What is softened butter? It’s butter that is close enough to room temp that it can be easily spread. It’s soft enough that you can easily mix it with other ingredients as part of a recipe.
It’s not the same as melted butter.
It can take hours for a stick of butter to soften when taken right from the refrigerator. To reduce the time cube the butter. The time to soften will depend on your room temperature.
You can also slice it and put it between two pieces of wax paper or parchment paper and hit it using a meat tenderizer until it’s flat which will help get it soft.
