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Butter has been recommended throughout this book except where recipes call specifically for oil. If you use margarine or dairy-free butter, make sure it is suitable for baking. In recognition of healthy eating trends, many manufacturers have reduced the fat content of margarines and other spreads. But this means they don’t work as well for baking, so either choose butter or a substitute with a fat content of at least 70 percent, and preferably about 80 percent.

Most recipes call for softened butter. There are several ways to soften butter, but the easiest is to set it out in advance and let it reach room temperature. If you’re short on time, however, you can set the butter in a mini pot and set the pot in a pan of hot water. Try to avoid using a microwave—the butter will remain hard in some places but melt in others.