Brown Butter Miso Cookies

Brown butter cookies with miso are my new favourite cookie combination. A rich and deep flavour with a bit of umami, these cookies are gooey, crisp and delicious. Pair them with tons of dark chocolate and a sprinkle of flaky salt, and these Brown Butter Miso Cookies are the perfect sweet and salty dessert!

What Do Miso Cookies Taste Like?

What is miso you may ask? Miso is a fermented bean paste used in Japanese cooking. It’s probably one of the most important ingredients in Japanese cooking. In Korea, we use a similar bean paste called Doenjang (된장). It’s used as a base for many stews and soups.

I’ve recently noticed that using miso in baking has been one of the biggest raves and I’m all for it. Miso adds umami and it has a very rich and salty taste. There’s a huge variety of miso and they all have their own flavour notes. Some are sweeter, some are saltier, and some are more earthy. Using miso in your baking can add a rich and complex flavour that compliments the other components in your dish.

In these Brown Butter Miso Cookies, the miso really compliments the nuttiness and caramel-like flavour of the brown butter. I prefer these miso cookies over regular brown butter cookies. I love that deep rich flavour of the miso and brown butter, and it goes well with the slightly bitter dark chocolate. If you eat these cookies knowing that they have miso in them, you can taste the miso. But, if you try these cookies without knowing there’s miso, you probably wouldn’t be able to guess there’s miso in here!

Best Miso to Use for Baking

The three most common misos are White Miso, Red Miso, and Yellow Miso. I personally think White Miso is the best for baking. White miso is fermented less and has a slightly sweet taste. Generally the darker the miso, the longer it is fermented, and thus the stronger the taste. White miso has a milder flavour but still will add some saltiness, umami and depth.

I use Mike Brand’s Sweet Miso. White Miso is sometimes called Sweet Miso. This miso is slightly different from other White Miso’s I’ve used. Mike Brand’s miso is quite light, creamy and wet; compared to other White Miso which is usually darker and a bit drier (see below photo). Also, this miso contains 50% less sodium. As miso is fermented, it needs quite a bit of salt, making most miso’s overly salty. I like Mike Brand’s because I can add more miso and get a better flavour profile, without overly salting my dish.

If you can’t find this particular brand of miso, look for a White Miso that has low sodium and/or is lighter and slightly creamy. Though I haven’t tried it personally, I’ve read that the Hikari brand makes quality organic miso. I found my miso at my local Korean supermarket, and they had a huge variety of miso! If you still can’t find it, Amazon has a few different options for miso. I’m really looking forward to experimenting with miso more in the future. Stay tuned for future miso recipes! (Btw none of these are sponsored)

Tips to Making Brown Butter Miso Cookies

These Miso Cookies come together in no time. If you’ve made my other Brown Butter Cookies before, then it’s very similar and only requires the extra step of adding your miso. Here are a few tips to ensure you get perfect crisp and gooey miso cookies every time.

• Add your miso paste (straight from the fridge is perfect), into your hot brown butter. The heat from the butter will help soften up the miso paste. Give the two a rough stir and let the miso sit in that brown butter while it cools down.
  
  
• Use room temperature eggs. As the brown butter mixture will still be slightly warm when you mix it, adding cold eggs is a big no-no. The mixture will curdle instantly and will not be that smooth creamy cookie dough.
  
  
• Don’t add extra salt to the dough: Miso is extremely salty. I opted to use a low sodium white miso which is perfect. If you can’t find low sodium white miso, use 1.5 Tbsp of miso instead of 2 Tbsp. You may have to experiment with the amount of miso depending on which miso you use!
  
  
• But… add extra flaky salt on top! You just said don’t add extra salt!! Why are you adding salt on top? Because we didn’t add extra salt to the dough, the cookies are well seasoned and not overly salty. Therefore you have room to add that salt on top to balance out the melty pools of dark chocolate!

Looking for other Brown Butter Cookie recipes? Check out my Classic Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie, Brown Butter Lucky Charm Cookie, or Brown Butter Coffee Mini Egg Cookie recipes on my blog.

If you make any of my creations, I’d love to see it! Tag me on Instagram @createandrecreate_