Salty Brownies: Fudgy brownies dusted with rock sea salt

by Stefania Butler, Posted Feb 5th 2006 @ 9:02AM

My friend Megan is the proprietor of Sugar Star, a baking business in Portland, Oregon that supplies tasty treats like chocolate cake with Earl Gray-infused ganache and rosewater red velvet cake to coffee shops like Fuel Cafe on Alberta Street. One of the things she makes that I love are Salty Brownies, decadent chocolate brownies topped with chunky sea salt.

I made a batch tonight. Just use your favorite brownie recipe (or—gasp!—a box), and when the brownies have about four minutes left to cook, remove the almost-baked brownies and sprinkle them lightly with rock salt. (I used a half teaspoon of pink, Hawaiian alae salt.) Continue cooking for the remaining four minutes of baking time. Remove from oven and serve as usual. The salt really makes the chocolate flavor pop. They are always a hit at parties. I'll never make brownies any other way.

[photo: Stefania Pomponi Butler]

Filed Under: Food Oddities, Ingredients, Bakeries, How To, Methods
Tags: alae salt, america, baking, brownies, chocolate, dessert, fuel cafe, FuelCafe, oddities, portland, oregon, rock salt, salty brownies, sea salt, sugar star

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-03-2006 @7:38PM Noelle said... Ooh! I can't WAIT to try this. My husband loves a little salt with his sweets (chocolate-covered pretzels, anyone?), and I've no doubt this will be a huge hit. Thanks!
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2-05-2006 @9:44AM Kelley Ritchey said... OK, you got me with one. Yumm! Fortunately, there's no shortage of sea salt out there.
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2-05-2006 @10:23AM Bill H. said... A really good idea. For years we have been making a type of chocolate cookie with extra salt. It makes a huge difference.
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2-05-2006 @8:58PM spline9 said... I just read last night that salt enhances flavor not by tastebuds but by stimulating scent receptors in our noses.

"Why salt works: taste and smell
Salt is one of only four tastes that the human tongue can distinguish. (The others are "bitter", "sweet" and "sour".)

This article uses the following terms: the word "taste" refers only to the perceptions of the tongue; the word "smell" refers only to the perceptions of the nose; and the word "flavor" refers to the perceptions of both the tongue and nose (so flavor combines taste and smell).

When the tongue tastes the salt, the brain receives a message that something is being eaten, so the brain tells the nose to start to work. When the nose receives the message, the nose begins to sense smells of the food. A person perceives that the salt "enhances" that flavor of the food, but in reality the salt only wakes up the odor receptors.

As a result, the nose will be turned on as soon as the tongue taste salt. It follows that the salt can be added either in the food or in any accompanying manner. Having a saltine just before eating a bowl of carrots will have the same effect as salting the carrots before eating."

Lots of science/food-related info here:
http://new.cbbqa.com/articles/Salt/SaltStory.html
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