Taking a quick break from my 12 days of Christmas baking to share with you a new recipe I just discovered. I’m too excited, I just had to share! I discovered the recipe for these gochujang caramel cookies from NYT Cooking a couple of nights ago and OMG, I am so glad I stumbled upon them. The minute I saw gochujang in the cookie name, I was intrigued. I don’t normally cook, let alone bake with gochujang, but I knew I had some in my fridge and I was curious to see what kind of cookie this recipe would turn out.
What’s gochujang? Gochujang is a fermented Korean chile paste, and is quite popular in many Korean recipes. It’s a little savory, sweet and spicy. Using it in this recipe gives an interesting (and genius!) new twist to an otherwise classic chewy sugar cookie.
Below is the recipe for these gochujang caramel cookies, reprinted as-is from NYT Cooking. These are SO good, you HAVE to make them. It’s a little sweet and spicy, and just the best combo. The crackly appearance just makes them even more appetizing and gives you that nice chewy texture.
Please, go make them already. You won’t regret it.
NYT Cooking’s Gochujang Caramel Cookies
Description
From NYT Cooking: Gochujang, the fermented Korean chile paste, offers intrigue in this otherwise classic chewy sugar cookie. A gentle amount of ground cinnamon lends snickerdoodle vibes, and the dough is raked through with ripples of clay-red gochujang “caramel,” in which brown sugar and butter mellow the chile’s heat. Mixing this dough by hand is highly recommended for the most defined crinkles and the chewiest texture.
Ingredients
Instructions
- In a small bowl, stir together 1 tablespoon butter, the brown sugar and gochujang until smooth. Set aside for later, at room temperature.
- In a large bowl, by hand, whisk together the remaining 7 tablespoons butter, the granulated sugar, egg, salt, cinnamon and vanilla until smooth, about 1 minute. Switch to a flexible spatula and stir in the baking soda. Add the flour and gently stir to combine. Place this large bowl in the refrigerator until the dough is less sticky but still soft and pliable, 15 to 20 minutes.
- While the dough is chilling, heat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 large sheet pans with parchment.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator. In 3 to 4 separately spaced out blobs, spoon the gochujang mixture over the cookie dough. Moving in long circular strokes, swirl the gochujang mixture into the cookie dough so you have streaks of orange-red rippled throughout the beige. Be sure not to overmix at this stage, as you want wide, distinct strips of gochujang.
- Use an ice cream scoop to plop out 1/4-cup rounds spaced at least 3 inches apart on the sheet pans. (You should get 4 to 5 cookies per pan.) Bake until lightly golden at the edges and dry and set in the center, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through. Let cool completely on the sheet pan; the cookies will flatten slightly and continue cooking as they cool. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Recipe courtesy of NYT Cooking. This site contains affiliate links, if you make a purchase through them, we receive a small commission.
I read this a few times when I was left with a dry crumbly dough to make sure I didn’t miss an ingredient. Not sure what was off. I sprinkled some water and it seemed just right.. but not something I could refrigerate and still expect to swirl. The gochu “caramel” also was a mess. It would incorporate at all, I ended up microwaving it so I could blend it together. I then patted the dough out on a cutting board, stripped the caramel down the middle and folded it in like that. They spread like crazy, which I expected cuz I didn’t chill it. Recipe needs work.
Hi! Sorry to hear the recipe did not work out for you. I’ve made this recipe many times over and every time they’ve turned out fine, delicious actually. I hope you give it another go. These really are good.
I roll the chilled dough into a rectangle, spread the gochujang mix over as much of the surface as I can, then roll it up (starting with a long side of the rectangle). Then I chill it again, cut it into about 1/2 inch thick discs, and then bake. I never could “swirl” the gochujang mix into the dough otherwise!