"Christmas starts in November!" I tend to say that a lot in an attempt to lengthen one of my most favourite times of the year, and to convince myself that Christmas is more than just on the 24th and 25th of December. With Christmas being so wonderful, it has to be longer than a mere two days, right? It would explain why I very much like to call it the Christmas season, as it gives the impression of Christmas being longer than it is.
Naturally, with Christmas fast-approaching, I have plans to bake as many desserts as possible. You wouldn't believe how many ideas I have written down and whirling in my head, but sadly, I can only bake so much, so I have to choose wisely! Out of all the things on my list, I think cookies are a must. Christmas season is cookie season, don't you agree?
So let's kick things off and usher in the festive season with brown butter miso chocolate chip pecan cookies. These delicious morsels are toasty from the brown butter and pecans, slightly umami from the miso, and perfectly chocolatey. Make sure that you use good quality butter and chocolate as this will ensure that your cookies have the best possible flavour.
A few notes:
I used koji miso, which has a sweet, mild taste and rich aroma. It is not the usual type of miso that most people would use when baking sweet treats – most people would use shiro miso aka white miso. Honestly I think either koji or shiro miso works well in these cookies, so take your pick.
When browning butter, you want to watch it closely as leaving it on the stove for any longer than needed would result in burnt butter. Once you are able to smell the nutty aroma from the butter, watch the colour of the butter. Remove the butter from the heat once it becomes a deep amber colour.
I used a mixture of 70% Cacao Barry chocolate callets and 66% Valrhona chocolate feves for texture and also to get pockets of melty chocolate in the cookies. Yummmm.
Toast the nuts for optimal nutty flavour!
Make these and enjoy it warm, with a cold glass of milk. Share it with family, friends, neighbours, coworkers. It will surely go down well.
Brown Butter Miso Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies
Makes approximately 36 medium-sized cookies
Ingredients
200 g pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
240 g (1 cup + 1 Tbs) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
360 g (approximately 2 3/4 cups + 2 tsp) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
390 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into chunks
80 g (4 Tbs) koji miso or shiro/white miso
200 g (1 cup) light brown sugar
150 g (3/4 cup) white granulated sugar
2 large eggs, fridge cold
1 Tbs vanilla extract
A bit of flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Spread out pecan nuts evenly on a baking tray and place the tray on the middle rack of the preheated oven. Toast the pecans for 10 minutes until toasty. Remove from the oven and set the nuts aside to cool completely.
In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, brown the butter, stirring with a heat-resistant spatula. You are looking out for a change in aroma as well as colour. Once the butter smells nutty and the colour of the butter has turned a deep amber, remove the butter from the heat. Set the brown butter aside to cool completely. (Note: Plan ahead, since brown butter needs time to cool).
While the brown butter is cooling, prepare the other ingredients. Sift together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium sized bowl. Chop the chocolate (if using chocolate bars) and set it aside.
Pour the cooled brown butter into a large bowl. Whisk in the miso until there are no lumps. Then, whisk in the brown sugar and white granulated sugar until there are no lumps of sugar.
Whisk in the eggs one at a time until combined. The mixture will become smooth at this point. Whisk in vanilla extract.
Switch to a spatula. Fold the dry ingredients into the butter mixture until it is almost all combined. Then, fold the chocolate (reserve about 80 g of chocolate chunks) and pecans in until distributed throughout the cookie dough.
Using a cookie scoop, scoop out evenly sized cookie balls and place them on a parchment-lined baking tray. In addition to using a cookie scoop, I like to use a weighing scale to ensure that my cookies are all the same weight, about 50 g each. This ensures that the cookies are the same size and thus bake evenly. Take the reserved 80 g of dark chocolate chunks and place one chocolate chunk on top of each cookie dough ball. At this point, I highly recommend chilling the cookie dough balls in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight for the cookie dough to firm up and develop a bit more flavour. You can bake the cookies directly from the fridge. (See note for make ahead tip.**)
When ready to bake, arrange the cookies on a parchment-lined baking tray, leaving at least 1.5 inches in between them. Bake until cookies are puffed and golden, for 12 to 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle the cookies with a little bit of flaky sea salt, if desired (the cookies taste great with or without the flaky sea salt, it's just a matter of preference). Let the cookies cool on the baking tray for 5 to 8 minutes before moving them to a wire rack to cool completely. Or, you know, enjoy these warm and fresh from the oven with a glass of milk because nothing beats freshly baked cookies. These cookies also keep well in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days (not that they would last that long).
**Note on making these ahead of time: I like to flash freeze the cookie dough balls for 30 minutes and then freeze them in freezer-safe ziplock bags. This way, I can bake them off straight from the freezer (no thawing required!) whenever cookie cravings strike. Bake them directly from the freezer for the same amount of time stipulated in the recipe. Enjoy!
