I know your pain. You have cravings for a dessert and you get to the recipe just to see that you needed to set out your ingredients at least 30 minutes ago if you wanted to be making that dessert right now. This always happens to me because I am terrible with planning ahead! In my case, I often forget to take out my ingredients prior to recipe testing. The thing is, we don’t always have the patience or the time to wait for those ingredients to naturally come to room temperature. That’s why today I am here to tell you how to get room temperature ingredients quickly, and I mean as quickly as possible!
I know it’s tempting to just move forward with the recipe without bringing your ingredients to room temperature. I mean, how important could it be? But if you’ve ever tried to cream together cold butter with sugar, you know that sadly, it’s just not going to work.
Why your ingredients need to be at room temperature
The answer is simple: room temperature ingredients mix well with each other. Have you ever noticed that your batter looks curdled after adding the eggs to the butter? That’s because either your butter or eggs were not at room temperature, and now, they do not want to mix together. That curdling is butter chunks that are now not emulsified with the rest of the batter, which can throw off the final texture of your baked goods. When all of the ingredients in a recipe are at the same temperature, they are happy to mix together.
But I think that’s enough chit-chat. You came here to learn how to get room temperature ingredients quickly, so let’s get into it!


How to get room temperature ingredients quickly!
If you are not in too much of a pinch for time, you can place your cold ingredients near where the oven get’s warm while it’s preheating to bring up the temperature of your ingredients. However, if you are looking for some faster, more specific methods, I have those for you right below!
Butter:
Cut the butter into 1 tbsp. sized chunks and place them face down on a microwave-safe plate. Heat in the microwave in 5 second intervals until the butter is soft enough for your finger to easily make an indent into it. The butter should not show any signs of melting, but should be very soft. This usually takes me ~20 seconds total.
Eggs:
Eggs are super easy to get to room temperature. Simply grab a bowl, put the full egg (with the shell!) into the bowl, and continuously run hot water on it for 1 minute. Dump the water and you now have room temperature eggs! If you would like a less water-wasting alternative, you can fill a bowl with warm water and leave the egg in it for 10 minutes to get to room temperature.
Liquids:
For liquids, I’m talking about milk, sour cream, buttermilk – all of the “liquids”! Simply pour your liquid into a microwave safe cup or bowl, and microwave in 5 second intervals, checking the temperature with your finger after every 5 seconds. Once it feels room temperature, it’s good to go! For sour cream and buttermilk, the more acidic liquids, you need to be more careful so that they don’t curdle so keep a good eye on them!
Cream cheese:
Getting cream cheese to room temperature is actually an extremely similar process to the butter. You can just place the whole brick of cream cheese on a microwave-safe plate and microwave it in 5 second intervals until your finger can easily make an indent into the cream cheese. It should not show any signs of melting but should be soft. And there you have it, room temperature cream cheese!
And that’s how you do it! It’s super easy and honestly, I use the egg method almost every time I bake because they just take so long to warm up! If you know when you are going to bake it is super easy to just let the ingredients sit out until you need to use them, but we don’t always have the time or know when those cravings will hit. So when that happens to you, know that these methods are available!
If you’re now in the mood to bake, you can check out my recipe index here for a list of all of my recipes, sorted by category!
Thank you for reading my post! I hope you enjoyed learning about how to get room temperature ingredients quickly and that this article could be of help to you!
[…] It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. If you have ever had your batter look curdled, it is most likely due to the ingredients separating from being at different temperatures. Take out the egg, milk, and sour cream at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hr 30 min. before starting the recipe. For some tips and tricks on how to get ingredients to room temperature fast, you can check out this blog post here! […]
[…] It is important for the ingredients to be at room temperature so that they properly incorporate with each other. If you have ever had your batter look curdled, it is most likely due to the ingredients separating from being at different temperatures. Take out the egg, milk, and sour cream at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hr 30 min. before starting the recipe. For some tips and tricks on how to get ingredients to room temperature fast, you can check out this blog post here! […]
[…] It is important that the ingredients in this recipe are at room temperature so that they all incorporate properly with one another. Take out the egg at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] 2. Room temperature ingredients. The butter and eggs need to be at room temperature in order to properly incorporate with the dough. Take them out 30 minutes before starting the recipe, or follow this little hack if you forget (like I often do!): How to get room temperature ingredients QUICKLY. […]
[…] It is important that the butter and egg yolk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter and egg yolk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter, eggs, and buttermilk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter, eggs, and buttermilk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter, eggs, and buttermilk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter, eggs, and buttermilk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter and egg yolk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter and egg yolk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter, eggs, and buttermilk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter, eggs, and buttermilk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter and egg yolk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter and egg yolk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter, eggs, and buttermilk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter, eggs, and buttermilk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter and egg yolk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter and egg yolk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter, eggs, and buttermilk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter, eggs, and buttermilk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the butter, eggs, and buttermilk are at room temperature so that they incorporate properly with the rest of the ingredients. Take out the butter, eggs, and buttermilk at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the ingredients in this recipe are at room temperature so that they all incorporate properly with one another. Take out the butter, eggs, and cream cheese at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] The eggs should be at room temperature in order to properly incorporate with the brownie batter. Take out the eggs at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are short for time or want brownies as soon as possible, you can run the eggs under hot water for 1 minute to bring them to room temperature. If you are looking for more tips on how to get room temperature ingredients quickly, you can read my post about it here! […]
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[…] 2. Room temperature ingredients. The butter and eggs need to be at room temperature in order to properly incorporate with the dough. Take them out 30 minutes before starting the recipe, or follow this little hack if you forget (like I often do!): How to get room temperature ingredients QUICKLY. […]
[…] 2. Room temperature ingredients. The egg needs to be at room temperature in order to properly incorporate with the dough. Take out one egg 30 minutes before starting the recipe, or follow this little hack if you forget (like I often do!): How to get room temperature ingredients QUICKLY. […]
[…] 2. Room temperature ingredients. The eggs and sour cream needs to be at room temperature in order to properly incorporate with the dough. Take out the eggs and sour cream 30 minutes before starting the recipe, or follow this little hack if you forget (like I often do!): How to get room temperature ingredients QUICKLY. […]
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[…] It is important that the ingredients in this recipe are at room temperature so that they all incorporate properly with one another. Take out the egg at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] It is important that the ingredients in this recipe are at room temperature so that they all incorporate properly with one another. Take out the butter, eggs, and cream cheese at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are in a hurry and need some tricks to getting room temperature ingredients quickly, you can check out this post here! […]
[…] 2. Room temperature ingredients. The butter and eggs need to be at room temperature in order to properly incorporate with the dough. Take them out 30 minutes before starting the recipe, or follow this little hack if you forget (like I often do!): How to get room temperature ingredients QUICKLY. […]
[…] 2. Room temperature ingredients. The eggs should be at room temperature in order to properly incorporate with the brownie batter. Take out the eggs at least 30 minutes before starting the recipe. If you are short for time or want brownies as soon as possible, you can run the eggs under hot water for 1 minute to bring them to room temperature. If you are looking for more tips on how to get room temperature ingredients quickly, you can read my post about it here! […]