# melted or soft butter in quick breads?



## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Thinking about pancakes this morning, made me think of this. I don;t remember where i found it but a recipe i had called for adding soft but not melted butter to a quick bread batter - it was either muffins or pancakes, i think. I tried it and thought it made a significant difference. I started doing it every time i remembered, both in pancakes and waffles and in muffins.

But you know how these things go, you expect a difference and you might think you taste it, like with placebos. Also since i often am somewhat approximate with my pancake recipe (i often just do it by eye), maybe another balance was different when i did it that way. 

Anyone know why this might be true, that adding the butter soft, after the wet ingredients are partly mixed in, makes for a more buttery flavor and better overall final product than adding it melted?


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## amazingrace (Jul 28, 2006)

I wonder if the softened butter coats the flour, whereas the melted might be absorbed into it? Just my own theory...could be totally wrong. :look:


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

what is your method of prep?
If it is creaming, then you are adding air into the product. 
If it is the muffin method, the fat is liquid and you are depending mostly upon the chemical reactions to leaven your bread.

both means will tenderize your product.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

Since I was talking about muffins (not cupcakes) and pancakes, I have the dry ingredients mixed, then separately i mix the wet ingredients (without the butter) then before they're completely incorporated I add the soft butter. In pancakes i often use the blender - wet at the bottom, then dry on top, blend, then add soft butter and blend just till it's mixed. For muffins, all by hand with a spoon. 

I don't see what creaming has to do with the question, though. In creaming the butter has to be softened (though i usually use cold and the mixer warms it as it beats by friction alone) but not certainly as soft as i use it in these quickbreads - when it has to be soft enough to stir into a batter.

the question is between MELTED butter and softened butter, both added at the end


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

Can't see where I mentioned cupcakes.

I just let you know the two main methods of prep.
The Creaming Method - soft butter or fat
The Muffin Method-liquid butter or fat

In the method you have listed, it seems the last inclusion of the soft butter would be almost layered into the batter, as a brioch or enriched bread where the butter is "layered" into the batter. It does not have the time or friction or temp to melt and coats or layers. Emulsifies within the batter.


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## siduri (Aug 13, 2006)

sorry, i just never heard of making muffins or pancakes using a creaming method, not muffins, just cupcakes, or, of course cakes. So i wasn't sure if you got that i was referring to this kind of quickbread baking - and since the muffin method you describe calls for liquid butter, this is the point, it's not liquid so is it neither?

i imagine something like that, but in the breads you describe, there is already gluten developed, and the butter, as i understand it, makes the sheets of gluten slide, for a high rise. In this case, there is no gluten developed, or very little, since you mix very little, so maybe another factor is involved?


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