Miso and brown butter shortbread
This 4 ingredient miso and brown butter shortbread is to die for. I am not even exaggerating here. It is sweet, salty, nutty and addictive. Brown butter and miso blend together beautifully and create the most incredible sweet treat. Moreover they are perfect to bake for people who are allergic to eggs or are vegetarian.
How to make miso and brown butter shortbread
Everybody is saying that making a good shortbread is easy. I disagree with this statement. Making a good shortbread may seem easy but actually it requires certain knowledge and understanding of ingredients.
Many recipes are saying just mix butter with sugar and then add flour and bake. Well, please read the below tips. They will help you to avoid all the issues while making a great shortbread.
TIPS:
- BUTTER: In order to make the best shortbread you need to use the best butter. Not margarine, or any other butter substitute. Real butter at its best. I used salted butter in this recipe. If you can not find salted butter, you can use unsalted but add 1/4 tsp of table salt. The buttery indulgent taste comes from real butter, this is it. For this recipe I melted butter and cooked it until milk solids turned brown. They are brown bits on the bottom of the pot and this is where flavour comes from.
- SUGAR: Traditional Scottish shortbread is made with standard white granulated sugar. I also used this type of sugar in this recipe. It works like a charm and is easily available everywhere. Using white granulated sugar makes shortbread airy and light but not powdery.
- FLOUR: As simple as it may be in order to make a good shortbread, you need to use a soft flour. If you did not know flour can be soft, hard or medium.
- Hard flour has a high protein content and has a good ability to form gluten. It is perfect to make bread.
- Soft flour has a low protein content and lower ability to create strong gluten. This flour is also called pastry flour or cake flour. It makes baked goods more flaky than doughy. For any shortbread recipe soft flour is the best option.
- Medium flour, also called AP flour – it is a mix of soft and hard flour and is the most commonly available in supermarkets.
Fort his recipe, apart from the 3 standard shortbread ingredients I have also used :
4.MISO PASTE: I used white miso paste as it has milder aroma than red miso paste. What is miso paste? It is a thick paste made of fermented soy beans, salt and sometimes seaweed. It originated in Japan and is widely used to season and flavour any type of food. Miso has slightly salty flavour and sometimes people refer to it as umami flavour.
HANDLING THE DOUGH – to make shortbread dough, I always use my hands. First I make brown butter by simply melting it in a small pot and let it burn. First butter will melt, then start to foam and then milk solids start to burn. You will notice that the colour of butter will deepen and small brown bits will be floating on the the bottom. This is what you are looking for. Then I let butter to cool down completely so it can turn solid again. When butter is ready I add sugar and gently rub it together until just combined. Then add miso paste, rub for a minute and then add flour. The whole secret is not to overwork the dough. Overworked dough means cakey and tough shortbread due to formation of gluten. We do not want it.
THICKESS AND SHAPING: I used Madeline mould to shape miso and brown butter shortbread cookies. I love the shape and the size. Just perfect for a quick snack. I portion the dough into small portions of 30grams each and I got 24 cookies. Feel free to use different moulds if you wish.
What does miso and brown butter shortbread taste like?
I can not get enough of these shortbread cookies. Miso flavour is soooo unusual and in combination with nutty brown butter creates the most incredible cookies. Sweet, salty and buttery, these little treats are absolutely addictive.
How to store miso and brown butter shortbread
Store shortbread at room temperature in a cookie jar or a cookie tin. You can also freeze it for up to 6 months. In order to defrost shortbread, just take it out of the freezer and leave it at room temperature for an hour. It defrosts like a charm.
If you are looking for more shortbread recipes, I can recommend you the following:
Coffee and chocolate chunks shortbread
Chocolate and chili shortbread
Gingerbread honey shortbread cookies
Click this link to see the best shortbread recipes
I hope you will make my recipe and if you do, please leave a comment below and let me know your feedback. You can also find me on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Gab and Gettr. Please say hi and do not forget to tag me in if you make my recipe. I love seeing your creations.
Recipe source – my own
Enjoy!
Sweet, salty and nutty, , these golden cookies are phenomenal. They are actually addictive and so easy to make. You need only 4 ingredients to make them.
- 200 g butter (salted)
- 220 g flour (soft flour, also called pastry flour or cake flour, or AP flour, if you do not have cake flour)
- 120 g sugar (white, granulated)
- 30 g miso (paste, white , 1 heaped tablespoon)
Please read post above, it includes useful tips and information.
Prepare a baking mould. I used madeleine cake mould. There is no need to grease it.
In a small pot melt butter until milk solid turn brown. You will know butter is ready when it is darker in colour and brown bites are in the bottom. Turn the heat off and let it cool down completely. Butter should become solid again.
Preheat oven to 175C (347F).
In a medium bowl add butter and sugar and miso and rub together for about 6 minutes.
Add flour and rub together until crumbs start to form. Make sure you do not knead or overwork the dough. This is important. The longer you work the dough the more gluten develops. It will make shortbread doughy and this is not good.
Divide the dough into 30 g portions and press each portion into the madeleine mould. I got 24 cookies from this recipe.
Bake for 12 minutes.
When shortbread is ready, remove from oven and let cool down before consuming. Please remember that when shortbread is hot is is very soft and fragile, so you need to be gentle when removing it from any mould.