fluffy" looks like when creaming butter and sugar; I've always just let the mixer run for 2-3 minutes and called it a day. This video changes everything for me. Thank you!
I agree... adjust your kitchenAid? Mind blown!!!!
Same here. Adjust? 🙄
I’ve had my KitchenAid mixer since the 1980s….the manual is long gone and I never knew anything about adjustments at all. Interesting.
Another KitchenAid owner who did not know anything about adjusting the mixer! Thanks so much! New subscriber!
I also never knew about the adjustment. And, my butter is much too soft to start. I can't wait to bake with this new info.
The biggest tricks are: 1) Temperature. I usually go for 64˚, or go cooler and just beat it longer. Eventually it will warm to the right temp. If it’s too warm, the air punched in by the sugar won’t hold. Err on cooler butter. And yes, use a thermometer. 2) Use a beater blade with the rubber scraper strips and you don’t really have to scrape your bowl. It works so much better than an all metal blade. But it will likely take less time than recipes say. 3) I use speed 5 and it does come together in 3 minutes. But the biggest trick is keep going until you get the right result. Don’t go by time. Go by result.
Seriously, one of the most important videos you have ever made. I feel like I learned a year's worth of knowledge in under 9 minutes.
What an interesting experiment! I'm old, and have always made my cookies by hand, smashing the butter into the sugar with the back of a big spoon, then slowly getting it to a whippable state. I don't time the process, but it is long, and I judge the timing by the color - it should look quite pale by the time it's done, and the grains nearly stop crunching against the bowl. It's true that it's really best to keep it on the cool side, in spite of the difficulty, because you don't want the butter to go oily.
So true! I always whip butter just a tad on the cool side
I made a last minute batch of chocolate chip cookies today, put all the dry ingredients in the bowl, then realized I needed to cream the butter and sugar, which wasn't possible at that point. I mixed all the wet ingredients with the dry, by hand, and my cookies came out great, just like they normally do. I think I will skip the creaming of butter and sugar from now on. So much easier and quicker.
I’m going to check my bowl clearance today! Thank you, Helen. Amazing, as always.
This video was helpful in so many ways! Thank you, Helen (and Stella)! A joyous holiday season to you and all of your followers!
Omg I absolutely love your down to earth honest descriptions.. it totally makes sense now.
You keep teaching me things I thought I already knew! You are so incredible for sharing this and I cannot thank you enough!
Thank you for this video! I found it very helpful for my Christmas baking. I have a family recipe that's been a tradition to make in December for multiple generations, and I've made the recipe many, many times. Following your directions for creaming the butter made my cookies even better!
Oh goodness! I’m 71 so thank you for teaching this old gal some new tricks. I had no idea my Kitchenaid could even BE adjusted. Thanks!
Stella is the best. I hope she's doing well with whatever she's been up to since the beginning of the pandemic--and I hope we get some new recipes (or a new book) from her sometime soon.
My mother could cream butter and sugar until it was totally without sugar grains. I remember sneaking fingers full because it was soooo good! She had a Sunbeam mixer so, of course, so do I. I decided years ago that I’m not a baker - never could live up to momma. Thankfully, my daughter loves to bake so I’ll just leave that to her. 😁. I will forward this to her in case she can use it.
This is all news to me! Thank you so much, I have been "creaming" my butter and sugar for maybe one minute at most for about 50 years! I'm sure my grandkids will love the next batch of cookies even more than ever.
Thank You, thank you, thank you!! I never knew about adjusting the bowl of my mixer! Priceless info!! I passed this along to my baking friends and family. The creaming butter and sugar with the food coloring was an excellent lesson too!
A huge thank you to you as well.I’m going to check my mixer today for adjustment
What an excellent video about creaming sugar and adjusting the mixing bowl. One thing that I purchased years ago was a beater blade, which is basically the paddle with flexible silicone edges that act like a spatula and scrapes the bowl so you don’t have to stop mixing. It was such a great idea that Kitchen Aid now makes one for their machines and is worth it for any batter that needs that extra scraping of the bowl.
Since my kitchen is also cold, one other trick to soften butter is to boil water in a microwaveable glass, empty the water out and place that glass over the top of your butter and let it sit for a few minutes, works like a charm. I usually use my 4 cup measuring pitcher to do this.
Thanks so much and Happy New Year!
This was MASTERFUL! From the "adjust your clearance" to taking on the topic of what room temperature really means (as if all rooms are the same temperature!), brilliant all around.
UA-cam stopped putting you into my regular rotation after your video on the Ukraine conflict -- not sure why -- possibly more an issue of my searching for non-food things for a while, but hopefully your viewership is still strong. Thanks for bringing science and experimentation to all of us through your videos over the years. It's inspired me in things food and more. I hope to attend one of your classes one day. All the best!
This is a fantastic video and it's lovely to see someone learn something new even for however long you've been at it. I have my thoughts on why they say 2 minutes of beating - it's the same little lies recipes do (like 2 tbsp of oil) that make things seem quicker and easier than it is (even though it is fairly easy, once you understand the fundamentals.) Lovely work Helen, keep up the amazing work!
I always thought it takes longer than the 2-3 minutes given in recipes.
Much like the ‘caramelise onions in ten minutes’ conspiracy 😠
Love you, Helen! I recommend Stephanie Jaworski of Joy of Baking channel to get exact accurate measurements for timings, blender speeds, temps, grams measurements etc. Baking recipes require TESTING much more than cooking ones. This means multiple bakers in different kitchens using their own different materials, like different pans! Most UA-camr bakers don't do this so the results are different. The amount of time to cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer is different from a hand mixer. Martha Stewart is also a tester. It took me years of hit and miss to learn that there is a difference between a home baker who can youtube and a baker who can successfully teach others!
I love Stephanie's channel :)
Hard disagree. Everytime I follow a Martha stewart or America's test kitchen science experiment of a recipe to the letter its an inedible disaster. The foods we enjoy were invented and mastered by generations of illiterate, enslaved and disempowered women...I don't need a man with a useless degree to tell me what I'm doing wrong.
@@evil1by1 America's Test Kitchen has proven invaluable to so many cooks around the world because they do send out that recipe to so many different cooks and tweak based on that. If you are having issues every single time despite this, you may want to get help and have a cooking partner. They can point out what you may be missing. Baking requires exact measures. So it sounds like you are missing out on a big part of the kitchen experience.
@@RasheedahsWifeSchoolI’ve never heard of American test kitchen but I’m 100% gonna check it out. I grew up in a cooking family as well and even now like all my cousins are amazing chefs and aside from my cousins gf who bakes for fun, I’m the only baker/pastry artist. I had to do SO MUCH research when I started baking and I had no clue how much chemistry/science goes into it. I think that’s what I love about it tbh. I went to college for aero engineering and have always love physics and I think that’s why it comes so naturally to me as well as the fact that I’m a weirdo and instead of going on social media I sit on my phone and do research in my spare time😂 even tho I left engineering bc it was too much for mental health I’m so glad I found baking bc it’s the perfect balance between art and science. I feel like I was always good at science but loved art and thought you had to choose one or the other until I got sober and got hella into baking since I had a lot of spare time and needed a healthy outlet. Now it’s my favorite thing and I bake for hours a day and am pursuing a career in it. It’s so true that anyone can post recipes online but not a lot of people can successfully teach others online. It annoys me when I see a recipe posted and people have genuine questions and are trying to make it work with their environment and the person gets annoyed bc someone can’t find some obscur expensive brand of sweetener and asks for a substitute. Then they’ll be like “I linked it and you can order it online” like as if it’s reasonable to order a $20 bottle of stevia for one recipe. No hate it’s their recipe and they’re allowed to say no subs but I think part of being a good recipe developer is taking into account that not everyone has access too or can afford the same ingredients. Im not gluten free but my mom was for a while so I’d try and accommodate her and some of the recipes were like 6 different types of obscur flours and I’m like wtf is teff flour lol and what is a tigernut😂 why can’t they use a blend. Anyways this post ended up way longer than I expected but y’all get the gist.
Thank you for the bowl clearance demonstration! I've struggled with my Kitchenaid's bowl clearance since I got it. It's so frustrating to try to mix smaller quantities and have it all just stick to the outside of the bowl. I adjusted the bowl height once, which helped a bit, but I wasn't sure if I had it at the right height. I will definitely give the dime test a try! Maybe I'll just keep one with my mixer all the time lol
Thank you. I have been baking for years, but this was really helpful. I often do things without really knowing why I am doing them. It is fun to learn new things.
This video is such an eye-opener, both for adjusting my relatively new Kitchen Aid Mixer, the butter temperature and speed and time for properly creaming butter and sugar. Thank you so much!!!
For tilt-head stand mixers, you can purchase a little doodad to make sure the clearance doesn't need to be adjusted as often. It's called the everdime and can be bought from Mr. Mixer. I have a bowl-lift so I can't make use of it but for other people might find it useful!
Thank you! That is the mixer that I have. Will definitely look into it!
In a pinch you might try adding some Loctite to the adjustment screw to keep it from backing out while the mixer runs
I am so glad YT recommended you in my feed! You are a delight 💜
Oh my goodness thank you!!! What you say in the beginning is exactly what I complain about with every recipe! This is so helpful!
This was the best information I’ve seen yet on how to cream butter and sugar! Thank you for the entertaining video Helen!
OMG! Game changer! Adjusted my mixer and it’s a small miracle! Thanks for the tutorial!
What a fantastic instructional video! I Judy wanted to see if the butter gets creamed before adding sugar, but I hit so much more. Thank you.
Hats off to you helen, you're the only food youtuber who dives deep into the whys and hows. Thank you!
Game changer! I didn’t know I could adjust my bowl clearance. Thank you!
LOVE the bowl height test! Wonderful!! Thank you.
OMG! I had to stop the video! My mixer has an alignment feature?!?!?! Best video I have watched of the day! Love all your videos! Love watching videos that not only entertain, but also add to my culinary knowledge! Love this additional add-on that I didn't know before. Keep those amazing videos coming and thanks again!
Wow! Thank you Helen & Stella!
Agreed it’s nice you really take the time to explain that bc I never had a problem creaming butter and sugar when I used a hand mixer but since I got my kitchen aid I feel like I can’t get it to the right consistency especially when making buttercream. I honestly continued to use my hand mixer for that unless it’s a meringue buttercream or a super large amount and saved the mixer for doughs and other stuff that needs continuous whipping bc it seemed more trouble than it was worth. Now that I know I need to probably adjust my bowl I’m gonna do that and try it again. Love that people like you take the time to break it down for us bc how the hell would anyone really know how much goes into creaming unless someone educates them on it. Luckily I love to do research and have a mechanical scientific brain so baking came easy enough to me, but I still had no clue you needed to adjust the bowl and the food color? genius!!! Especially for people with bad eye sight and terrible kitchen lighting who can’t see whether it’s getting lighter or not😂 I swear the thing I was surprised at the most when I started baking a while back was just how much chemistry goes into it and how we never stop learning things no matter how long we’ve been baking. First time on your channel and I’m def gonna watch more videos😊
Thank you so much for this information. It is very useful ,as I have recently purchased a Kitchen aid stand mixer, and seeing the correct adjustment is so helpful. Much thanks!
Well I got schooled today and I'm happy about it. 😄
I've heard people stress their opinion about discouragement and unsatisfactory of stand mixer bowls having trouble with smaller volumes but I didn't know there was a cure.
Must be a reason I'm subscribe to this channel. 😁 thanks for that.
I have never heard of this ! You are a gem for making this video ! Thank you
Wow, what an eye-opener!
I’M SO HAPPY YOU MADE THIS VIDEO! THANK YOU
Thank you for this video. I learned this the hard way after ruining several recipes and a lot of frustration trying to figure out what the problem was. It's a really important step that gets little attention.
That's a terrific video Helen!
At age 72, FINALLY, I know what creaming butter and sugar REALLY means! And how to accomplish the feat! THANKYOU. I’ll be visiting your channel again.
As an avid home baker, I've not had problems with creaming butter and sugar, but I wanted to see if I could improve my baking. I have used my Kitchenaid mixer for over 25 years and did not know I could adjust the bowl height! Now, after a LOT of holiday baking, the first thing I'm going to do in the new year is to see if my mixer bowl needs adjusting. Thank you for the information!
I'm Subscibing just because of the information ( that I never ever thought about in my 59 years of life on this earth, nor was it taught at my cooking school) on the placement of the bowl to the beaters. Thank you for that.
This video taught me how to cream butter and sugar properly. Thank you, Helen!
Thank you Helen. You make the best videos.
This is the most helpful creaming video I have ever seen!!! Thank hank you!
Wow! I wish I knew this before I did all my Christmas baking. My Kitchen Aid paddle has silicon scrapers on it but I still think it is a good idea to pause and scrape by hand. Most of my recopies call for 3-4 minutes of beating, I will now faithfully beat for 6 minutes. Thanks for making me a better baker. ❤
I absolutely LOVE your sense of humor! Great teaching aid for me, a budding baker with many a ruined recipe under my belt (I mean, in my stomach!) Thanks for doing this video.
I am so glad to have this info...thank you...
Preach! Thank you for this video! Your channel is brilliant!
I cannot tell you how helpful this video was to me. Although, I wish I had seen it about three or four hours ago when I made some cookies. Lol. Thank you for breaking this down, you are truly a gem. You have a new subscriber as well!
P. S. I live in Boston!!!❤
I FOUND YOUS CHANNEL TRYING TO LOOK FOR I SIZE OF 1/2 SOZE OF BAKING SHEETS BUT TOOK ME TO HOW TO SEASON THE BAKING SHEETS .I LOVE YOIR CHANNEL LEARN A LOT .THANKS YOU
The beater with a scraping edge (KitchenAid) really does a good job much to my surprise. I made green Spritz cookies yesterday - got to #6 without any need to stop mixer.
I use a scraping paddle too and it does a wonderful job of accommodating variations in the bowl clearance.
That was incredibly helpful, thanks 😀
fantastic video - I wondered as well - your information was awesome and well presented - thank you.
So very helpful. Love your videos!
Excellent, Helen! Thank you!
Excellent demonstration!!! The blue food coloring really exemplifies the need to go the 6 minutes. I was surprised by the "F" bomb at 6:07, but it made me chuckle and enjoy you even more. Keep on teaching, I really enjoy your methodology.
The tip for adjusting my Kitchenaid mixer bowl is just what I needed, thank you!
Wow! This was really informative! I just got the same KitchenAid mixer that you have, so the info about adjusting it and checking the adjustment with a dime was perfect! Thank you so much! Now I guess I'm off to make something that requires my butter to be light and fluffy. 😀
This came at a good time as I’m about to attempt to dabble in making cookies with my daughter this holiday season. There’s no way I would’ve had the patience to go to six minutes because I’ve always assumed it only took a couple.
honestly i have learned so much from her . love the videos
Oh my gosh I learned so much from this video! Thank you!
Such a helpful video. Thank you.
Very helpful! I had no idea I could adjust my KA either! My paddle doesn’t touch the bottom and now that’s going to change! Thanks for the tutorial, yours was much more informative than Serious Eats!
Thank you so much for sharing this info. I just got a Kitchenaid stand mixer yesterday to make holiday cookies with. My baking will be even better now. ;)
Ever since I got my stand mixer 2 years ago I have really not missed the hand mixer. One of the things I have always been guilty of doing with a hand mixer is grinding the beater right into the side of the bowl, which I know is not ideal; but it does scrape up thinly spread batters such as creamed butter! I have to laugh though, when I was completely new to baking I had no idea what creaming meant. I didn't have any kind of mixer so I simply massaged the butter and sugar together using the warmth from my hands to soften the butter the minimal amount, and then I beat it with a fork to make it a bit fluffy.
NO f*****g way!!!
- Helen, 2022
😂
I love all your content but the "WTF' in the title. You have more class than to use that. Thank you for the inspiring instruction.
Love this. I do have a kitchen aid mixer just not the one that the bowl moves up. Mine is probably 30 years old now and I do bake a lot, I also scrape the bowl lots. You can make "light and fluffy" butter and sugar by hand by it takes a long time.
Thank you for the video Helen. Creaming butter is essential for Kourabiedes :) Actually you need to cream them until the butter & sugar mixture have an off-white colour, so a lot more than for cookies.
Very nice Estel, I love kourabiedes😋 I made some yesterday and I have to make a few more until Christmas ☕🌞😎
In my experience superfine sugar archives this quite efficiently,
Thanks Helen for the good info
Thank you! Now to check my mixer!!
Your channel is sooo helpful thank you so much truly ♥️♥️♥️
Helen you have a gift!!!! thanks for sharing it!!!!
So helpful, thank you!
I wish I had seen this 2 days ago! (Or years and years ago!) What a great video. Thank you!
Excellent video.
Adorable and informative this Aussie loves your channel.
Thankyouuuu Helen you gained a new subscriber today xx clearance wasnt even on my to do list your a godsend my mixer is so much better now hehe
Answering the most frustrating question in baking right here! Thank you!!
Such a great video. Thank you so much!!!
Amazing. I rarely bake too and this has always been a mystery. Thanks!
I loved this, Helen! It was great fun f I had to try it on my own mixer!
Great information. I am a cake and cookies person and I really enjoyed this.
Creaming butter is my favorite part of making the recipe. I know. It sounds crazy but I love seeing the transformation, lol. I learned this and most of my baking knowledge from blogs. YT videos just don't show everything you need to know. My favorite blog is Sally's Baking Addiction. Instead of giving you her whole life's story before getting to the meat of the recipe she just jumps right into it. You'll learn tips from her as well. Not once did a bake not turn out the way it was suppose to. And if you have any questions she's really good at responding. On YT, depending on the size of the ch, at the beginning they respond. Once they get a lot of subs they'll only respond for a hr or two. Once they've made it big they just don't respond at all. At least that's been my experience. Then you're stuck wanting to make a recipe but can't because you never got your answer. If I'm able to make something from a YT ch I'll go back to leave a review. I don't mind answering others questions either. And I appreciate it when others do the same. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk, lol
Very nice topic, info and tips chef 👍👌👏. Thank you for your effort 🌹🌞😎
I just made a german chocolate cake today for my father's 80th birthday. I creamed the butter and sugar for 6-7 min total making sure to scrap every couple of minutes during the process. My family loves this cake! The recipe takes a while to make, but it includes a lot of different techniques. I would love to see you create a german chocolate cake based on your take.
I can't tell you how much this upped my baking game! Thank you so much. I have some cookies I've made to much acclaim, but the next batch I made after viewing this video, using the right temperature, the right speed, and especiallt the scraping were game changers. The cookies were already good, i think, but I would say they were 30% better after this. Thank you so much! Consider me subscribed lol!
What a fun video! Thank you!!
Absolutely the best!
Another great video! Kitchen Aid makes smaller bowls for their stand mixers, just in case folks are making tiny batches.
I can use it for my cookie baking!! Thanks for the reminder to check the adjustment on mixer with dime.