Starting with the most common one – adding softened butter to a dough that has been kneaded for a while. For this method butter is left at room temperature to soften. The dough is kneaded for 3 – 4 minutes depending on the amount of dough and other ingredients in it. After the initial kneading the softened butter is added and ‘torn in’.
It is slightly messy to begin with as you must squeeze the dough and butter together until they are combined. Then the kneading continues until sufficient gluten development. Quite often from the point of adding the butter onwards you must switch to the ‘slap & fold’ kneading method as the dough can become quite loose. This will depend on the type of dough and the amount of butter that is added to it.
From a shaggy and sticky mass, it soon turns into a silky smooth and cohesive dough ball. While this method is a little messy for a few minutes, it works well and has never failed me.
Moving on to the second method – adding cold butter. This method works almost exactly like the first one. The main difference is that another step is added.
Since the butter is a cold and solid block, it would be impossible to incorporate it into the dough. So, it is pressed between sheets of non-stick paper to make it pliable. This way it stays cold, but it becomes soft enough that it can be easily worked into the dough.
The main advantage of this method is temperature control. If your kitchen is warm or if you are making a dough that requires a lot of kneading, then the cold butter will keep the temperature down. I use this method every time I make brioche. It works the same way when using a mixer too.
Finally, the liquid butter method. This changes the process since adding liquid butter to a dough that has already been mixed would turn into a disaster. So, the liquid butter is added at the beginning with all other ingredients.
I have always steered clear of this method because it seemed like it would make the dough too runny, and it would take a lot longer to knead to sufficient gluten development. But to my surprise it worked well. I could not believe it to be honest.
