I do like certain salted sweets, but, like you, not to excess. Whenever I see ”salted caramel” for various sweets I’m interested. That is, as long as there’s the right balance. I’m not a big peanut butter fan, but try to keep me away from the salty/sweet of Reese’s. Even a little salt can mean better flavor, such as with your popsicles.

Regarding cakes, cookies and baking in general, I‘ve been baking with salted butter for years as a flavor preference. I tend to question baking recipes that call for unsalted butter with no addition of salt…not even a pinch. Just makes no sense to me, but to each his/her own. Some recipes, like my shortbread, have few ingredients and some salt is especially necessary to me. The original recipe I got long ago called for unsalted butter, no salt and not even vanilla or other flavoring.

Okay, for shortbread I'm a purist. I will only make my Scottish nanny's recipe ,which is just salted butter, bleached flour and cane sugar, with additional salt for pan style rather than cookies. :) But unsalted? If you have a medical issue, you probably shouldn't be eating cookies anyway. ;) Never any vanilla or other flavorings unless it's called Vanilla Shortbread or Almond Shortbread, or whatever, though colored sugar or sprinkles or icing are fine. :) Naked are actually the best. :)

Same with other cookies and cakes. There are scientific reasons tor it. Structural. I tried looking it up, though, and just found a 'bot war. People who aren't savvy about texture, loft, etc., and aren't great tasters might not miss it, but there is purpose there.

Thanking on what you said made me realize why I found the popsicle remarkable: there's nothing structural about the salt. It could lower the freezing point, but my freezer is very cold and the popsicles aren't big--standard flat molds. And there wasn't that much salt! So it was entirely about depth of flavor.

“Naked are actually the best.”

Hmmm…interesting but it just depends on flavor preference. Not a fan of almond extract but it’s got to have at least some vanilla for me. I don’t recall ever seeing a shortbread recipe made with vanilla being called ”Vanilla Shortbread.” Most are just ”Shortbread.”

I’m guessing the small amount of fleur de sel you used would only enhance flavor. Good thinking!

Oh, yes. What my nanny called it was "Scottish Shortbread." To me, if there's vanilla in it, it's not really shortbread, but the world is broad and I'm sure those without the Scottish nanny shaping their lives, have other ideas. :) By naked, I meant without sugar toppings and decorations. And almond should never be made with extract. Almond meal works.

BTW, and thinking of salt levels, wasn't it you who shared the bleu cheese shortbread recipe? Those are awesome!

I’m with you, plllog, traditional shortbread is just salted butter, flour and sugar. NO flavourings.

I use salted butter and no added salt in all my baking. No one has ever complained, most have been extremely complimentary, and I’ve even won prizes. So.

When we were travelling in Europe years ago, we were staying in self catering places and buying groceries. We accidentally bought unsalted butter and it was just weird on bread, so we had to salt it ourselves.

Same for me, Colleen, no complaints. Years have shown me there are varying opinions regarding shortbread. It’s good we all have a recipe we prefer. Maybe we can agree on the salted butter. Definitely NO wiggle from me on that.

I do use a more stable recipe for tart crusts than the one I use for cookies. Ina Garten’s shortbread is one I like for tarts.

I use unsalted in a lot of baking but merely to control the amount of salt, not eliminate it. I'm sure there are other things that have no salt, but the only one I can think of is Tuscan bread. :)

“…wasn't it you who shared the bleu cheese shortbread recipe?”

Yes, they’ve been a favorite for many years. I always seem to make them more in fall and winter. Great appetizer.👍🏻

No salted butter fir me! Tastes weird!

That's okay, Sherry. You can (and I'm sure you do) just add salt as you like. The standard proportion (I've read) is 1/4 tsp for 1 stick (quarter pound). Or use your own taste. I mostly bake with unsalted and add my own salt, but the shortbread doesn't taste right that way. Maybe it's iodized that's the problem. I often have non-iodized basic salt granules for cleaning veg--I should try it in shortbread and see.

I never buy iodized salt. If you eat seafood, you do not need the iodine anymore.

I like salted butter. We just purchased sweet & salty almond granola bars...6 boxes of them! We work up a sweat at the gym...never a problem with too much salt in our diet. I eat salted tortilla chips and use a ton of seasoning salt in anything I bread....pork or chicken. I do take a kelp tablet once a day for the iodine. I don't always eat enough greens. Today I fixed smoked turkey sandwiches, with mayo, mustard, tomato & lettuce. For dinner I might have a yogurt. That's not hitting ALL the food groups in quantities specified by the "Eatwell Guide". :0)

I don't eat that much seafood and I'm allergic to fish. I'm just as happy to use iodized for most things. It works. But I put flor de sal (Spanish speaking fleur de sel) in the strawberry pops for a good reason!!

plllog, I’m fine with iodized, too.

“I like salted butter.”

Always plenty at our house.👍🏻

I do like salted caramel but rarely eat any sweets so don't get to eat it much.

Interestingly I had never heard of iodised salt before I lived in Germany. You'd be hard put to find it in shops here as our soils and traditional diet have historically provided enough iodine. Furthermore the drive to reduce salt intake means that no kind of salt is promoted in health campaigns. That said salted butter is the commonest here and that's what I buy.

I find many recipes, restaurant or fast food dishes and prepared foods have too much salt for my taste. I will often reduce the salt after trying a new recipe or half (or not at all, like some soups) and adjust to taste. However, as Pillog wrote, there are things that are supposed to be salty, like certain snacks.

But salt is often needed in recipes or the outcome will be impacted. The clearest example is Tuscan bread. It is terrible (even by experts). It is historically loved by the region but the lack of salt not only impacts the taste but as bread baking enthusiasts can explain better, the crumb is impacted. The fact that it is a taste enhancer also explains why it is often overused in processed foods.

I love salted butter and do use it as default, but reduce or eliminate the added salt in the dish. I actually buy separate table and finishing butter (my go to tends to be Isigny Ste Mere with fleur de sel de Guerande).

Wow - that would be scary to me, chloebud!

I use only salted butter - organic. I don't see the point in unsalted if I'm going to add salt anyway.

And I do use a sprinkle of flaked sea salt on brownies and chocolate bark - not a lot tho.

Carol, it was scary. I was in the backyard with our little dog for her morning potty break. All of a sudden she started barking and standing on her hind legs looking up into the tree. My thought was a squirrel until I looked up. Not something you expect to see! LOL, good to know bears like salted butter, too.☺️

Intereting! I miss the old Vermont Creamery (pre-sale) cultured butter that had acrual crystals of salt in it. It was wonderful table butter, with a homemade vibe. But for baking I love the control that unsalted butter gives me since a lot of recipes have too much salt, especially "simple" recipes taht just round up to the next spoon size. OtOH, I usually use a teaspoon of salt in a single loaf of bread (550g measured flour plus adjustments). and people in CF have told me they think it's a lot. Salty butter is delicious, even when the bread is salted. BTW, TJ's used to have a whole wheat Tuscan bread (saltless) which was really good.

I too like the butter with crystals of salt in it for certain purposes, like bread and finishing (hence the dark blue wrapper version of Isigny Ste Mere). I do keep unsalted butter on hand for baking and other issues, but it depends on the recipe.

I have not tried the whole-wheat tuscan bread at TJ's, What I have read is that the salt will strengthen the gluten and impact the crumb; the lack of it makes it more dense, which tends to be less appealing in white bread. (ETA -- googling images of the ingredient list on that gread show that their "tuscan" bread did contain salt. maybe that is a regional difference or recipe change, as they seem to change up suppliers)

I thought by definition, if you call it "Tuscan" it has no salt. We talked about this before but I don't remember the details. I was told back then, when TJ's had the Tuscan bread, that it was because of the salty toppings, but I think the real order is that there was a prohibitive tax on salt in the Middle Ages, so they made the bread without salt, and the salty things like cured ham or olives, came as a way to adding salt to the bread.

I'm not so sure about what the effects are in the dough. I've read a lot of conflicting stuff. My guess is that there are probably different effects in different environments. IME, salt added with the other ingredients will slow water absorption and slow the rise, but if you wait a period for the the water to absorb without the salt (autolyze), you're just shifting the wait period to a different point. But the autolyze will improve the dough. I tend to put the salt can on top of the next position for the bread so that it doesn't get forgotten. But, while I have experienced all of these, I've put in the salt at the beginning, adn while there was probably an analytic difference, it wasn't memorable.

I've been adding extra salt to my home made bread...it keeps the rapid rise down. Also less honey and less yeast. We're having a lot of humidity and heat, my bread has started rising too much and falling...so these pull backs have made a "perfect" loaf every time. I've actually deflated a 25lb bag of flour, only about 7lbs left. I'm amazed how quickly it went. 🍞🥐

So, you might be less beholden to particular ingredients if you used ADY during the heat. ;) You can also put the dough in a chilled bowl, put that on a saucer with a couple of ice cubes (or gel pack), etc. ;)

@plllog...always a bread machine. I'm currently leading a very busy life! I'm baking bread, cookies, pork tenderloin, grilling salmon...while laying a flagstone path...about 50' long and about 50 other things....It'll slow down once Winter hits.

Oh! Hm... Bake first thing before it warms up too much?

Much admiration. I know you do a lot of light construction on your properties. So did my father, but I think he;d bring in the mason to set flagstones. :) Is it fun, puzzling out the shapes? I think I'd like that part. Setting, filling and sealing just looks like work... (My "work" for this evning is cutting and baking kale chips, cutting up a pineapple using a corer-slicer (not much work) and runnig a load of towels or two. As in, no work at all compared to laying a flagstone path -- in the heat! Good luck, stay cool, stay hydrated, stay covered...

:0) Gym is 1st thing in the morning. Really love my bread machine. Great time cruncher.

Here's a peek at my current projects: the lower flagstone path I did about 6 years ago. The handrails were FREE off CL. Currently I stumbled on FREE Flagstone which got us working on the top portion of the path...I have yet to put grout glue in the seams...

Layout is easy...the pieces just fall into place. Using a hammer claw to set the side bricks is hard work......I had house work to do...after I did layout...he set the stones. :0) The lower section I did by myself...he was at work back in the old days & I didn't have help. :0)