The Best Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe
June 7, 2026
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Unsalted butter is the default baking fat here because it gives control over the salt level, which varies significantly between salted butter brands. Recipes built around it include the enriched dough of The Best Cinnamon Rolls, the butter-forward Simple Must Try Onion Boil, and the creamed Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies where properly softened unsalted butter is what produces the right texture in the dough. Related tags are butter, sugar, and flour, the foundational trio that unsalted butter works with in most baked goods.
Unsalted butter is the default for baking because it gives you control. Different brands of salted butter contain wildly different amounts of salt – anywhere from 1.5% to 2.5% by weight – which means using salted butter in a recipe that was developed with unsalted can make the finished bake taste noticeably salty or not salty enough, depending on which brand you grab. Unsalted butter lets the recipe specify exactly how much salt goes in alongside the flour, which is the only way to get consistent results across different brands and kitchens.
Temperature is the first thing to get right. For creamed recipes – cookies, cakes, most muffins – unsalted butter needs to be properly softened: yielding to light pressure, not shiny or greasy, and definitely not melted. The creaming step — beating sugar into the fat — in recipes like The Best Peanut Butter Cookies creates lift by beating air bubbles into the fat. Cold butter does not cream; melted butter cannot cream at all. If your butter is too cold, cut it in small pieces and let it sit on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes. That is the only fix.
For laminated and flaky applications – pie crusts, biscuits, some pastries – you actually want cold unsalted butter. The goal is to keep the fat in distinct pieces within the dough rather than dispersing it evenly. As the dough bakes, those cold butter pieces steam and separate the layers. Easy Mini Pumpkin Pies use this technique in the crust: cold butter cut into the flour creates the flaky pastry that holds the pumpkin filling. Work it too warm and the crust bakes into a mealy, crumbly shell instead of a layered one.
Browned unsalted butter is one of the fastest ways to add depth to a bake. Heat the butter past melting until the milk solids toast and the fat turns amber and smells nutty – usually three to four minutes over medium heat. It adds a nutty depth to Lemon Raspberry Muffins or shortbread that plain melted butter simply cannot produce. The process is the same for savory uses: brown butter is what takes a cinnamon roll glaze from sweet to interesting. Use it within a few minutes or refrigerate; it does not hold at room temperature without the cooling process that regular butter provides.
To substitute salted butter, you can add about ¼ teaspoon of salt for every ½ cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter. This helps recreate the flavor balance of salted butter.
You can turn unsalted butter into salted butter by mixing in a small amount of fine salt. Stir about ¼ teaspoon of salt per stick of butter and adjust to taste.
Yes, salted butter can replace unsalted butter in most recipes. However, it’s best to reduce or remove the added salt in the recipe to keep the flavor balanced.
Unsalted butter can typically sit at room temperature for 1–2 days if stored in a covered butter dish and kept away from heat and sunlight.
Looking for related baking fats? See our heavy cream and olive oil recipes for richer doughs and savory bakes.