salty sweet

salty sweet

Firstly, a confession. I don’t really love desserts. I’m more of a savoury girl. Or at least I was. Recently I jumped on the bandwagon of a wonderful trend that is taking the food world by storm. Desserts with a pinch of salt! Yep, salty and sweet can be utterly delicious.

Salted desserts are often simply created with a finishing sprinkle of flaky sea salt. Or a drizzle of thick, salted caramel. Or both! But they can be so much more… Whether it’s cookies, cakes, pies, doughnuts, ice creams, tropical fruit or anything else found on a dessert menu, if it’s sweet, you can salt it. The salt brings out the subtle flavors that can get lost in the dessert’s sweetness. It makes the experience of eating your dessert feel wonderfully unpredictable and new.

But it’s not all about taste. We crave sugar because carbohydrates fuel our bodies, and our bodies need salt because it’s an essential nutrient. So if it makes you feel better about indulging, you can tell yourself your body made you do it!

While there are approximately a bazillion recipes on the internet for salted chocolate brownies and other salted chocolate treats, I have recently been collecting some of the more untraditional salty sweet dessert recipes from my favourite food bloggers around the internet. Indulge in a salty sweet combination with these 6 recipes:  donuts with burnt caramel and sea saltwatermelon salt and chilli granitablack plum tarts with brown butter and sea salt; salted caramel stuffed chocolate crinkle cookiessalted honey and apple tarte tatinsalted chocolate and pumpkin babka

1. A wonderful combination of salty, sweet and charred! Yep, charred (burnt) caramel!doughnuts with burnt caramel and sea salt

Todd & Dianne from White On Rice Couple have pushed the boundaries with their charred (or burnt) caramel glaze and finished with a pinch of salt. They have developed an awesome treat that I can’t wait to try out. You can find the recipe here: burnt caramel doughnuts with a pinch of salt. If you make this one, please share in the comments below to tell us what you think.

2. Salty, sweet, spicy, sour and icy!

watermelon chilli salt granita
This delicious concoction comes to us from one of my food blogging heros: Katie from What Katie Ate. It contains just 4 ingredients: Dried chilli flakes, lime juice, salt, watermelon and would make an easy and delicious addition to a summer dinner party, a casual barbecue with friends or a perfect end to a family meal.

3. Next up is another easy peasy sweet dessert made so much better with a pinch of salt

plum tarts with brown butter & sea salt

This wonderful recipe comes to us from Jessica at How Sweet it is. In Jessica’s words these are “embarrassingly simple. Um. Puff pastry. Plums. Brown butter. Maybe a little sugar if you want. Some sea salt.”

4. How delicious/indulgent/awesome do these look?

salted caramel stuffed chocolate crinkle cookies

“These taste like caramel brownies in cookie form. They are intensely delicious! ” Just one of many awesome recipes on Cooking Classy, these Salted Caramel Stuffed Chocolate Crinkle Cookies are worth a try. Comment below and let us know if you’re going to try these out.

5. Salt and honey – yes please! Apples and pastry – yes please!

salted honey and apple tarte tatin

I have made many apple tarte tatins. It’s pretty much my go-to easy dessert for those times that I don’t have hours and hours to prepare a dessert for friends or family. Until I saw this recipe from Donna Hay, I hadn’t thought to sprinkle with sea salt. You can bet I’ll be trying it very soon!

6. And now, maybe it’s the best left for last…

salted chocolate and pumpkin babka

I’m going to finish this blog post now because I just have to make this. Now! What’s  a babka you ask? It’s a cake made from a brioche dough that’s been twisted and sweetened with fillings like chocolate, cinnamon or fruit and nuts. In this version, filled with dark chocolate and pumpkin. And of course, it has a sea salt topping. You can get this recipe from Hummingbird High here: salted chocolate and pumpkin babka.

So people, what are you waiting for? Go forth and make yourself and your family and friends very happy with an indulgent and delicious salty sweet treat.

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