Salting Sweets

Most sweet preparations, and all flour-based ones, can be enhanced with a judicious addition of kosher salt. Salt is used pervasively in the baking and pastry kitchen, but much more judiciously. Bread without salt is insipid. Salt in a pie crust enhances the crust’s flavor. Use salt to enhance flavors in cakes, cookies, custards, and creams. In sweets, you should be less aware of the salt than in a savory preparation, unless it’s part of the contrast to sweetness. Some sauces, such as caramel and butterscotch, move from good to great when you get the salt level exactly right. Do taste tests and evaluate the salt level of sweet things in the same way you’d evaluate a soup or sauce.