Baking – How to Adjust Biscotti Recipe When Using Salted Pistachios

bakingrecipe-scalingsalt

I am making biscotti. The recipe calls for the following:

2 C flour
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
3/4 C whole pistachios

The only shelled pistachios I could find were already salted, with sea salt.

Given these ratios, should I adjust the amount of salt I will add to the recipe?

EDIT: Thank you for the responses. Since there seemed to be no way to control the saltiness, I ended up seeking out an unsalted lot. This recipe was sweet, by the way. And it came out great.

Best Answer

The only thing you can do is not add any additional salt, although I think you might still end up with a result that's too salty. As a commenter mentioned, you could get an indication of the amount of salt from the nutritional information on the packaging, but my suspicion is that in 3/4 of a cup of nuts there will be more than half a teaspoon of salt.

There is a question elsewhere on the site about unsalting salted nuts, where the consensus was that it wouldn't easily be possible. Tap as much salt off the nuts as possible before you use them.

If the nuts are going to get wet anyway (because there are other wet ingredients in your recipe that you haven't mentioned) then you might as well try to wash the water off; do it quickly, and pat the nuts try with paper towel immediately so they absorb as little water as possible. Tasting a few of them should tell you whether you've washed most of the salt off (in which case add it back according to your recipe) or not (in which case don't add any additional salt).

Related Solutions

Substituting table salt or sea salt for kosher salt

I don't know how well a substitution will work in this case, because I don't know how the salt is being used in the recipe.

If you're mixing the salt into something where it will dissolve, then go ahead and substitute, using the chart that @ManiacZX linked to. If you're mixing it into cold things, and it doesn't sit for very long, I'd go with a finer salt if you have it.

If it's a recipe that calls for a salt rub, where you rub the bird down with salt, let it sit, then pat dry and roast, you're not going to have as good of results with a replacement. The issue is the size and shape of the crystals; kosher salt specifically sticks well to moist surfaces to draw out the liquid, and as a result, some of the salt is taken into the meat. You're not going to get the same behavior with other salts (or at least, not in the same amount of time).

Baking – Why are the cookies falling apart

I think your main issue was unit conversion, particularly for the flour (you had too much) and the chocolate chips (too little).

1 cup Nutella                           300 grams[1]
1 cup brown sugar                       200 grams 
1 tsp baking soda                       
1 large egg
6 tablespoons flour                     45 grams flour 
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips         Appx 150-175 grams depending on reference site

[1] How much does a cup of Nutella weigh?

I base the flour calculation on (6 / 16 tablespoons / cup) * 4.25 oz canonical cup for US recipes * 28.3 grams / ounce. The cup weight for flour can vary but I find 4.25 oz is a good value for recipes that don't otherwise specify.

Given that you have too much flour, probably insufficiently hydrated (the egg yolk and nutella are the only sources of water in the recipe, and I don't know how much water is in nutella), you can try adding a little more egg yolk or water to see if it helps, but your best bet would be to start a fresh batch.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Substituting table salt or sea salt for kosher salt

Baking – Why are the cookies falling apart

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