Eggless miso cookie with walnut and chocolate

I am SUPER excited for this recipe. Why?? Because, in my opinion, it is a PERFECT cookie with textures of crunch with fudginess running through it. Because sweet with the hint of salt is a match made in heaven. Because a red miso imparts that perfect umami flavour to this cookie. Because miso, chocolate and walnut pair so beautifully! I can probably go on with the reasons why you’ve got to make this cookie but if you are looking for a cookie that is crispy on the edges and chewy and fudgy in the middle and has chocolate and walnuts in every bite, this is the one.

Miso is one of the essential condiment/seasoning in Japanese cuisine which is used to flavour soups, sauces, salads and many more dishes. It is a fermented paste made of soybeans that is mixed with other grains like rice or barley, salt and koji – a type of a fungus.  There are many types of miso, each type dependent on the ratio of soybean to grain or the length of the fermentation.  For those interested to know more, do check the links in the notes section for a deeper understanding on miso.

I chose to use red miso in this recipe for several reasons – since red miso is fermented for a longer time, it has a stronger, complex flavour. It also has a higher salt content and therefore in this cookie, it perfectly balances the sweetness.

Now to the cookie. A pretty simple straightforward recipe but it can go wrong quickly. Here are the few things I learnt during my trials:

1. Weighing scale is your answer to a perfect cookie. Achieving right proportion by volume (using measuring cups) is not always accurate.
2. ALWAYS use room temperature butter (when you cut it with knife, it should make a nice, clean cut. Too soft or too cold butter can affect the end product) and do use the best quality butter you can find. Quite a few branded butters out there have hydrogenated oil in it so choose the butter wisely especially for a recipe where the butter is quite an important ingredient.
3. When using brown sugar in a measuring cup, always press it in the cup till the rim of the cup.
4. Brown to white sugar ratio defines the texture of the cookie. Brown sugar makes the cookie soft and fudgy while white sugar adds the crunch. And trust me, even 1 tbsp of extra white or brown can make a difference. One of my previous trial batches had more brown sugar to white sugar and even though, it tastes heavenly, it was too soft for my liking.
5. Freezing the dough plays quite an important role as well. Once mixed, I froze the cookie dough overnight. Freezing the dough as a whole dough ball allows the flavours to intensify. Next morning, I scooped the dough with an ice-cream scoop to get equal sized cookie and froze it again for at least 3 hours (since the dough had turned soft again) and then baked in the oven straight out of the freezer. This method will ensure a thick cookie with crispy edges and a fudgy center.
6. Whisking butter and sugar mix with a paddle attachment makes the mix fluffier. You can do the same thing with hand but the texture might be slightly denser.
7. I tested one batch with only walnuts and one with only chocolate. The walnut batch was crispier compared to the chocolate one. In the following recipe, the choice is yours. Make 6 cookies with walnuts and the remaining 6 with chocolate or mix both.
8. I even tried one batch of cookie dough with the filter coffee concoction (in lieu of milk). It made the chocolate flavour more pronounced while subduing the miso flavour. Though I must admit, it tasted heavenly with all that chocolatey goodness.

   

Even though with all these tips and tricks, let me say one thing – you can’t go wrong with a cookie!! Even though my earlier trial batches were not meeting my expectation of a perfect cookie, there wasn’t a single batch which wasn’t approved by my 9-year-old! So, go ahead, make this cookie that is full of complex flavour and enjoy every walnutty, chocolatey bite.

If you liked this recipe, I am sure you will like this too!

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