Nutty peanut butter meets umami miso in this delicious, soft-baked, chewy cookie - with a touch of mermaid whimsy (this recipe is adapted from NYT Cooking)
A good friend of mine’s birthday is today, and she is currently equally as obsessed with miso as I am right now. She loves the beach + seashells, so I was inspired to create these fabulous cookies!! Those of you who have been following since last year will recognize these shells from my Seashell Soirée dinner party cake ;)
The base of the cookie is a peanut butter miso cookie from NYT Cooking that I made gluten-free for my celiac friends. Roll in gluten-free graham cracker crumbs to give a “sandy” texture + visual (I use Once Again brand for the peanut butter and gluten-free graham crackers), then I use white chocolate to mold the seashells. I’ll be sharing an in-depth tutorial on how to make the seashells soon for those interested <3
For those who don’t know the taste of miso: it is a salty, lightly sweet, and umami-rich paste. When combined with peanut butter and brown sugar in these cookies, it creates a deep, caramelized, rich flavor that leaves you with one dang good peanut butter cookie.
Full recipe for the peanut butter miso cookies below, enjoy friends!!
Gluten-Free Peanut Butter Miso Cookies (Adapted from NYT Cooking)
1 ¾ cups gluten-free 1 to 1 baking flour (I used Bob’s red mill, King Arthur works as well)
¾ tsp baking soda
½ tsp baking powder
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup light or dark brown sugar (I did 205g)
¼ cup granulated sugar (50g)
1/3 cup gluten-free white miso paste
¼ cup peanut butter, smooth or chunky works
*Consider swapping peanut butter and miso amounts for a stronger peanut butter flavor. Totally based on preference!
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup brown sugar for rolling (and/or crushed graham cracker crumbs for rolling, if desired)
Step 1
In a medium bowl, combine GF flour, baking soda and baking powder, and whisk until incorporated. Set aside.
Step 2
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or using a hand mixer, mix butter, light brown sugar and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Step 3
Add miso and peanut butter to the mixing bowl, and continue to mix at medium speed, about 1 minute. Scrape down sides of the bowl to make sure all of the ingredients are evenly incorporated, and mix a bit more if needed. Add egg and vanilla extract, and mix until just combined.
Step 4
Add ⅓ of the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, and mix on low speed until flour mixture is incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour mixture in two batches until all of it is incorporated.
Step 5
Cover bowl with plastic wrap tightly, then place in fridge to chill for at least 15 minutes-2 hours. You can also tightly wrap the dough and chill it overnight.
Step 6
After chilling, take dough out of fridge. Place ½ cup brown sugar on a plate or in a bowl (at this step- you can combine the sugar with 1 cup of gluten-free graham cracker crumbs to achieve the sandy edges. This is optional!) Roll dough into golf-ball sized balls. Roll in sugar mixture, then place on parchment lined baking sheets.
Step 7
When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees.
Bake cookies for about 12-15 minutes, until crisp at the edges and slightly puffed in the middle. They should still be slightly underdone in the center.
*NYT advises to hit the cookies against the counter at this point, but I wanted a puffier cookie, so I skipped doing that. If a crinkly look is desired, feel free to pull them out after 15 minutes baking time and hit them on the counter.
Return to oven for 2-4 minutes, or until edges are set.
Step 8
Let the cookies cool on a baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
Optional: once cooled, use seashell molds to create white chocolate seashells, and attach them to the cookies using melted chocolate.. I’ll be sharing an in-depth tutorial on my seashell process soon!
You can also use milk or dark chocolate chunks, and place them on top while the cookies are still warm to get them melty.
I hope you guys love this recipe!! Truly such a good cookie and so many ways to customize- I think swapping the peanut butter for tahini and/or adding chocolate chunks into the batter would be delicious as well.
Keep an eye out for a tutorial on how to make the shimmery chocolate seashells coming soon :) have a wonderful day friends!
With love,
Abigail