Chose salted butter over unsalted for my chocolate chip cookies and wow what a difference

My sister always swore by unsalted so you could control the salt yourself. But I forgot to buy it before a bake sale last Saturday and used what I had - salted Kerrygold. Cookies came out way more flavorful, edges were crispier. Salted butter already has that bit of water cooked out too I think. Now I'm wondering if anyone else just skips the extra salt step entirely? Does the salt amount in salted butter change much between brands?

2 comments

2 Comments

evangarcia8d ago

Kerrygold is a whole different beast though because its grass fed butter has a higher fat content and less water. So you're not just adding salt you're changing the whole chemistry. I switched to salted Plugra a while back and stopped adding the extra salt altogether. The flaky sea salt finishing thing is still good but yeah the baseline salt in those European butters is enough.

henderson.mason8d ago

So you're saying the fat content is high enough in the Plugra that the salt actually sticks to the butter differently, compared to a standard American stick that's just more watery? Because I've noticed that when I use the cheap store brand salted butter, the salt basically just falls off into the pan and I end up needing to add more anyway. But with the good stuff, does the salt actually cling to the butter better because there's less water pushing it around, or is it more about the salt crystal size itself?