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Low-Sodium Salt in Baking

We wondered how well LoSalt salt substitute, which replaces some of table salt’s sodium chloride with potassium chloride, would fare in baking applications.

We have previously found that LoSalt salt substitute, which replaces some of table salt’s sodium chloride with potassium chloride (a salty-tasting compound), was acceptable in savory applications, but we wondered how it would fare in baked goods. To find out, we tested it in three recipes that called for varying concentrations of salt: yellow layer cake, blueberry muffins, and pie dough.

In the layer cake, all found the LoSalt version acceptable; in fact, half of tasters couldn’t even detect a difference. In blueberry muffins, most tasters could identify the LoSalt batch, but still considered it to be fine. When it came to the pie crust, which contained the highest concentration of salt of the three recipes tested, all of our tasters were able to pick out the sample with LoSalt, but once we filled the crust, the difference wasn’t noticeable.

To see if we could avoid a special purchase, we also tried simply adding less salt to these recipes by adding amounts of table salt equivalent to the amount of sodium chloride in the LoSalt. However, tasters unanimously agreed that flavor suffered when less table salt was used.

THE BOTTOM LINE: LoSalt will produce acceptable results in a wide range of baking applications; we don’t recommend simply cutting back on the amount of table salt. Just be aware when using LoSalt that the higher proportion of salt the recipe calls for, the more likely you are to notice a difference.

A FINE SUB: LoSalt salt substitute works fine in baking.

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