Miso, maple and sweet potato cookies.
These cookies are a perfect exploration of sweet and savoury, the umami-ness of the miso and earthiness of the sweet potato adding a unique and unexpected contrast.
Ingredients
For the cookie
225g butter
200g caster sugar
150g dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
¾ teaspoon all spice (adjust to taste)
300g plain flour whisked together with 2 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt
125g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
For the sweet potato topping
1 tablespoon white miso
2-3 tablespoons dry mashed sweet potato puree
2 tablespoons rich caramel
Method
Brown the butter, and (depending on desired texture – see notes) cool until it is solid but workable (i.e. the consistency of room temp butter), then cream the mixture with the sugars for about 2-3 minutes. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and spice/s. Add the flour, mixing lightly, and as soon as a dough forms, stop mixing and fold through the chocolate. Chill for at least 30 minutes but longer is better.
For the miso topping, mash the miso, sweet potato and caramel together to form a paste. Chill.
Form the dough into balls, roughly 80g each. At this point they can either be baked, returned to the fridge for further chilling or frozen. To bake the cookies, set the dough balls on a lined baking sheet, press down on them to flatten a little or a lot (the thinner the cookie dough the larger and crispier the cookie). Spread a couple of teaspoons of the miso mix on top. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 180°C (or adjust as per kitchen notes). Cool and serve. Best baked in batches and eaten fresh.
Chef's notes
- Chill or once portioned freeze the dough, this develops flavour, improves texture and prevents over spreading.
- Don’t over cream the butter and sugar (this potentially adds air to the dough which can lead to collapse when cooking)
- Bake on a silicone mat or baking paper on a cool tray (i.e. don’t grease the tray or add a second batch of cookies to a hot tray).
- While an exponentially large batch of dough can be made and chilled or portioned and frozen. Cookies are best batch baked and eaten on the same day.
- Crisp versus chewy a number of factors affect this:
- sugar – the higher the ratio of white sugar to brown the crispier the cookie and inversely the higher the ratio of brown sugar the chewier; play with the sugar ratios to achieve your desired texture.
- creamed versus melted butter- sugar mixed into melted butter creates a denser chewier texture
- moisture – the higher the moisture content the chewier the cookie.
- for crisp cookies – oven temperature and time – standard cook time 140°C for 11 minutes to achieve a crispier texture through the cookie reduce oven to 140°C and cook for longer- up to 30 minutes.
- Spices- adjust to taste- additionally or instead of the all spice, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg and to further lean into the savoury notes experiment with black pepper.
- Sweet potato puree- made from oven roasted sweet potatoes is best, fluffy, dry sweet potato is the goal.
- For the rich caramel component of the miso topping- make a traditional dark caramel with the same sugar to butter ratios, but the cream to half- once cooled the consistency should be very thick.
- Chocolate- the darker the chocolate the deeper the flavour. Alternatively, to enhance the savoury elements, the chocolate could be swapped out for nuts (pistachios or walnuts would both compliment the flavours).
- Yields approx. 14 x 12cm cookies
Basque inspired basil cheesecake
Crazy delicious, unexpected and really unusual, the addition of basil to a cheesecake filling is a curiously interesting interpretation of the savoury-sweet trend guaranteed to surprise and delight diners.
Ingredients
For the base
160g digestive biscuits, blitzed
100g melted butter
½ teaspoon salt
For the filling
150g caster sugar
30g basil leaves
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
675g cream cheese
5 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
25g flour
¾ teaspoon salt
375ml thickened cream
Method
Combine the biscuits, butter and salt. Push the crumb firmly into the base of an 18-20cm x 10cm tin lined with baking paper (basque style). Bake for 10 mins at 200°C.
Increase oven temp to 210-220°C. Process sugar, basil and lemon. Add the cream cheese, process until smooth. Now add the eggs one at a time, processing in between. Make a pourable slurry with the vanilla, flour, salt and a little cream, add to the mixture, process to combine. Finally pour in the remaining cream with the machine running processing until smooth. Pour the mixture over the base. Bake for 35-40 mins, until the centre has some jiggle and the top has developed the burnished brown finish characteristic of Basque cheesecake. Cool to room temperature before refrigerating.
Chef's notes
- This can be baked as a traditional Basque cheesecake, sans base.
- Play around with the base components – sub out some of the digestives for pretzels, and or add in some ground nuts (hazelnut, almond or pistachio)
- A food processor or immersion blender is the best equipment to use to achieve a smooth texture without adding air bubbles to the filling.
- Experiment with some other sweet savoury pairings and serve with extra virgin olive oil or parmesan ice cream and black pepper roasted strawberries.
Featured in Summer 25/26
