NYT Gochujang Cookies

These gochujang cookies are about the most delicious and unique cookies you will ever try! A classic chewy sugar cookie has streaks of gochujang caramel, that spicy, sweet and salty savoury paste found in Korean recipes. Some call this their favourite ever cookie and once you try one you'll see why! This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader.

I came across this gochujang cookie recipe from the New York Times by their Korean American staff food writer Eric Kim. I love gochujang but have never used it in sweet recipes but considering gochujang is so sweet I had a feeling that this would be delicious. These cookies end up being sweet, salty and spicy all at the same time within the one bite. The gochujang caramel streak through it changes the whole sugar cookie for the better.

Tips for Making Gochujang Cookies

1 Gochujang is a hot pepper paste made with red chili powder (고추가루; gochugaru), glutinous rice powder, powdered fermented soybeans, salt, garlic and onion. It's used in Korean dishes like Buldak and Tteokbokki.

2 Make sure the butter is at the right temperature. Room temperature butter isn't quite soft enough if it is cold because you need to whisk it. You want summer room temperature butter IYKWIM. I just pop the butter in the microwave on the very lowest setting (10%) just until it becomes "summer soft".

3 A lot of people talk about getting the gochujang streak on top. The key is to not overmix the dough when you add the gochujang caramel. 3-4 folds will do. Just as a backup I reserved 2 teaspoons of the gochujang caramel and manually added a streak on top.

4 The first batch I made of these were a dismal failure (see pic). I wasn't sure what Eric meant by 1/4 cup scoop. I have a 60g/2oz scoop so I used that (it's about a quarter of a cup) and refrigerated the dough for the 20 minutes mentioned but they spread and became a mega cookie! Then I used a much smaller scoop and refrigerated the dough for 2 hours and it was perfect.

5 Top tip: the way to get the roundest cookies is by using an ice cream scoop and make sure that your cookie balls are perfect spheres too. But if they are slightly misshapen you can push them back into a round shape using a spatula or using a round cookie cutter-just nudge the edges back into place! This only works when the cookies are just out of the oven for a minute or two.

Other Recipes Using Gochujang You Might Like:

• Gochujang Glazed Salmon
• Sticky Korean Potatoes
• Kimchi Roast Chicken
• KFC: Korean Fried Cauliflower

When I tried these I was surprised at how delicious they were. They were a really good balance of sweet, salty and spicy. Mr NQN absolutely loved these and if you like cookies with interesting flavours then you'll love these. Speaking of interesting I recently received a letter in the mail. I opened it up and it told me that I had received a $410 fine for not wearing my seatbelt while driving. This was ridiculous to me because I always wear my seat belt so I clicked on the link to view the pictures. The first pic was very grainy, the second even grainier but then the third picture was clear as day. There I was driving without a seatbelt!

My head spun, there was literally no way I would drive without fastening my seatbelt. I squinted further and it was definitely me in the picture. My mind started to think, was the seatbelt the same colour as my dress and it just blended in? I then started to explore alternate reality theories .

"Honey come look at this!" I called to Mr NQN. He had a look and peered closer to the computer. "Hmmm," he said looking very puzzled. After thinking it over he asked, "Did you have eczema that day?" he said.

It all came tumbling back to me. I was on my way to an event with a friend and the seatbelt was rubbing against a patch of eczema on my chest. I know that you're supposed to wear your seatbelt across your chest here but I put the seatbelt under my arm just for a bit and that is just when the camera caught it! I couldn't believe that it caught me during the 5 minutes in which I moved the seatbelt at the traffic light but hey that's life isn't it? So let me console myself with these cookies as I'll be $410 poorer for it!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you think you'd like the sound of these gochujang cookies? Do you get a lot of driving fines?

Gochujang Cookies

Adapted from a recipe by Eric Kim

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 2 hours refrigeration time

Cooking time: 12 minutes per tray

• 1 tablespoon/15g/0.5oz soft butter*
• 2 tablespoons/30g/2ozs brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon gochujang paste
• 200g/7ozs caster or superfine sugar
• 100g/3.5ozs soft butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups/185g/6ozs plain all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarb of soda

*The butter should be soft enough so that you can pass a butter knife through it without having to put much pressure on the knife.

Step 1 - In a small bowl mix together the tablespoon of butter, brown sugar and gochujang using a spatula until it forms a uniform textured paste. Cover and set aside.

Step 2 - In a larger bowl add the sugar, butter, vanilla, salt and cinnamon and whisk together for 1 minute. Then add the egg and whisk this in until combined. In a jug or bowl whisk the flour and bicarb together. Then switching to a spatula, add this into the butter mixture to form a dough.

Step 3 - Take the gochujang butter mixture and place it in 4 dollops on four corners the dough (reserve 2 teaspoons of the gochujang butter mixture for later) and stir it in until you get a ribbon effect. It's important to not overstir, 3 or 4 folds is enough to get streaks and distribute it. Refrigerate the dough uncovered for 2 hours.

Step 4 - Preheat the oven to 160C/320F fan forced and line 3 baking trays with parchment. Scoop out a small amount of dough (around a walnut size amount or 15g/0.5oz). Place four dough balls per tray as they spread quite a lot. If you don't get nice gochujang streaks on top just spread a streak of the reserved gochujang sauce on top with a knife or spatula. Bake for 12 minutes. Cool on the tray for 10 minutes to firm up and then enjoy!