Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe on Food52 (2024)

FAQs

Do you salt cookies before or after baking? ›

FAQ. Do you sprinkle sea salt before or after baking? I add the sea salt flakes before baking because if you wait until they're baked, they won't stick. If you're worried that the salt has just melted into the cookie, you can always add a bit more after they're out of the oven, but chances are it will just slide off.

Salt slows down fermentation and enzyme activity in dough. The salt crystals draw water away form their environment (salt is 'hygroscopic'). When salt and yeast compete for water, salt wins and the yeast is slowed down.

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.

Cornstarch helps product soft and thick cookies. Using more brown sugar than white sugar results in a moister, softer cookie. An extra egg yolk increases chewiness. Rolling the cookie dough balls to be tall and lumpy instead of wide and smooth gives the cookies a bakery-style textured thickness.

Flaky sea salt: These are large, crunchy flakes typically used for sprinkling on top of baked goods like brownies or chocolate chip cookies.

Yes, yes, many cookies get sprinkled with a little flaky salt before baking. In those cookies you get a blast of salt in one or two bites. That's not what happens here. By adding salt to the rolling sugar, saltiness literally coats the cookie.

The functions of salt in baking include stabilizing the yeast fermentation rate, strengthening the dough, enhancing the flavor of the final product, and increasing dough mixing time.

Unlike flour, eggs, fat, and sugar, salt doesn't have much of an impact on the structure of cakes or cookies. (Note this is not at all the case in baking bread. Salt has quite an effect on gluten and yeast proliferation as well as flavor.)

Salt plays multiple roles in our recipes: It brings out the flavors of other ingredients, aids with browning, helps control the growth of yeast in yeasted doughs, and strengthens the gluten and gliadin proteins found in wheat flour to give our doughs strength and structure.

Using melted butter in cookies helps you achieve a similar fudgy-yet-cooked texture and prevents any unwanted cakiness. Instead of the rise coming from both chemical and physical leavening agents (baking soda/powder + creamed butter), it now comes almost exclusively from chemical agents alone.

What happens if I use salted instead of unsalted butter in cookies? ›

If you only have salted butter, go ahead and use it .. just do NOT add the salt that the recipe calls for. It should be just fine when making cookies. Even just 50 years ago, recipes never specific salted/unsalted butter.

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

You don't absolutely HAVE to use bread flour, but it adds a ton of chewy texture to these cookies that's worth the extra trip to the store. If you can't get bread flour, then use all AP flour in its place.

So, if you've got some kosher salt or other fancy salt on hand, you could just bake them and sprinkle the salt on while they're still warm. (Use about 1.5-2x as much of a big fluffy salt as you would with ordinary table salt.

Salt plays multiple roles in our recipes: It brings out the flavors of other ingredients, aids with browning, helps control the growth of yeast in yeasted doughs, and strengthens the gluten and gliadin proteins found in wheat flour to give our doughs strength and structure.

When using salted butter in baking, it's important to keep in mind that it may impact the final taste of the product as it contains added salt. It's recommended to either reduce the amount of salt in the recipe by a 1/4 teaspoon or omit it completely. The amount of butter used in the recipe should not be changed.