Soft, chewy, nutty, with a serious depth of flavor and umami, these brown butter miso chocolate chip cookies are insanely delicious. You won’t want any other chocolate chip cookies after having a taste of these.
My brown butter chocolate chip cookies have always been a crowd pleaser, but after making these miso chocolate chip cookies, I might have to declare a new favorite. You might not think of miso as a typical ingredient for dessert, but trust me on this, it takes these cookies to a whole new level.
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Out of this world delicious – brown butter adds a hint of toffee and enhances the nuttiness of miso, while white miso adds unexpected umami with a subtle saltiness that balances the sugar in these miso cookies.
- Texture is on point – these cookies stay soft, chewy and gooey even days after they are baked.
- Easy yet impressive – 9 simple ingredients are transformed into these delicious cookies that will delight just about anyone who’s lucky enough to snatch them up before the tray is empty.
- The best make-ahead cookies – the longer you let these cookies rest in the refrigerator, the better the flavor. So go ahead and prep them days before you need to bake them!
Helpful tools
Below are some of the noted tools I used to make these miso chocolate chip cookies with brown butter.
- A light colored saucepan to make your brown butter. This will allow you to see when the brown butter is done. Avoid using dark colored pan because you won’t be able to see the butter changing color.
- A stand mixer or electric mixer will help make the cookie dough a lot easier. You’ll need to beat the wet ingredients together for at least 4 minutes so making it by hand will be quite labor intensive.
- A cookie scoop to get consistent size cookies so they all bake at the same time and you don’t end up with some that are too undercooked or too overcooked.
- A kitchen scale will give you exact measurements and eliminate the needs for additional measuring cups, spoons and even mixing bowls.
- A large fine mesh sieve to sift the flour and dry ingredients.
Ingredients and Substitutions
As always, you’ll find the complete list of ingredients and quantities in the recipe card at the end of this post. Below are some notes and substitution tips:
- Butter – I used unsalted butter for these cookies and do not recommend substituting salted butter since all the salt will be provided by the miso.
- Sugar – I used just brown sugar here to get a soft and chewy texture as well as depth of flavor. Light or dark brown sugar will both work. You can substitute granulated sugar but your cookies will be crispier, without their signature chewiness and richness from the molasses. Or you can substitute part granulated sugar to get a little bit more crispiness but still retain the chewiness from brown sugar.
- Egg – two whole eggs are used here.
- Vanilla – I used pure vanilla extract to add complexity and warmth to round out the flavor.
- Flour – simple all-purpose flour will work for this recipe.
- Miso – the secret ingredients in these miso chocolate chip cookies. It gives the cookies a balanced salty-sweet taste with a savory deliciousness that’s super addicting. I used white miso paste, bought at a Japanese grocery store. It comes in a plastic tub and will last for a long time, but you will be making this recipe on repeat for the holidays.
- Leavening agents – both baking soda and baking powder are used in this recipe. Baking soda will contribute to browning and spreading of the cookies as well as making them more chewy, while baking powder will add a little bit of lift.
- Chocolate chips – I used semisweet chocolate chips in these miso brown butter cookies. You can use any style: chips, wafers, chunks or chopped up bars. But I recommend sticking to semisweet or dark chocolate chips.
How to make brown butter miso chocolate chip cookies
The following instructions, step-by-step photos, and tips are here to help you visualize how to make the recipe. You can always skip straight to the printable recipe card at the end of this post.
First, brown 1 stick of butter in a light colored saucepan. When it turns caramel in color, pour it over the other stick of butter in the stand mixer bowl. Stir to melt, and allow to cool.
Tip: A light color saucepan is essential when browning butter so you can see when it’s time to turn off the heat.
Add brown sugar and miso to the cooled brown butter in your stand mixer bowl and beat with a paddle attachment for at least 2 minutes until light in color.
Next, add eggs, and vanilla to the beaten butter and continue to beat for at least another 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
Tip: Don’t be afraid to beat the wet ingredients really well at this stage, even longer than 2 minutes to allow the eggs to emulsify into the butter.
Sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add it to the wet ingredients and stir to combine. You may want to stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl in this step to make sure everything is well combined but don’t over mix here.
Finally, add the chocolate chips and stir to distribute them evenly throughout the cookie dough. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to give it a final mix to ensure everything is distributed evenly.
Divide the dough with a large size (¼ cup) cookie scoop and place them on a lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight before baking.
Tip: I recommend dividing the cookie dough before refrigerating because the dough will harden in the fridge and become difficult to scoop.
Bake the cookies, one tray at a time, 6 cookies per tray, in the middle of the oven.
More baker’s tips
- Exact measurement matters – I love using a kitchen scale for measuring ingredients. It makes the whole process a lot easier and you save on having to wash extra measuring cups and spoons. But if you don’t have a scale, make sure to fluff the flour, scoop and level.
- Don’t overmix cookie dough – gluten develops during mixing giving baked goods structure but also making them dry, so make sure not to overmix.
- Chill the dough overnight if you can – chilling allows the browned butter to re-solidify which helps curb spreading. It also allows the flour to hydrate properly and the flavor to develop. The longer you chill the dough, the better the flavor. But if you really can’t manage overnight, try to muster up 2 – 4 hours.
- Cookie perfection – I found that these miso chocolate chip cookies tend to spread evenly resulting in perfectly round cookies as long as you divide them with a cookie scoop. If any of them spreads a bit out of shape, use a large round cookie cutter or a spatula to scoot the edges of the cookies toward the center to shape them.
- Gooey vs. crispy – these cookies should come out of the oven with the middle underbaked. They will continue to bake with the residual heat on the baking sheet as they sit for 10-15 minutes after coming out of the oven. From my testing, 14 minutes and 30 seconds is the perfect amount of time in the oven for soft, chewy and gooey cookies. 14 minutes is a bit too underbaked for my liking, but 15 minutes is still good if you want a less gooey cookie and more golden on top.
- Make them smaller – you can use a smaller cookie scoop (3 tablespoon) for smaller cookies if you want to get more out of 1 batch, around 2 dozen or so. Reduce baking time to about 12 minutes for the smaller cookies.
Storage
Room temperature
These umami-rich brown butter chocolate chip miso cookies will stay fresh when stored in an airtight container for up to a week.
Adding a slice of sandwich bread to your storage container will keep the cookies softer for longer. However, avoid placing the bread directly on top of the cookies since the bread can get stuck to the cookies. You could place the piece of bread off to the side in the container or place a small piece of parchment paper between the bread and the cookies to avoid direct contact.
Refrigerator
You do not need to refrigerate baked cookies. But the cookie dough can be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days before baking.
Freezer
You can freeze baked miso chocolate chip cookies for up to 3 months, thaw at room temperature for a few hours before serving. You could pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften and warm them up, they will taste like freshly baked.
Or you can freeze the cookie dough for 3-6 months. I prefer freezing the cookie dough over freezing the baked cookies because you can pop them into the oven and get freshly baked cookies anytime you want.
To freeze miso brown butter cookie dough, simply portion them out on a parchment lined baking sheet and refrigerate until hardened. Then transfer the dough balls to a freezer bag and pop them in the freezer.
You can bake frozen cookie dough directly from the freezer without thawing. Simply increase baking time by about 30 seconds to 1 minute. You want the outer edges to brown but still underbaked in the middle for the perfect amount of gooeyness.
FAQs
Miso is a fermented soybean paste, an essential ingredient in Japanese cooking. There are more than a thousand different types of miso, but the most typical ones you’ll see at the grocery are labelled by their “color”: red miso and white miso. Red miso is dark and rich, with a deeper flavor whereas white miso is lighter in color with a sweet and mild flavor.
No, they don’t taste like “miso” but the miso gives them an amazing depth of flavor, nuttiness and umami – which is a savory deliciousness that is balanced and more complex than when you’re just adding salt to the cookie dough.
If you don’t want to use miso, these won’t be miso brown butter chocolate chip cookies anymore. But you can just use this brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe instead.
I like the bitternes of semisweet or bittersweet chocolate in these savory miso cookies. You can use milk chocolate or white chocolate chips but these are a lot sweeter so I would use less, between 1 to 1 ½ cups instead of 2 cups.
As I’ve mentioned above, chilling the dough is crucial to allow the flavor of these cookies to develop, making them even more delicious. It also helps curb spreading. But if you really really want these the same day, I would recommend planning ahead by making the dough early in the morning so you have time to allow them to chill for at least a few hours.
With that said, if you bake them right away without chilling, they won’t fall apart, you won’t ruin the recipe. Just keep in mind that you will miss out on the mentioned benefits. And if they spread a bit more, you can just use the trick with a round cookie cutter to scoot them back into shape.
More brown butter cookies
- Matcha White Chocolate Cookies
- Raspberry White Chocolate Cookies
- Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
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📖 Recipe card
Miso Chocolate Chip Cookies
Equipment
- Cookie Scoop
Ingredients
- 8 oz unsalted butter (227 g, brown 4 oz)
- 1 ⅓ cup brown sugar (275 g)
- 3 tablespoon white miso (54 g)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour (300 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 cup chocolate chips (350 g)
Instructions
- Brown the butter: place one stick of butter in the stand mixer bowl and heat the second stick of butter in a light colored saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter melts, it will become foamy. When the foam subsides, you will see clear bubbles, start whisking continuously at this point to keep the milk solids from burning. When the butter is caramel in color and smells nutty, turn off the heat and immediately pour it over the stick of butter in the stand mixer bowl to melt it. Give it a stir as needed to completely melt the other stick of butter. Allow to cool.
- Once the butter has cooled down, add sugar and miso to it, and beat with the paddle attachment for at least 2 minutes until light in color.
- Add the eggs, vanilla extract, and continue beating for at least another 2 minutes until fluffy and creamy.
- In another mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Stir with a whisk to distribute. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredient mixture in the stand mixer bowl, stir until incorporated. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as necessary.
- Add the chocolate chips, stir to distribute evenly. Stop the mixer and use a spatula to scrape the side and bottom of the bowl to ensure good distribution of chocolate chips as needed.
- Portion the cookie dough with a large (¼ cup) cookie scoop and place them on a lined baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Place 6 dough balls on a baking sheet, and bake 1 batch at a time for 14 minutes and 30 seconds, until the cookies start to turn golden but the middle is still underbaked.
- Remove the baking sheet from the oven, but allow the cookies to sit on the baking sheet to finish baking from the residual heat for 10-15 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Make sure to chill the dough to allow the butter to re-solidify, the flour to hydrate and the flavor to develop. Chilling overnight is best but if you want to bake the same day, give it 2-4 hours if you can manage.
- These spread very evenly and come out almost perfectly round, but if needed, you can scoot the edges toward the center using a spatula or a large round cookie cutter, right when the cookies come out of the oven and are still soft.
- The cookie dough can be kept frozen once portioned. You can bake from frozen and increase baking time by 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- You can use a medium (3 tablespoon) cookie scoop to make smaller cookies, this should yield about two dozen cookies. Reduce the baking time to 12 minutes.
Nutrition
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