Knowledge Base > Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office half Hour)

Ask Me Anything (Office half Hour)

Dan Marek - Ask Me Anything (Office half Hour)

This event was on Tuesday, June 20, 2023 at 11:00 am Pacific, 2:00 pm Eastern

Join Chef Dan Marek in his virtual office as he welcomes all of your questions. This event was created for you and we encourage you to Ask Anything – from cooking techniques to cours… Read More.

Recorded

Question:

When a dessert recipe such as peanut butter cookies calls for unsalted butter and a separate teaspoon salt, will using salted butter alter the flavor considerably? Also, how can I ensure that my peanut butter cookies come out soft?

— Sylvia Lynch

Answer:

So typically, uh, unsalted butter is used for baking and salted butter is used for more savory items. Now if this recipe is calling for unsalted butter and then, um, you know, a separate teaspoon of salt, you're basically adding the salt back into it. Now the specific amount is yet to be determined. A lot of people actually use a salted butter because there's more moisture content in the butter as well. So I would probably stick to the recipe to be able to make sure that you're getting those soft cookies at the same time. Um, you know, so yeah, let me just read, read this and sure that my peanut butter yeah, come out soft. So I would probably stick to the recipe as much as you can on this. Um, you know, if you're trying to reduce the salt, the salted butter versus the teaspoon of salt are probably gonna be pretty equal, but I'd have to measure to be able to see what kind of butter you're using compared to other ones as well. Um, if it's a vegan butter, if it's a regular butter, you know, there's a lot of equations that can happen to that. So it's typically better to be able to stick to the recipe if you can.
Dan Marek

Dan Marek

Director of Plant-Based Culinary & Dev

rouxbe.com