Double Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

While standard chocolate chip cookies are a classic, there are many ways to upgrade them with new ingredients ranging from dried fruits to bacon bits to cayenne pepper. Recipe developer Kara Barrett, however, is going with a savory ingredient you don't see in a lot of cookie creations, making use of the Japanese fermented soybean paste known as miso. In fact, her cookies get a double dose of umami goodness, as she uses both white and brown miso. 

In addition to the salty taste from the miso, Barrett finishes these cookies off with smoked salt, telling us, "I love how the smokiness adds another note of unexpected flavor — there's a lot happening for your taste buds in this little cookie." With the sweetness of brown sugar and a bitter touch from dark chocolate, the cookies may have a complex flavor profile, they're not difficult to make. Two mixing bowls and some stirring utensils are all the equipment required — there's no need for a mixer or the browning of butter. "I wanted this to be a simple cookie, not a full-on production," Barrett shares.

Many of the ingredients in these miso-swirled cookies are the same ones you'd use to make classic chocolate chip cookies: butter, vanilla, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Instead of using milk chocolate chips, though, Barrett likes to chop up her own dark chocolate for this grown-up dessert. Last but not least, you'll need white and dark brown miso for the dough and smoked sea salt as a garnish.

In a large mixing bowl, use a wooden spoon to beat together the butter, vanilla, and sugars until well combined.

Add the egg, egg yolk, and white miso. Mix until fully incorporated.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and baking soda until well combined.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients until just combined.

Roughly chop the dark chocolate, then set aside a small handful to use for topping the cookies.

Stir the remaining chocolate chunks into the cookie dough until well distributed.

Add dollops of dark miso to the dough. Use a knife or chopstick to gently create swirls, being careful not to over-combine.

Scoop small mounds of cookie dough onto parchment-lined baking trays, spacing the cookies at least 4 inches apart. Top with the reserved chocolate chunks and freeze for an hour (or refrigerate overnight).

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Transfer the cookies to the oven and bake for 12-15 minutes. Optional: As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, bang the cookie trays on the counter 2 or 3 times to create a rippling effect.

Sprinkle each warm cookie with flaky salt and let cool on the baking trays before transferring to a wire rack and serving.

There are several different types types of miso, among them white, brown, yellow, and red. White miso is the most lightly flavored of the bunch, adding "a subtle savoriness in the background" of these cookies. The reason for its delicate flavor is because it's made with a fairly large amount of white rice in addition to the soybeans, and it's also fermented for a shorter amount of time than darker types of misos — just about 3 months.

The more intensely flavored dark brown miso, however, is made with brown rice and ages for much longer, taking at least 2 years to ferment. Due to its strong taste, Barrett chooses to swirl, rather than combine, the dark miso into her cookie dough. This way, it provides "pockets of saltier umami" that contrast with the white miso dough without overwhelming it. Whichever kind of miso you use in your baking, note that all types are naturally salty, which is why Barrett doesn't add any additional salt to her miso cookie dough.

Every so often, a new cooking tip will go viral, as was the case with "pan banging." This technique was all over Instagram in the mid-2010s, and even The New York Times wrote it up and credited it to a blogger named Sarah Kieffer. Kieffer incorporated pan banging into her recipe for giant chocolate chip cookies, taking the cookies out of the oven and hitting the pan on the counter several times during the baking process to create her cookies' signature ripples.

Barrett has simplified the process for her miso chocolate chip cookie recipe. She says that all you need to do is bang the cookie sheet on the counter a couple of times as soon as the cookies are done baking — no need to return it to the oven afterward. While you don't have to do this if you don't want to, she says that the post-bake bang will give the still-hot cookies a nice bit of rippling.