Toying with chocolate chip cookie recipes has started something dangerous. It’s not the just having cookies around…it’s the dough. The current wisdom calls for aging the dough in the fridge for 24-36 hours. But unless you hide it in the back of the fridge, it’s impossible not to nibble. And this is only the first go – a chocolate chip cookie with red miso buttercream.
Building on the cookie Ruth Wakefield created in the ’30s and eventually sold to Toll House, home and commercial bakers alike have worked to “improve” on her classic. Commercial bakers created the cardboardy crunchy Chips Ahoy, the weirdly chewy Soft Batch. Professional and home bakers futz with the sugar amounts and ratios, sometimes add molasses, replace the semi-sweet morsels with chopped chocolate chunks, or age the dough, all in pursuit of the end-all-be-all chocolate chip cookie. This is one quest where the journey is surely as satisfying as the destination.
This chocolate chip cookie is adapted from Maggie Stiefvater’s Big as Your Head Chocolate Chip Cookies, which use more brown sugar than the traditional Toll House and more than doubles the vanilla. Relying on mini chocolate chips, these cookies ensure good chocolate distribution without overshadowing the cookie itself. I’ve downsized them for sandwich cookies, but you can also use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop out the Big as Your Head size.
Delicious as these cookies are, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. Several months ago, I made some gluten-free peanut butter miso cookies and got obsessed with the idea of miso in desserts. I tore a red miso buttercream recipe out of Food and Wine and added it to the pile of recipes on my desk.
Miso is one of the those ingredients that people tend to shy away from outside of the standard applications in soups and dressings. Although red miso paste typically has a stronger, funkier, more developed flavor than white because of longer fermentation, it’s pretty mild in the amount called for in the original recipe. You can easily go to 2 T. for more of a kick. What brand to choose is a matter of taste and your requirements. Miso is pretty high in sodium, but brands do vary. I grew up on Maru-Hi, a Hawaiian white miso, but have switched over to Hikari Miso, as its organic and non-GMO. Try a few and see what you like.
The next stage of this little experiment is trying the Food Lab’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie, and maybe the Bouchon Bakery one. Better go buy some butter.
Chocolate Chip Cookies with Miso Buttercream
Ingredients
- 2 c. all-purpose flour
- 1/2 t. baking sodia
- 1 t. table salt
- 3/4 c. unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 c. light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1/2 c. granulated sugar
- 1 T. vanilla
- 1 egg + 1 egg yolk
- 2 c. Toll House semi-sweet mini chips
- Red Miso Buttercream
- 1 stick unsalted butter
- 1/2 c. powdered sugar, sifted
- 1 T. red miso
- 1/2 t. lemon zest
Instructions
Preheat oven to 325F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silpat.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda salt. In a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and mix on medium speed until light and creamy.
Add the dry ingredients in two increments, just until combined. Add chips and mix just until evenly distributed.
Cover and refrigerate dough for 24-36 hours.
Using a small ice cream scoop ( ~ 1 1/2 T.) form dough balls and place them on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 15-18 minutes until edges are lightly browned. The cookies will still be slightly soft in the middle. Let cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
