Notes
I decided to make these after trying a similar cookie at Origin Coffee in town - I think they may have come from 404 Bakes.
The recipe has a number of steps to do before you really get into properly baking, a couple of which I’d argue not to do (e.g. blitzing half the oats and pecans). I’ve adjusted a few of the ingredients, particularly the amount of vanilla extract they used (1tbsp!!!). The original recipe also included Heath ‘English’ toffee pieces, which you can only really get in the US, so I didn’t bother - I’m not sure they’re needed, but max out, if you want to!
This is an American recipe, so a lot of the measurements were in US cups; they were kind enough to include grams, which I’ve also converted to ounces, as a few of the US measurements used those as well.
I made these by hand, rather than in a stand mixer, but you could do either or use an electric hand whisk. My cookies didn’t look anything like the photos from the recipe and I think I figured out why (see below*).
Ingredients (makes approx 25 cookies)
225g / 8oz butter, cubed
200g / 7oz rolled oats
180g / 6.4oz plain flour
1tsp baking powder
150g / 5.3oz brown sugar
100g / 3.5oz caster sugar
70g / 2.5oz white miso
2 large eggs
3 tsps vanilla extract
100g / 3.5oz pecans, chopped (you could also use walnuts, if you prefer)
200g dark chocolate chunks/chips/pieces (depending on what you’ve got/how ‘fancy’ you want to go)
Flaky sea salt
Timings
Prep time: 30 mins - 1hr
Chilling time: At least 1hr - overnight
Cooking time: Approx 12-13 mins, depending on your oven
Method
Preheat the oven:
Set your oven to 170°c and pop some parchment paper on your baking tray.
Brown the butter:
Heat the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the butter melts, it’ll become foamy. When the foam subsides and you see clear bubbles, start whisking continuously to keep the milk solids from burning. When the butter is caramel in color and smells nutty, turn off the heat and pour into a heatproof (glass?) bowl, setting aside to cool completely* before making the cookie dough.
Toast the pecans:
Pop them in a frying pan/skillet over medium heat, roasting them for 3 – 5 minutes until toasty and fragrant. Make sure you keep moving/turning them, as they brown very quickly. Set aside to cool.
Cream together the butter and sugars:
When the melted butter is completely cool, add both the caster and brown sugars to either the bowl of a stand mixer or a freestanding mixing bowl. Beat with the paddle attachment on medium low to medium speed for at least 2 minutes, until lighter in colour OR do it by hand with a wooden spoon/spatula until it lightens.
Add your wet ingredients:
Add the eggs, miso and vanilla extract to the butter/sugar mixture and continue beating (for at least another 2 minutes, if using a stand mixer) until fluffy and creamy.
Add your dry ingredients:
Sift in your flour and baking soda, and add the oats. Stir these in, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure it’s all incorporated.
Add in your remaining mix-ins:
Roughly chop the roasted pecans - and the chocolate, if using a bar**. Add both the chopped pecans and chocolate to the cookie dough. Instead of using the stand mixer beater, switch to a wooden spoon or spatula and stir to distribute evenly. Make sure to get the bottom of the bowl to ensure good distribution of all the mix-ins.
Chill the dough:
If using a stand mixer, pop your dough into a big enough bowl, cover with cling film and put in the fridge for at least 30 mins before rolling out cookie dough balls (about 1in in size). If you want to bake them right away, try to chill the dough for at least an hour - you could put the dough balls in the fridge once you’ve made them up for another half an hour, then bake.
If not baking right away, you can keep the dough/dough balls in a sealed box for 2-3 days or freeze as dough balls for up to 3 months.
Get set, BAKE!:
Pop 6 dough balls on a large lined baking sheet, about 2-3 inches apart. The original recipe says to bake 1 batch at a time, but I did 3 baking trays worth together and it worked fine! Bake for 12-13 minutes until the cookies are golden, but still slightly undercooked in the middle (mine caught a bit on the edges and got a bit too dark, so keep an eye on them. If you have any hot spots in your oven, you can bake until 10 mins, then turn the tray so they get an even colour).
Chill and eat:
Remove the baking sheet from the oven, allowing the cookies to sit on the baking sheet to finish baking from the residual heat for 5-10 minutes*** before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely. Sprinkle some flaky sea salt on top.
*I let the butter cool until it had gone a bit solid and was like a light brown paste - I think this is why they don’t look the same; they’re also a bit more cake-like.
**You can use chocolate chips or chunks (like you get in the baking aisle), a couple of decent bars or those fancy ‘feves’/drops you can get.
***If you want to, you can shape them with a round cookie cutter to get them perfectly round as soon as they come out of the oven.
