The "Cake Boss" Answers: Why Do Baking Recipes Call for Room Temperature Ingredients?

You’re ready to make cookies (like these brown butter-oatmeal beauties) and you’ve gathered all of your ingredients: you’ve got your sugar and your flour and just grabbed your butter and eggs from the fridge...

Then you see it: Your recipe says, “Ingredients should be at room temperature.”

UGH.

Does it *really* matter, though? YES, according to “Cake Boss” star Buddy Valastro (the short answer). But whyyyyyy? Buddy explains...

WHY DO BAKING RECIPES CALL FOR ROOM TEMPERATURE INGREDIENTS?

“If you read a recipe that says to have everything at room temperature, listen," Buddy suggests, "there’s a reason for it!”

“If I were to take a block of butter out of the refrigerator, I’d have to mix it [differently],” he says.

Essentially, when butter is cold, it won’t distribute as well in the batter. This means that you could end up with chunks of batter, which could spell disaster for your recipe when the globs of butter melt in the oven. Same goes for eggs.

On the other hand, room-temperature butter and eggs blend beautifully with flour and sugar for that irresistible fluffy texture you want in baked goods!

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After all, if you’re making Buddy’s famous black-and-white cookies, “you don’t want black-and-white bricks!” says Rach.

Need to bring your ingredients to room temp *fast*? Don't stress, we’ve got you covered: Here’s an easy way to bring eggs and butter to room temperature quickly.

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