Miso Caramel Stuffed Cookies

Name: Miso Caramel Stuffed Cookies
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 77 min
Ingredients: 200 g all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon milk powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 115 g unsalted butter (softened to room temperature); 75 g granulated sugar; 50 g brown sugar; 1 large egg (room temperature); 40 g white miso paste; 1 teaspoon vanilla extract; 100 g dark chocolate (roughly chopped, plus a handful of extra for topping); 10 soft caramel candies (NOT hard caramels); 1 teaspoon flaky salt (for sprinkling)

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These sweet and savoury miso caramel stuffed cookies are soft and chewy with a gooey caramel filling balanced by a hint of white miso. You won't even know it's there but you'll notice the buttery richness it adds to these cookies!

A stack of miso caramel cookies cut in half to show the goey caramel inside.

Jump to:

What is miso?
Why you'll love this recipe
Tools
Ingredients
How to make miso caramel stuffed cookies
Storage
Freezing
Tips for success
Frequently asked questions
More cookie recipes to try
Recipe

What is miso?

Miso is fermented soybean paste that is aged for several months to several years. It's a key ingredient in Japanese cuisine for its savoury and umami flavour.

In baked goods, it's a nice "secret" ingredient that has become popular in recent years. The miso flavour is not super noticeable but it adds a savoury, buttery, and rich flavour to baked goods.

Why you'll love this recipe

These miso caramel stuffed cookies are soft and chewy.
White miso gives these cookies a subtle salty flavour and enhances the natural buttery and rich flavour of the cookies.
The caramel filling is soft, gooey, and delicious.

Miso cookies with melted chocolate dripping off the side of it.

Tools

Electric hand mixer - An electric hand mixer or a stand mixer makes creaming butter and sugar together very easy. It can easily aerate your batter for fluffier cookies. If you bake often, it's a kitchen essential that you should pick up if you can!
Cookie scooper - Use the biggest cookie or ice cream scooper you can find. I prefer using a 4-tablespoon cookie scooper and I wouldn't use one smaller than a 3-tablespoon scoop. Using a scooper is the easiest way to portion out evenly sized-cookies.

Ingredients

As always, the full recipe card with ingredient amounts and instructions is at the bottom of this post! Keep reading for more details on each ingredient or skip ahead to the recipe.

All-purpose flour
Milk powder - This is my favourite "secret" ingredient. Milk powder gives baked goods a subtle milky taste without adding any liquid (which wouldn't work in a cookie dough). It's an optional ingredient but I'd highly recommend trying it if you have some on hand!
Baking powder - Baking powder and baking soda help the cookies puff up nicely.
Baking soda
Salt
Unsalted butter - Your butter should be softened to room temperature so that it's easier to cream it with the sugars. Take it out of the fridge 1-2 hours ahead of time before using it.
Granulated sugar
Brown sugar - Brown sugar makes cookies chewier and adds a caramelized flavour.
Egg - This should also be at room temperature so that it mixes seamlessly with the batter without curdling.
White miso paste - Use white miso paste for it's light salty and savoury taste that won't overwhelm the flavour of the caramel or chocolate in the cookies.
Vanilla extract
Dark chocolate - Use any dark chocolate, bittersweet chocolate, or semi-sweet chocolate you like. I used 70% dark chocolate because I love how it isn't too sweet to balance the rest of the cookie. Roughly chop the chocolate into smaller pieces with various sizes. Set aside a handful of extra chunks for topping the cookies.
Soft caramel candies - For the gooey and chewy caramel filling, you want to use soft caramels, NOT hard caramels.
Flaky salt - Flaky salt is the best finishing touch for any kind of chocolate chip cookies. Use a flaky salt with large crystals for the best result like my favourite Maldon Sea Salt Flakes.

How to make miso caramel stuffed cookies

Mix dry ingredients: In a small bowl, stir together the flour, milk powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Left to right: dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, a bowl of mixed flour mixture.

Cream butter and sugars: In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat softened butter until creamy, about 3 minutes. Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and beat together well until creamy and fluffy, another 3 minutes.

Left to right: sugar in a mixing bowl of butter, creaming butter and sugar together with a hand mixer.

Add wet ingredients: Add the egg, miso paste, and vanilla extract. Beat again until combined.

Left to right: an egg cracked into a bowl of butter mixture, cookie batter in a mixing bowl.

Add dry to wet mixture: Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until almost combined with some flour patches remaining.

Left to right: pouring flour mixture into wet mixture, mixing cookie dough with hand mixer.

Add chocolate: Add the chopped dark chocolate and finish mixing the dough by folding it together with a spatula.

Left to right: chocolate chunks in bowl of cookie dough, mixing chocolate chunks into cookie dough with spatula.

Scoop and chill cookie dough: Line a cutting board with parchment paper. Use a 4-tablespoon cookie scooper to scoop the cookie dough. Release the dough balls on the parchment paper. No need to leave space between them. Place the whole board in the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes until the dough is firm.

Left to right: scooping cookie dough with scooper, releasing cookie dough ball on parchment paper.

Prep: Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Make cavity: Take a cookie dough ball and use your second knuckle or thumb to press a depression in the middle. Insert your thumbs and pinch the dough to thin it out and make a bigger cavity.

Left to right: pressing cavity into ball of cookie dough, a soft caramel candy in the middle of a ball of cookie dough.

Insert caramel candies: Place one caramel candy into the cavity. Press the dough together around the caramel to close and seal the hole. Place the dough ball with the sealed side down on your lined baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough balls.

Left to right: hands pressing cookie dough together to seal opening, balls of cookie dough on baking sheet.

Bake: Bake cookies for about 12 minutes until the edges are set but the cookies are still very soft. About 2 minutes before they finish baking, press a few chocolate chunks on top of each cookie for picture-worthy cookies (optional).

Reshape: Immediately after baking, swirl the cookies around in a round cutter or bowl that's slightly bigger than the cookies or use a fork to push any uneven edges in for perfectly round cookies (optional). Sprinkle each cookie with flaky salt.

Let cool: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 15 minutes before carefully (they will still be very soft) transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Storage

These miso caramel stuffed cookies can be stored in an airtight container or wrapped in plastic wrap at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Freezing

These cookies can be frozen by placing them in an airtight container, freezer bag, or wrapped well in plastic wrap and freezing for up to 1 month.

Let them thaw in the fridge overnight or at room temperature for several hours.

Miso cookies scattered on parchment paper.

Tips for success

Use room temperature ingredients. Softened room temperature butter and eggs will be much easier to mix. Your cookie dough will come together seamlessly without curdling.
Cream the butter well before adding anything to it. You want to whip lots of air in the butter. It should become pale in colour and very creamy before you even add the sugars to it.
Finish mixing cookie dough with a spatula to avoid overmixing. after adding the flour, you shouldn't overmix the dough otherwise the cookies will be dense and firm. Mix until the flour is almost all incorporated, add the chocolate chunks, and then finish the mixing by folding the chocolate into the dough until you don't see any more flour patches.
Use soft caramel candy for the filling. Hard caramels won't work and caramel sauce won't work either. The package should indicate they are soft caramels. You can also make your own soft caramels with corn syrup (there are recipes online!).
Press extra chocolate chunks on top of the cookies. If you've ever wondered how chocolate chip cookies online look so pretty with pools of chocolate on top, this is how! Add the chocolate chunks (not chips!) on top of each cookie about 2 minutes before they finish baking for picture-perfect cookies.

Frequently asked questions

Can I make these cookies ahead of time?

Yes, you can make the cookie dough 1-2 days ahead of time. Form the cookie dough balls and store them in the fridge before you're ready to bake them. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls for up to 1 month. Thaw them in the fridge overnight or bake directly from frozen (with a longer baking time). Baked cookies can be made 1-2 in advance before you serve them.

Can I use a different kind of miso paste?

This recipe uses white miso paste but you can also use other kinds like red miso. Red miso is stronger than white miso so I would lower the amount you add.