May 18 2008
Frugal Living Tip of the Day for May 18, 2008
Today’s tip comes from the old days when running out of the essentials meant you had to make due until your next trip to the grocery. It is still just as good to use today and it makes your butter last twice as long!
Doubling your butter
Start with a stick of butter at room temperature. Put the butter into a small bowl and slowly blend in half a cup of water until it is thoroughly blended. It is best to do this by hand, by the way.
When completely mixed, simply putting the bowl into the fridge (cover it!) will allow it to firm up again. No one will ever know that they are eating half of the fat and calories and your butter will last twice as long as before. Frugal, healthy and smart!
One word of warning though; if you are using this butter for baking you will probably need to add a little extra oil to increase the fat content, otherwise consistency and flavor will be affected. In most cases this will not be much of a problem but for pound cakes, I have found that it can present an issue in the texture.
