Salt is the one ingredient that can single-handedly make or break a baked good. Forget it in a batch of cookies, and they taste flat and one-dimensional. Add just a pinch to chocolate cake, and the chocolate flavour deepens dramatically.
What Salt Actually Does in Baking
Enhances flavour: Salt suppresses bitterness and amplifies other flavours. That's why a pinch of salt in chocolate cookies makes the chocolate taste more intense, and a pinch in caramel prevents it from tasting cloying.
Strengthens gluten: In bread doughs, salt tightens gluten structure, making the dough more elastic and giving bread a better rise and chew. Dough without salt is slack and weak.
Controls yeast: In yeasted breads, salt slows down yeast activity. Without it, the dough rises too fast — before flavour has time to develop. This is why salt and yeast should not be mixed directly together before adding liquid.
Balances sweetness: In sweet recipes, salt prevents them from tasting cloying. The small amount of salt in a chocolate chip cookie recipe balances the sweetness of two types of sugar.
How Much Salt to Use
Most standard cake and cookie recipes use ¼ to ½ teaspoon of fine table salt per batch. Bread recipes typically use 1–2% of the flour weight in salt (e.g., 10g salt per 500g flour).
Table Salt vs. Kosher Salt
Be careful when substituting:
- 1 tsp table salt = ~5.7g
- 1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt = ~2.8g (half as much!)
- 1 tsp Morton kosher salt = ~4.8g
If a recipe uses kosher salt and you only have table salt, use about half the amount. Better yet, always measure by weight.
Finishing Salt
Sea salt flakes (like Maldon) sprinkled on top of cookies or brownies before baking create bursts of saltiness and a satisfying crunch — a popular technique in modern pastry.