May is Asian Heritage Month, and as part of our celebrations at work, one of our employee resource groups organized a potluck. We were supposed to bring something that represented our own heritage, but I waffled on what to bring. I was originally going to bake some Banana Muffins, because they remind me of my Mom and my childhood, then thought maybe I should make something influenced by the East Coast where my parents are from, and of course got caught in decision paralysis.

After a brief internal battle wondering if making Asian-inspired treats would be considered cultural appropriation by my co-workers, I decided to just go for it and began some research on which ingredients I could incorporate into cookies. There were SO many things I wanted to make with matcha and black sesame, but ultimately landed on miso and gochujang.

I’ve seen miso peanut butter cookies on the internet for a long time and was excited to give them a try. Miso is a Japanese fermented soybean paste that is salty and tangy, and lends some depth to these cookies. Many of my co-workers told me that they couldn’t taste the miso, but loved the cookies and said they tasted like they had a little something extra/different in them, but couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

Gochujang is a new-to-me ingredient, which is a Korean red chili paste that is savoury, sweet and spicy. I’ve been using it in a salmon recipe a lot lately, and was curious to see how it would work in these Gochujang Caramel Cookies I kept seeing on Instagram. Unfortunately this cookie recipe was a total bust as written (for me, anyway). It does not tell you to chill the dough, and my cookies spread all over the place*. I was so annoyed, but chilled my remaining dough to bake the next day, and had a little bit better results, but the cookies were still so thin, which I hate. I want to try these again with my go-to sugar cookie recipe, which I’ve linked below, because I did love the way they looked with the spicy sweet butterscotch** ripples running through them.

*a good reminder for me to always bake a test cookie when trying a new recipe!

**not to “well, actually” the New York Times, but this is not caramel, it’s butterscotch

Brown Butter Miso Peanut Butter Cookies

Source: The Palatable Life

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter, cubed
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup natural peanut butter
  • 2 tbsp white miso paste
  • 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt

+ turbinado sugar for rolling

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Add the butter to a small saucepan, and set over medium heat. Let melt, bubble and foam, stirring frequently until it turns a golden brown and smells nutty and amazing.
  3. Pour the butter into a large bowl, making sure to scrape out every last brown fleck. Let cool to room temperature.
  4. Add the brown sugar and sugar to the butter, and mix until fully combined. Add the peanut butter, miso paste, egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Mix again until fully combined.
  5. Add the flour, baking soda and salt, and mix until just combined.
  6. Form dough into balls, a little smaller than a golf ball. Roll each ball around in turbinado sugar to fully coat, then place on the cookie sheets.
  7. Bake for 9-10 minutes, just until the cookies are set.

Gochujang Caramel Cookies

Source: New York Times Cooking (it’s behind a paywall, so no link, I use my lovely co-worker’s login)

Ingredients

Gochujang Caramel

  • 1 tbsp butter, room temperature
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 heaping tbsp gochujang

Sugar Cookies

  • I’d try this recipe next time, without the sprinkles (make half of the cookie recipe or double the gochujang caramel amounts so the quantities line up)

Directions

  1. For the Gochujang Caramel, stir together the butter, brown sugar and gochujang until smooth. Set aside.
  2. Make the sugar cookie dough according to the recipe and sort of spread it out in the bottom of the bowl.
  3. Dollop the gochujang caramel across the top of the dough in small to medium sized blobs, but don’t stir it in.
  4. Use a cookie scoop to scoop out cookie dough and place dough balls on a plate or baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Each scoop should look different and have visible ribbons of gochujang caramel running through it. Cover the plate with plastic wrap and chill for at least three hours or overnight.
  5. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325 and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper. Bake cookies for 10-11 minutes or until just starting to turn brown. Remove from oven and use a cup or small bowl to coax the cookies into a circle shape if they’re misshapen.