Is It Okay to Use Salted Butter for Cookies
The simple answer is that yes, it is fine to use salted butter in baking. That being said, there is a reason that bakers – myself included – and just about all other cooks use unsalted butter as their kitchen staple instead of salted. Salt serves two roles in butter, acting as a preservative and as a flavoring agent.
Baking recipes typically call for unsalted butter because the amount of salt in salted butter varies depending on the brand – there is no “industry standard.” For example, if you use one brand of salted butter in a recipe, and we use another, our baked goods could end up tasting very different from one other.
You may end up with a slightly saltier taste, but it’s usually not going to ruin a batch. Secondly, if you’re not wanting to throw your baking caution to the wind but do want to use salted butter, simply decrease the amount of extra salt you add by about 1/4 of a teaspoon.
Bakers and chefs usually choose unsalted butter in their recipes because it’s easier to manage the salt content in the dish. Most recipes that call for butter—especially baked goods and desserts—are created with unsalted butter. It is the standard in baking and is always implied unless otherwise specified.
Does it matter if you use salted butter instead of unsalted?
Most tasters preferred the recipe as written using unsalted butter. But here’s the good news: If you’re baking a recipe that calls for unsalted butter (or doesn’t specify a butter) and you only have salted on hand, you can eliminate the added salt and still have a fabulous treat on your hands!
Which butter is best for baking?
unsalted butter
For baking purposes, the Test Kitchen recommends using unsalted butter so you can better control the amount of salt that goes into the recipe. Salted butter is best for serving at the table with bread or to flavor a dish, like mashed potatoes.
Will salted butter ruin cake?
One question I get asked all the time is whether it is acceptable to use salted butter in baking, since most recipes either don’t specify salted or unsalted, or explicitly recommended unsalted butter. The simple answer is that yes, it is fine to use salted butter in baking.
Unsalted butter
Unsalted butter gives you complete control of the overall flavor of your recipe. This is especially important in certain baked goods where the pure, sweet cream flavor of butter is key (butter cookies or pound cakes). As it pertains to cooking, unsalted butter lets the real, natural flavor of your foods come through.
How do you remove salt from salted butter?
So here’s a simple rule of thumb to use so you can make the recipe with unsalted butter. Just remember, for every half cup (1 stick or ¼ lb) of salted butter required, you can add ¼ teaspoon of salt to Challenge Unsalted Butter. Regular butter contains some salt, and most recipes take this into account.
unsalted butter
For baking purposes, the Test Kitchen recommends using unsalted butter so you can better control the amount of salt that goes into the recipe. Salted butter is best for serving at the table with bread or to flavor a dish, like mashed potatoes.
What if I don t have unsalted butter?
Substitutes for Unsalted Butter For 1 cup unsalted butter, substitute 1 cup shortening, ⅞ cup (that’s 14 Tbsp. or ¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp.) vegetable oil, or ⅞ cup lard.
A quick look at the best butter brands
- Best for baking: Land O’Lakes Unsalted Butter, Plugrá European Style Unsalted Butter.
- Best for spreading: Organic Valley Salted Butter.
- Best grass-fed: Kerrygold, Vital Farms Pasture-Raised Butter.
- Best organic: Horizon Organic.
What brand of butter do bakers use?
You’re going to want to use real butter in your cake recipe. Some of the top brands include Land O Lakes’, Kerry Pure Irish, Vital Farms, Horizon Organic, Organic Valley Cultured, Lurpak, Tillamook, Challenge Dairy, and Cabot.
What butter do professional bakers use?
You’re going to want to use real butter in your cake recipe. Some of the top brands include Land O Lakes’, Kerry Pure Irish, Vital Farms, Horizon Organic, Organic Valley Cultured, Lurpak, Tillamook, Challenge Dairy, and Cabot.
Rest the Dough A secret baker’s trick is to rest your cookie dough in the fridge. You can rest it for at least an hour, which will evaporate some of the water and increase the sugar content, helping to keep your cookies chewy. The longer you allow your dough to rest in the fridge, the chewier your cookies will be.
Does it matter if you use salted butter in baking?
One question I get asked all the time is whether it is acceptable to use salted butter in baking, since most recipes either don’t specify salted or unsalted, or explicitly recommended unsalted butter. The simple answer is that yes, it is fine to use salted butter in baking.
How does salted butter change a recipe?
Using salted butter is ideal for all types of cooking and is a great way to add extra flavour, with no need to add extra salt. However, using salted butter in baking is not always so straight forward. Salted butter can make your baked goods too salty, clouding the flavour and delicate sweetness of your recipe.
Higher butterfat makes better cookies. An average conventional American butter has an 80% butterfat content. Miller’s butter is more of a European-style butter with 82-86% butterfat. 2% may seem small, but it makes a BIG difference in quality, flavor, and texture.
Why Do Cookies Get Hard? Like all baked treats, cookies are subject to getting stale. Over time, the moisture in the cookies evaporates, leaving them stiff and crumbly. It’s the same thing that happens to breads, muffins, and other baked goods.
In a perfect world, unsalted may be best, but can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good! but everyone’s tastes differ.” Tasters found the unsalted butter version crispier, crumblier, and the right amount of chewy. They also found them saltier. Tasters found the salted version cake-ier and overall chewier.
What butter do bakeries use?
unsalted butter
Butter is the favoured fat to use in cakes and bakes and we use unsalted butter for all of our cakes in the bakeries. It is made from churned cream, a process that separates the butterfat from the buttermilk. It is typically made from cow’s milk and is yellow in colour.
