an instant classic for your cookie vault
if you’ve been on ‘bake tok’ lately, you must have seen this viral gochujang caramel swirl cookies. originally published by the new york times and recreated thousands of times over in kitchens around the world, this cookie is an unexpected flavour combo that will have you coming back for more. korean food is one of my top three favourite cuisines so you bet i had to give this a try and the results were even better than i expected. the flavour pairing works in perfect harmony. the star of the recipe is gochujang; a salty and savoury fermented hot red pepper paste with an undeniable kick of heat. the classic sweet, golden cookie dough is the perfect canvas for the bright red and orange swirls of gochujang caramel.
sweet + spicy = swicy
the combination of sweet and spicy is trending all over the internet food-sphere. the pairing of heat and sweet creates a balanced and exciting flavour profile. some of my favourite examples of swicy foods are as follows:
- spicy hot chocolate
- hot honey on fried chicken
- hot honey on pepperoni pizza
- hot honey on pretty much anything lol
- spicy margaritas
- mango or pineapple salsa
if you enjoy any of the foods i listed, i’m sure you’ll love these gochujang caramel swirl cookies! so let’s whip up a batch of your new favourite cookies!
what you’ll need:
- butter – a total of half a cup (8 tbsp or 115g) – we will use some of the butter to make the gochujang caramel and the rest to make our cookie dough base.
- sugar
- flour
- salt
- gochujang – our star ingredient! you can find this at any korean or asian supermarket
- brown sugar
- baking soda
- vanilla
- cinnamon
- salt
- egg
make the gochujang caramel
the first order of business is making our beloved gochujang caramel. we will combine butter, brown sugar, and gochujang and mix together. set it aside until we’re ready to swirl.
prepare the cookie dough base
add your sugar, egg, salt, butter, baking soda, cinnamon, and vanilla to a large bowl and whisk to combine. you want to mix the wet ingredients together before adding your flour to prevent over mixing and forming too much gluten (which leads to dry, tough cookies). add the flour and gently mix together until just combined.
swirl away
drop a few blobs of the gochujang caramel into the cookie dough base and mix gently with a spoon or rubber spatula. the goal is to create thick ribbons of the gochujang caramel throughout the cookie. you do not want a homogenous mixture. we need ribbons of swicy flavour! to preserve the beautiful swirls, put the bowl of swirled cookie dough in the fridge for 15-20 minutes. this will keep the swirls in tact when you’re scooping the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet. the best tool to use for your scooping adventure is, unsurprisingly, an ice cream scoop. you want the scoop to have a capacity of roughly a quarter cup. this recipe will yield 8 massive cookies! the cookies spread quite wide, so make sure you are only dropping 4 on each (full sized) cookie sheet. you’re going to bake at 350F for about 12 minutes. the edges should be golden and the centres slightly dry. remove the cookies from the oven, but leave them on the cookie sheet for another 15 mins to cool completely. the heat of the cookie sheet will continue cooking while the cookies rest.
enjoy these cookies with your morning latte, as an afternoon treat, a dessert after dinner, or perhaps all three!
gochujang caramel swirl cookies
Equipment
- small bowl
- large bowl
- whisk
- 2 sheet pans
- rubber spatula
- ice cream scoop optional
Ingredients
for the gochujang caramel
- 15 g softened butter 1 tbsp
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1½ tbsp gochujang
for the cookie dough
- 200 g sugar
- 100 g softened butter 7 tbsp
- 1 egg
- ⅔ tsp kosher salt
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 185 g flour all-purpose
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
prepare the gochujang caramel
- add 1 tbsp butter, brown sugar, and gochujang to a small bowl and stir to combine. set aside.
prepare the cookie dough
- add the 100g of butter, sugar, egg, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla into a large bowl. whisk to combine.
- add the flour to the mixture and gently incorporate with a rubber spatula.
- to create the swirling effect, spoon the gochujang caramel onto the surface of the cookie dough in 4-5 blobs. using a spoon or small rubber spatula, lightly mix the dough with caramel to create the swirls. do not overmix as you want ribbons of gochujang caramel throughout the cookie.
- allow the swirled cookie dough to chill the fridge for 15 minutes to retain the distinct ribbon pattern.
- prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- preheat the oven to 350℉
- after the dough is chilled, use an ice cream scoop to drop approximately ¼ cup rounds of dough onto a cookie sheet. leave a lot of room between cookies as they will spread quite wide. you should have 4 cookies per sheet.
- bake at 350℉ for 12 minutes. halfway through the bake, rotate the pan. the cookies are done when they are lightly brown on the outer edge and dry set in the centre. remove from the oven.
- allow the cookies to cool completely in the pan. they will continue cooking as they cool. enjoy!