Recently, there’s been a rise in complaints with Costco‘s Kirkland butter. A woman demonstrated how Costco’s Kirkland butter has been causing issues with her buttercream despite her not changing the recipe.
The video features TikTok baker Hol (@theloafandcrumb), who’s been experiencing a “butter crisis.” She explains it while sitting at a table with a package of Kirkland’s unsalted sweet cream butter and Kroger’s unsalted butter.
“So, I’ve been experiencing all sorts of sudden trouble with my Swiss meringue buttercream that I’ve been making for years the same exact way,” she says. The content creator emphasizes that she has not changed “a single thing” to her recipe. Two months ago, she started noticing the recipe not working.
For Hol, this is the most “frustrating” and “irritating” thing ever considering the recipe has never changed. She cooks the egg whites and it turns into stiff peaks. However, the issue is with the meringue. “I put in the butter, it will run for hours and it will not whip into frosting,” she explains.
In addition to the recipe, the butter’s temperature has remained the same, regardless if it’s hot or cold. Now, Hol has to run the mixer for two hours until it turns into frosting. But, she began to notice these issues when she switched from Kroger’s unsalted butter to Kirkland’s unsalted butter. As a result, the sweet cream “turns into soup” and “takes hours to whip.”
Then, Hol takes her viewers on an adventure to see if using Kroger’s butter makes a difference. The camera shifts to the frosting in a bowl under her KitchenAid mixer along with her room temperature butter. After 20 minutes, the baker’s product magically turns into frosting. Using a spatula, the content creator swirls the frosting, shocked. “Costco, count your days. Count your day,” she concludes the video.
Hol expresses her annoyance in the caption: “Solve the months-long butter crisis with me and @Costco Wholesale U CAN CATCH THESE HANDS !!!”
@theloafandcrumb Solve the months-long butter crisis with me and @Costco Wholesale U CAN CATCH THESE HANDS !!! #fyp #theloafandcrumb #swissmeringuebuttercream #buttercream #caketok #bakersoftiktok #costco #kroger ♬ original sound – Hol
The Daily Dot reached out to Hol via TikTok comment and direct message and Costco via media contact form. The video racked up over 637,000 views since Nov. 15. In the comments, viewers poked fun at her saying she hadn’t changed the recipe.
“I’ve changed nothing, changes butter,” one viewer joked.
“‘I changed nothing’. ‘I changed the butter I was using,’” a second quipped.
However, others said they’ve been experiencing the same issues with Kirkland’s buttercream as well.
“My casseroles and pies suuuuuuck for the last few years. Using Costco butter. Changing today! Thank you!” one user wrote.
“I thought I was the only one having butter problems. same recipe, same ingredients for years PERFECT! past few months nothing cooks right with butter,” a second user stated.
Another baker proposed a reason behind this. “I am a cookie decorator. Different butters have different water contents. You can Google a chart for what how much water is in each brand,” they wrote.
Furthermore, this has been a topic of discussion on Reddit. Many fellow bakers on the platform said they felt like it destroyed their desserts. As soon as they switched to Kirkland butter, they saw a difference. Some attributed this to Kirkland having a high water content.
Update 1:42pm CT, Dec. 5: Hol told the Daily Dot in a statement that she “switched to Costco brand initially simply because we started shopping there for the family, and I thought it would be a good idea to buy in bulk for the amount of baking I do, as I had never encountered trouble switching between any other brands along the way before Costco.”
“I’d like to note that I can’t speak for everyone, and their butter may work great for other people and other recipes, but it unfortunately will not work for mine,” she added.