How to Cut in Butter

Using a Cheese Grater

Freeze the butter for 1 hour. Unwrap however many sticks of butter your recipe requires and put them in the freezer for about an hour. Grating the butter is much easier if it’s frozen because it makes the butter more solid and firm.

Grate the butter with a cheese grater. Remove the butter sticks from the freezer and get out a box cheese grater. Hold the butter flat against the biggest holes in the grater and move it in a repeated downward motion over a sheet of wax paper.

Put the butter back in the freezer until you’re ready to bake. Unless the next step in your recipe is to bake the ingredients, carefully place the wax paper sheet of grated butter back in the freezer. Keep the grated butter in the freezer until just before it’s time to bake. This will ensure that the ingredients are the correct consistency when mixed together.

Mix the butter into the dry ingredients with an electric mixer or pastry cutter. Take the butter out of the freezer again and combine it in a bowl with the other ingredients. Use an electric mixer or a pastry cutter to fully mix the butter in with the dry ingredients.

Cutting in with Your Fingers

Cut the butter into ½-inch (1.3 cm) cubes. Get out a knife and cutting board and unwrap all sticks of butter that your recipe requires. Cut each stick into several ½-inch cubes so that mixing the butter into the dry ingredients is as easy as possible.

Refrigerate the cubes for about 30 minutes. It’s a good idea to chill your butter cubes for about half an hour so that they don’t start melting. This will prevent the butter from becoming too soft and creating an undesirable consistency once it’s cut in.

Toss the cubes in the dry ingredients. Using your hands or a fork, toss the butter cubes in with the dry ingredients so that they stick to the butter. This should make the ingredients stick to your hands less once you start smushing.

Smush the butter into pea-sized pieces. While combining with the dry ingredients, smush and separate the butter cubes continuously with your fingers. Keep an eye on the overall consistency and stop when most of the chunks of butter look like they’re about the size of peas. You can also cut the cubes into smaller chunks with a pastry cutter.

Using a Food Processor

Cut chilled or frozen butter into ½-inch (1.3 cm) cubes. Unwrap the sticks of butter you’re cutting in and set them on a cutting board. Then slice them into several ½-inch cubes to that they’re a bit easier to mix in with the other ingredients.

Pulse all ingredients about 8 times in a processor. Add your butter cubes into a food processor with the other ingredients and quickly press and release the power button. Allow one second to go by and then press the button again. Press the button like this about 8 times to get the right consistency.

Mix the butter in by hand or continue mixing in the food processor. Depending on what you’re baking, you may want to combine the ingredients more extensively with your fingers. Otherwise, you may be able to keep adding ingredients to the food processor and continue mixing by pulsing. For example, all of your mixing can be done in the food processor if you’re making a pie crust.