Why butter is so hard to spread on newly baked bread, whereas peanut butter is so easy? Butter tends to form clumps

Question: Why butter is so hard to spread on newly baked bread, whereas peanut butter is so easy? Butter tends to form clumps whereas peanut butter spreads out as it would with cold bread.

Asked by hell to Daniel, Jon, Louise, Sharon, Zoe on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: General.
- Sharon Sneddon answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  Butter is a saturated fat, an saturated fats have single bonds between the carbon atom so they stack together more closely and are very dense. Butter is much dense and therfore is harder to spread on bread and it tends to stick to itself in clumps rather than spreadng easily.
  
  Peanut butter contains lots of oil and unsaturated fats in it. An unsaturated fat has double bonds between the carbon atoms, which cause the hydrocarbon chain to bend. This bending causes the molecules not to stack together tightly, which means that the peanut butter is less dense and therefore will spread more easily.
- Louise Dash answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  They melt at different temperatures, so peanut butter is softer at room temperature than butter is. Now you can get butter with extra oil (which is liquid even at fridge temperature) churned in which is much easier to spread.
  
  If the bread is straight out of the oven (mmm!) it will be warm enough to melt the butter, but the outside bit will melt first which makes it go clumpy. I guess patience is a virtue here!
- Jon Copley answered on 22 Jun 2010:
  
  Hmmm… I don’t know – but have you tried letting the butter get a bit warmer first before spreading it?

Question: Why butter is so hard to spread on newly baked bread, whereas peanut butter is so easy? Butter tends to form clumps whereas peanut butter spreads out as it would with cold bread.

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