Sweet and Salty Brownies Recipe | My Baking Addiction (2024)

FAQs

What is the purpose of salt in brownies? ›

Baked goods made without salt will taste flat and boring. Salt enhances and balances flavors, especially sweetness. The proper amount of salt can take a mediocre recipe and make it outstanding. You will notice that all professional kitchens and bakeries use salt in their baked goods.

Salt enhances the sweetness in your brownies. You might think that adding salt would make brownies, or any chocolate, salter, but it actually brings out the sweet quality in these types of desserts. Sprinkle it in the batter or add flaky sea salt to the top of the brownies after removing them from the oven.

Adding baking powder or baking soda lifts brownies up and creates a cakier result. But today, we all want a brownie so dense and fudgy that it's basically 1 step up from eating pure chocolate. You'll get a taste of how dense these brownies are when you're mixing up the batter. It's so thick and so fudgy.

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.

Salt has a binding or strengthening effect on gluten and thereby adds strength to any flour. The additional firmness imparted to the gluten by the salt enables it to hold the water and gas better, and allows the dough to expand without tearing.

If you opt to add more eggs, say double the amount, something interesting happens. Even though you are adding more moisture, the air bubbles that you catch in the extra eggs add volume, which decreases the density of your final product. This makes your brownies rise and gives them a much more cake-like texture.

Dear Diahn, The main function of salt in cake recipes is to enhance the flavor of the other ingredients. Its presence perks up the depth and complexity of other flavors as the ingredients meld. Salt also provides a balance to the sweetness of cake batters—but a salty flavor should not be discernible.

Salt is a flavor enhancer, so using salt in desserts doesn't just make them saltier, it enhances the sweetness of the dish — and, in the case of this tweet, the chocolate.

I also mixed a little cocoa powder with confectioners' sugar to sprinkle over the cooled brownies before serving. Vinegar: White distilled vinegar is added to the batter to react with the baking soda, causing the brownies to rise. The vinegar also helps activate the cocoa powder for a more chocolatey flavor.

What makes brownies fudgy vs cakey? ›

Fudgy brownies have a higher fat-to-flour ratio than cakey ones. So add more fat—in this case, butter and chocolate. A cakey batch has more flour and relies on baking powder for leavening. The amount of sugar and eggs does not change whether you're going fudgy or cakey.

Add an Acidic Ingredient

It won't reduce the sodium level of your dish, but adding an acidic ingredient, such as lemon juice, vinegar, or even a tomato product, can neutralize the saltiness of a dish.

The reason we melt butter in brownie recipes instead of beating room temperature butter with sugar is because that helps give a rich, chewy, fudgy texture. Beating butter incorporates air and gives a more light, airy, cakey texture, which we don't want in a brownie. Well, you might want that, but I don't!

Here's how it works: **Flavor Balance**: Salt has the remarkable ability to balance flavors by reducing bitterness and enhancing sweetness. In brownies, where the richness of chocolate reigns supreme, a touch of salt acts as the perfect counterbalance, ensuring a harmonious blend of flavors.

It works as a supporting ingredient to help the main flavors pop, especially if chocolate is the one in the spotlight. This is why, The Kitchn says, that a secret ingredient that you should always add to your chocolate brownies is a pinch of salt.

I'd recommend sticking with unsalted for baking and saving salted for cooking (where flavors are easily forgiven/altered with other spices) or spreading on really good bread.

As a general rule for sweet recipes, 1 tsp. kosher salt can be substituted with 2 tsp. soy sauce without adversely affecting the finished product. And don't worry—your baked goods won't taste like soy sauce, but they will have an undetectable note that will have people coming back for seconds.