shake it up

Food trends come and go -- and for the most part they really pass me by. My personal food philosophy is pretty simple; eat real food (not processed), prepare it at home more often than not, eat as great a variety of things as possible.

There is one trend, though, that fits into my food thinking and my personal taste -- so I'm loving it! I don't have a sweet tooth -- I'll pick savoury over sweet any time, every time. So here's the new twist: add salt to your sweets! I made Spicy Brittled Peanuts over the holidays -- and used salted butter and salted peanuts instead of the called-for unsalted -- I'd love to show you how yummy they were...

... but, um, they're all gone.

Then Baker Son made some biscotti -- the recipe called for almonds, but he used salted peanuts instead. 

See what I mean?

So imagine my excitement when I opened the latest issue of Bon Appetit Magazine-- to find an entire article devoted to salting up dessert! The article claims salt makes desserts "fresher," more complex, "a totally different animal." And, it's easy to do -- sprinkle a few salt flakes on top of cookies before baking, use salted nuts (like above), or double the salt called for in a recipe you already have (like a pie crust). And don't feel guilty -- if you're making it at home and not buying the pre-packaged stuff, you're headed for nutritional sainthood anyway.