Salted vs Unsalted Butter for baking … how do you make the right decision? We break it down for you!

It is an age-old baking question … should you use salted or unsalted butter when you are baking?  Here are our thoughts on the pros and cons of the butter question and an explanation on how we decide between salted vs unsalted butter for our recipes.

What is the difference between Salted and Unsalted Butter?

This is an easy one … the answer is salt.  The only difference between salted and unsalted butter is that the salted butter has a little bit of salt is added to the butter during the churning process.  How much salt is added depends on the individual brand.  

When should I use Unsalted Butter?

When you want to control the saltiness of your dessert, use Unsalted Butter and add the appropriate amount of salt to the recipe yourself. 

Another guideline that we use is if we are making something that has to be baked, we use Unsalted Butter and add salt to the recipe as directed.  There is a science to baking. The combination of specific ingredients in specific amounts will effect the baking process and you don’t want to screw up those baking formulas with too much salt, so we use Unsalted Butter on those occasions. 

Examples of the kind of recipes where we used Unsalted Butter:

When should I use Salted Butter?

When we want the butter flavor to shine through and the combination of sweet and salty enhances what we are making we used Salted Butter.

Examples of recipes where we use Salted Butter:

What should I do when the recipe doesn’t specify Salted or Unsalted Butter?

If the recipe that we are making has to baked in the oven, or if it includes salt as one of the ingredients, we use Unsalted Butter when a recipe doesn’t specify which type of butter to use. But here is some Two Sisters’ Real-Talk:  If you only have Salted Butter, it is fine, go ahead and use it.  We’ve done it many MANY times and the dessert always turned out fine!

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