SALTED BUTTER IS BACK
It was a night I will never forget. After a round of pretzels, spaetzle and schnitzel, my friend Amanda Hesser, CEO of the website Food52, shared a disturbing discovery: For years, her mother, Judith Hesser, had baked with salted butter.
I nearly choked on my bratwurst.
People who write about food or cook professionally wouldn’t dream of using the salty kind in our sweets and, since most of us don’t bother to keep it around at all, in our savory food, either. Why not? Conventional wisdom says we should use only unsalted butter so we can control the salt, adding it separately.
Since that dinner in 2014, as I flipped through so many new cookbooks full of flaky salt-sprinkled brownies and observed fancy restaurants offer two types of butter — one with salt, one without — with their bread, I thought back to Hesser’s disclosure. It wasn’t until a few months ago, when cookbook author Alison Roman’s recipe for salted butter and chocolate chunk shortbread went viral, that I began to investigate the state, past and present, of what I once presumed the “other” butter.
Those of us who have made a big deal about salting our sweets in recent years have assumed that our predecessors liked saccharine desserts, but Hesser’s theory is that the ingredient had been excluded from old recipes because it was already incorporated into the butter.
From there, I reasoned, as unsalted or “sweet” butter became more accessible and came into fashion, people continued to rely on those old formulas, swapping out salted butter— without accounting for the salt. Cooks “just forgot that not using the same butter is going to affect the final taste,” said pastry chef Olivia Wilson, co-owner of Chairlift bakery and Brenner Pass in Richmond, Virginia. Perhaps, I concluded, the current trend for salty or salted desserts is simply a reaction to a lack of balance created when the salt was written out of recipe history.
MILK CHOCOLATE AND RASPBERRY JAM BLONDIES
Makes 24 blondies
MAKE AHEAD: The blondies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
1 ½ cups packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) salted butter, melted and cooled but still pourable
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped into slightly smaller than ½-inch chunks
½ cup raspberry jam
1 teaspoon flaky sea salt (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray the bottom and sides of an 8-by-12-inch baking pan with cooking oil spray, then line the bottom with parchment paper so that two of the sides hang over the edges (for easy lifting when the slab of blondies is done).
Whisk together the brown sugar and eggs in a medium bowl until the mixture is smooth and lightened in color. Carefully whisk the melted butter into the sugar mixture a little at a time so it does not slosh out of the bowl, then whisk in the vanilla extract.
Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl. Use a flexible spatula to blend the flour mixture into the butter mixture, followed by the chopped milk chocolate, until well incorporated. Scrape into the pan, spreading it evenly into the corners.
Drop teaspoonfuls of the jam across the surface of the blondie batter, and then gently pull the tip of a paring knife through the jam in one direction and then the other, creating a zigzag/grid pattern on the surface. Sprinkle the flaky salt on top, if using. Bake (middle rack) for 32 to 35 minutes, rotating the pan front to back halfway through, or until crisp edges form and the top is just set.
Cool in the pan, then lift out the slab and cut into 24 equal pieces.
Nutritional information
per piece: 220 calories, 2 g protein, 30 g carbohydrates, 11 g fat, 7 g saturated fat, 40 mg cholesterol, 80 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 20 g sugar
Adapted from pastry chef Melissa Weller of Walnut Street Cafe in Philadelphia.
NEW AND IMPROVED SUGAR COOKIES
44 to 50 servings cookies MAKE AHEAD: The dough needs to be refrigerated for at least 3 hours, and up to 2 days. It can also be frozen for up to 1 month.
1 ½ cups sugar
3 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour (3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour, sifted), plus more for the work surface
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) salted
butter, slightly softened (left at room temperature for up to an hour)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon whole milk Coarse raw sugar such as Demerara or turbinado, for sprinkling
To toast the sugar, preheat the oven to 350 F. Spread the sugar evenly across the surface of a heavy 10- to 12-inch skillet (not cast-iron). Transfer to the oven; bake (middle rack) for 25 to 30 minutes or until the sugar takes on the barest of color (a pale, wheat-like hue); watch closely to make sure the sugar doesn’t start to melt. Alternatively, you can do this in a toaster oven, placing the sugar on an aluminum-lined toaster-oven tray. Immediately transfer the sugar to a mixing bowl and let it cool.
Sift the flour and baking powder together into a medium bowl.
Beat the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer or with a handheld electric mixer on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and toasted sugar and beat well. Beat the eggs in one at a time, followed by the milk. Stop to scrape down the bowl. On low speed, gradually add the sifted dry ingredients to incorporate, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Do not overbeat.
Divide the dough in half, wrapping each portion in wax paper and transferring it to the refrigerator to chill for at least 3 hours (or up to 2 days). If there’s room in your refrigerator, go ahead and roll out the halves of dough between sheets of wax paper and stack on a baking sheet before you refrigerate.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone liners. Lightly flour a work surface and your rolling pin.
Place one half of the dough on a lightly floured workstation and turn it over so it’s evenly dusted in flour and shape it into a ball. Use the floured rolling pin to roll out the dough so it’s ¼-inch thick. With a 2-inch round cutter (or the shape of your choice), cut as many cookies as you can, placing them on a baking sheet, 1 ½ to 2 inches apart. Repeat with the second half of dough. Gather your scrap dough into a mass, rewrap in wax paper and return to the refrigerator to firm up. You can make another batch of cookies with it.
Sprinkle ¼ teaspoon coarse raw sugar over each cookie. Bake (middle rack) for about 8 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through. The cookies should have puffed up and their edges should be just on the brink of browning. Transfer them to a wire rack to cool.
Nutritional information per cookie (based on 50): 80 calories, 1 g protein, 12 g carbohydrates, 3 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 15 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 7 g sugar
From cookbook author and food writer Charlotte Druckman.
SALTED BUTTER CHOCOLATECHOCOLATE HAZELNUT SHORTBREAD
24 servings
MAKE AHEAD: The logs of dough need to be refrigerated overnight, and up to 1 week. (The logs of dough can be frozen for up to 1 month.) The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
18 tablespoons (2 ¼ sticks) chilled salted butter, cut into ½-inch pieces
½ cup granulated sugar ¼ packed cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, preferably Valrhona brand
6 ounces Ferrero Rocher candies, coarsely chopped (12 to 13 pieces; round up when in doubt)
Demerara sugar, for rolling 1 large egg, beaten Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling Line a rimmed baking sheet (or two, ideally) with parchment paper.
Combine the butter, both sugars and the vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer or with a handheld electric mixer; beat on medium-high speed for 3 to 5 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stop to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the flour and cocoa powder; beat on low speed until incorporated, then add the chopped Ferrero Rocher candies (they’ll be a little messy, it’s OK), and beat just to incorporate.
Divide the dough in half, placing each half on a large piece of plastic wrap or parchment paper. Use the plastic or paper (to protect your hands from stickiness) to roll and shape each portion of dough into a log, wrapping it at the same time. Each log should be 2 to 2 ¼ inches in diameter. Refrigerate until totally firm, about 2 hours, and up to 1 week.
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spread the Demerara sugar on a piece of plastic wrap. Unwrap the logs; brush their exteriors with the beaten egg, and then roll the logs in that sugar. Discard any sugar that’s left behind.
Slice each log into ½-inchthick rounds, placing them on the prepared baking sheet(s) about 1 inch apart, and sprinkle with flaky salt. Bake (middle rack) for 12 to 15 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown.
Let cool slightly before serving, or cool completely before storing.
Nutritional information per cookie: 190 calories, 2 g protein, 20 g carbohydrates, 11 g fat, 6 g saturated fat, 25 mg cholesterol, 75 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 10 g sugar
Based on an Alison Roman recipe; adapted by cookbook author and food writer Charlotte Druckman.