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Recently, I found a Reddit post claiming that soy sauce is the key to richer flavor in chocolate chip cookies. Just swap the salt for soy sauce. And some commenters mentioned that it works for other desserts and baked goods too. Is it true or just another internet trend? I tested three of my recipes (fudge, ginger cookies, and blueberry muffins) with this swap to find out.
Here's the original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/foodhacks/comments/1oeyvt9/saw_a_tiktok_that_said_to_use_soy_sauce_instead/
My blueberry muffins recipe is here: https://www.stephsunshine.com/vegan-life/vegan-blueberry-muffins/
I haven't posted my ginger cookies or fudge recipes yet, but they'll be out soon!
Or search all my vegan recipes here: https://www.stephsunshine.com/vegan-life/all-recipes/
00:00 Intro
02:53 Test Methods & Baking
4:40 Results
10:56 Conclusion
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0:00
Does soy sauce make your desserts
0:02
better? I recently saw this post on
0:04
Reddit saying that they swapped the salt
0:07
in their cookies for soy sauce and it
0:10
made the cookies taste better. And there
0:13
were people in the comments section
0:14
saying that it works for other baked
0:16
goods, too. So, today I'm going to put
0:18
it to the test. Okay. So, normally when
0:20
I do these kind of tests, I do them
0:22
behind the scenes and then the recipes
0:24
that you see on my channel are the
0:26
result of all that testing. But today, I
0:28
thought, why not bring you guys along
0:30
with me and we can have some fun testing
0:32
together. If you know my recipes, you
0:34
might know that I sometimes like to add
0:37
unconventional ingredients to my
0:39
recipes. I've definitely been roasted in
0:41
the comments for adding a little bit of
0:43
pineapple to my lentil loaf or a little
0:46
bit of nutritional yeast to my vanilla
0:48
pudding. And from what I can tell, the
0:50
people in the comments didn't actually
0:52
try it and didn't want to. But that's
0:55
okay. But my experience is that when you
0:58
have something that's sweet or something
1:00
that's salty, if you add just a little
1:02
teeny bit of the opposite, it goes a
1:04
long way in creating a rich complex
1:06
flavor. So, in theory, I feel like this
1:09
soy sauce could work. It's more than
1:12
just salty flavor. It has some umami in
1:15
there as well. So, my plan is to test
1:18
three of my own recipes. And I'm going
1:20
to make one version the original way
1:22
with salt and I'm going to make the
1:25
other version with soy sauce instead.
1:27
So, the Reddit post that I saw said that
1:29
it worked well specifically in chocolate
1:31
chip cookies. They like how it enhanced
1:34
the flavor of the cookies and the
1:36
chocolate as well. I'm not going to test
1:38
chocolate chip cookies, but I'm still
1:40
going to test cookies. The cookies I'm
1:42
testing are my ginger cookies. Now,
1:44
these already have a pretty intense
1:46
flavor with the ginger and the molasses.
1:48
And I suspect that adding the soy sauce
1:50
might be a little bit too much, but
1:52
let's see what happens. Next, I'm going
1:54
to test my chocolate fudge. This recipe
1:57
is almost entirely chocolate, so this
2:00
should give us an idea of whether it is
2:02
a good mash with chocolate or not. And
2:04
finally, I am going to test something
2:06
much lighter in flavor, which is my
2:08
blueberry muffins. I know when I
2:10
developed this recipe, I went through so
2:12
many iterations of the batter just
2:15
trying to get a richer flavor. And I
2:18
love my current recipe, but let's see if
2:21
soy sauce can do something that salt
2:23
can't in this recipe. Since I just
2:25
finished shooting my ginger cookies and
2:27
my fudge recipe, I already have the
2:30
control version prepared to taste. So,
2:33
I'm just going to need to make the
2:34
version with soy sauce. And those
2:37
recipes will be coming out very soon. So
2:39
keep an eye out for them if you're
2:40
interested. And with the muffins, I
2:42
don't have those prepared, so I'm just
2:44
going to have to make them both ways. So
2:46
for all of these recipes, I am actually
2:49
just making a half batch, but I'm going
2:50
to give you the measurement for the full
2:52
batch, just so that's clear.
2:58
Okay, so starting off with the ginger
3:00
cookies. These call for half a teaspoon
3:03
of salt and I'm going to replace that
3:04
with two teaspoons of soy sauce. Because
3:07
there's more liquid in this, when I
3:09
mixed it up, I noticed that the batter
3:10
was a little bit soft. So, I did bake
3:13
this on two separate trays and one tray
3:15
got chilled for 25 minutes and the other
3:18
went straight into the oven. Next, with
3:20
my vegan fudge, this calls for a/4
3:23
teaspoon of salt. And I'm going to use 1
3:26
teaspoon of soy sauce instead, but
3:29
instead of mixing it in where I normally
3:31
mix in the salt in the beginning of the
3:33
fudge recipe, I'm going to wait until I
3:35
turn off the heat and add the soy sauce
3:37
together with the vanilla and chocolate
3:39
chips.
3:44
And finally, my blueberry muffins call
3:46
for the most salt at one teaspoon.
3:48
Because there is so much salt to replace
3:50
in this, I am actually going to do two
3:53
test batches with this. I'm going to do
3:55
one where I replace half the salt with
3:57
soy sauce and another one where I
3:59
replace all of the salt with soy sauce.
4:02
So, for the complete swap, obviously,
4:04
I'm going to skip the salt and I'll add
4:06
four teaspoons of soy sauce instead. But
4:08
because I don't want my batter to get
4:10
too runny, I'm going to reduce the
4:14
non-dairy milk by a tablespoon. In the
4:16
other test batch, I'm just going to use
4:18
half a teaspoon of salt and 2 tsp of soy
4:21
sauce. And that will show us what'll
4:23
happen if we do half and half. To keep
4:24
this all straight, I've got colorcoded
4:26
liners here so I know which one is
4:29
which. All right, so all my recipes are
4:32
ready to test. I have not tasted these
4:34
yet. So, let's see whether soy sauce is
4:38
better than salt in any of these
4:41
recipes.
4:45
All right, so we're going to go with the
4:47
ginger cookies first. As I mentioned, I
4:50
did actually two trays of these. One
4:52
where I chilled it and one where I did
4:54
not. And visibly, there's not much
4:58
difference. This one might just be the
5:00
one that was chilled might just be
5:01
slightly thicker, but this one feels the
5:05
one that was not chilled feels a little
5:07
bit firmer. Other than that, so far they
5:09
look pretty similar. But, uh, we will
5:12
taste them and see what happens. All
5:14
right. I'm going to start with the
5:15
control batch. Although, I already know
5:17
how it tastes. So,
5:22
Mhm. All right. Well, this one we know
5:24
has lots of flavor. Let's hope that
5:26
these other cookies with the soy sauce
5:29
don't overpower it. I'm going to start
5:31
with the ones that were chilled.
5:40
So, the texture is pretty much the same.
5:43
And
5:44
honestly, if you didn't tell me that you
5:47
had put soy sauce in these cookies, I
5:49
wouldn't know. It tastes almost the
5:52
same. only at the end I can kind of get
5:55
a little bit of the notes of the soy
5:57
sauce. It's definitely not overpowering
6:00
and it's not bad, but I also wouldn't
6:03
say it's an improvement. If you're out
6:05
of salt and you want to use soy sauce, I
6:07
think this is a totally fine substitute.
6:09
No one's actually going to know the
6:10
difference. And this is the one that was
6:13
not chilled. Yeah, it feels a little bit
6:15
firmer. Uh let's see.
6:19
M.
6:22
Yeah. So, the difference here is this
6:25
one has gotten a little bit crunchy on
6:27
the edges. So, if you want a soft cookie
6:29
and you want to use soy sauce in your
6:31
cookie, I would chill your dough on the
6:33
tray for 25 minutes before you put it in
6:35
the oven. All right, so round one,
6:37
ginger cookies. I'm going to call salt
6:39
the winner on this one, only because I
6:42
couldn't really taste the difference,
6:43
and I don't see much of an advantage to
6:46
using the soy sauce instead of salt.
6:56
All right. So, my blueberry muffins.
6:58
I've got three contenders here. This is
7:00
the original recipe. This one is half
7:04
soy and half salt. And this one, we
7:06
replace all the salt with soy sauce. One
7:09
thing I will say right off the bat that
7:10
I like about the soy sauce one is the
7:12
color of it. This one is much lighter,
7:15
as you can tell. Um, but let's see if
7:19
that extends to the flavor. All right,
7:21
we're starting with the control just to
7:22
get the taste.
7:28
All right, let's see how the half soy
7:29
sauce does.
7:35
H, I can't tell if that's the flavor
7:37
from the muffin or I just got a sour
7:40
blueberry. So, let me try a different
7:42
spot here.
7:45
I think it's the muffin. Yeah, I don't
7:48
think. All right, let me confirm because
7:50
if it's the soy sauce that's making
7:52
giving it this taste, then this one
7:55
should be worse.
8:01
H,
8:03
that's odd. I got a bite here with
8:06
almost no blueberry and I'm not getting
8:08
the same taste. Let me try again.
8:14
Yeah, it's okay. I think I still prefer
8:17
the one with salt. Let me just try this
8:18
one again cuz I'm not sure what's
8:20
happening here.
8:25
H.
8:27
Yeah, it's okay. So, in this case, I
8:31
don't think the soy sauce is necessarily
8:33
bad. I just feel like the original
8:36
tastes better. Maybe I'm biased because
8:39
it's my recipe and I like it. But yeah,
8:43
the soy sauce isn't adding what I
8:45
thought it would add in these muffins.
8:47
H. Okay. Well, we've got one last recipe
8:50
to judge. Let's see how it does with
8:53
chocolate.
9:02
Okay. Okay, so for our final test, we've
9:04
got the original fudge and the soy sauce
9:07
fudge. I can already tell this one is
9:09
softer, which might just be the extra
9:12
liquid in there. Um, but let's see how
9:15
they taste.
9:20
Of course, again, this is my recipe. I
9:22
love it. Let's see how this one that's
9:24
melting in my hand is uh if it tastes
9:28
any better because the texture we could
9:31
probably fix if the taste is worth it.
9:37
Hm. Okay. Interesting. Interesting. I do
9:42
really taste the umami in this one. And
9:44
you can see the difference in the
9:46
texture. I don't know if you can see
9:47
this here, but this one is very, very
9:49
soft. And this one is nice and firm. And
9:52
I might need to wash my hands. Hold on.
9:55
Okay, so I think we might have found the
9:57
sweet spot for this soy sauce in baking.
10:00
This tastes very unique. It has You can
10:04
definitely taste the umami in it. And I
10:07
would say that really depends on whether
10:09
that's your thing or not. This really
10:11
gives like dark chocolate. The original
10:14
is sweeter. This is just like, you know,
10:18
leaning more into the bitterness of the
10:20
chocolate. And honestly, I really like
10:23
it. I would probably still make the
10:25
original, but this is kind of like
10:28
honestly it's its own thing. So, I'll
10:30
give the point to the soy sauce for this
10:32
one because it is kind of it's kind of
10:35
delicious. The only thing I would do is,
10:37
you know, try to adjust the liquids in
10:40
here somehow, reduce it a little bit to
10:42
compensate for the soy sauce, but other
10:44
than that, you know, it's a unique take
10:46
on fudge and um it's actually pretty
10:48
good. So, uh, yeah, one point for soy
10:52
sauce.
10:56
So, it seems like this soy sauce thing
10:58
works pretty well with chocolate. I
10:59
don't know how far we could take it. I
11:01
don't know if it will work with ice
11:02
cream or cake or brownies or whatever.
11:05
If you do want to see more tests, let me
11:07
know. And also, if you want to see me
11:09
test any other unconventional
11:11
ingredients, you can leave me a comment
11:13
and uh, I might just try them out. I
11:15
really try to stay off of like Tik Tok
11:17
and all the social medias. So, it's rare
11:19
that I find out that somebody's talking
11:21
about anything. So, you guys will have
11:23
to let me know in the comments. Thank
11:25
you so much for watching. I hope you
11:27
enjoyed this video and I'll see you in
11:29
the next one.