Are you looking for a dessert to serve after your Korean Baby Back Ribs dinner? Well, this is the cookie recipe for you. A 5-star rating on NYT Cooking from Eric Kim (author of Korean American) gave me the incentive to give it a go. Besides, gochujang is a favorite condiment that I usually add to savory dishes but why not sweets. The cinnamon addition will remind you of a snickerdoodle and the gochujang is tempered by the brown sugar and butter – they do have a pleasant “kick.”
Gochujang Caramel Cookies
Recipe from Eric Kim, Adapted by Judi Graber
- 1/2 cup unsalted, very soft butter
- 2 tbsp. dark brown sugar, packed (my dark brown sugar was hard so I used light brown)
- 1 heaping tbsp. gochujang
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 3/4 tsp. kosher salt (diamond crystal)
- 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1-1/2 cups AP flour
Combine 1 tbsp. butter, brown sugar and gochujang in a small bowl; set aside. I actually melted the mixture slowly in a small saucepan.
In a large bowl whisk together the remaining 7 tbsp. butter, sugar, egg, salt, cinnamon and vanilla until smooth. It’s recommended to do this by hand. I softened the butter in the microwave first. Change to a flexible spatula and stir in the baking soda. Place the bowl in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes. The dough will become less sticky. I didn’t find the dough sticky at all but I refrigerated it for 15 minutes anyways.
While the dough chills, heat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 sheet pans with parchment. (the recipe makes 8 large cookies). I actually made 10 cookies – I’m sure you could make them smaller if you so desired.
Remove the dough from the fridge. Spoon the gochujang mixture over the cookie dough in 3 different areas. Moving in long circular strokes, swirl the gochujang mixture with a spatula into the cookie dough so you have streaks of orange-red rippled throughout the beige. Do not overmix as you want distinct strips of gochujang.
Use an ice cream scoop and scoop out 1/4 cup rounds spaced at least 3 inches apart. You should get 4-5 cookies per sheet 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; the cookies will flatten and continue cooking as they cool. The cookies only keep for a couple of days at room temperature. My cookies were 3-inches and I made 10. I would prefer more and smaller cookies!
Recipe by cookingwithauntjuju.com
What an intriguing combination! I love the mix of sweet, salty and spicy. Definitely saving it an hope to try it! 🙂
I thought so too Ronit! The gochujang mixture is tempered with the butter and sugar and can be changed to your taste. I like a little heat – gochujang is a fun ingredient to use 🙂
I guess it comes down to which you have in the fridge! I stock several kinds of miso so that’s what I experiment with. I love miso in sweet bakes.
Yes, if you don’t have a certain ingredient and/or prefer a differenet by all means experiment and see what you come up with 🙂
I love NYTCooking & Eric Kim both!
Have seen this recipe but have not tried it since I don’t have gouchuchang on hand (I wonder if spicy miso will do the trick).
The subscription to NYT Cooking is well worth it as you get the latest recipes from some of the best chefs. I have Eric’s cookbook which was recently published and has lots of good recipes. Spicy miso has some heat depending on which one you use and I’m sure if you played with the ingredients (miso, butter and sugar) you would come up with a great cookie. Personally, I don’t use miso a lot (no reason) and I do love the color of gochujang 🙂
Very interesting use of Gochujang in this cookie recipe:))
I agree Shy – gochujang is usually in savory dishes for me. I did love this cookie as I like surprises, the heat 🙂 Give it a try – nice to hear from you…
Wow!!! I would have thought that gochujang could be used in a sweet way! I bet these cookies are great!!!
Way back when I experimented with peppers in sweet recipes with much pleasure at the results. I am not just a traditional chocolate chip cookie kind of person – I like to experiment. The heat and the color it adds – yum 🙂
sounds interesting and different!
Fourteen years later and almost 1500 posts I am discovering new and different recipes. I like the sweet with the heat 🙂
This is one of the most creative cookie recipes I’ve ever seen. I never would have thought of using Gochujang, but I bet it nicely balances out the sweetness and caramel notes. Needless to say, they look amazing!
As I mentioned to Sherry I have many traditional cookie recipes but I now look for the unusual. You can control the heat of the Gochujang – just don’t add so much. I enjoyed them a lot sweet and a little heat 🙂
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