These are strangely delicious. I’m going to go smaller next time, but they are totally yummy. Like snicker doodles married some peppers and they made a baby; a giant chewy cookie baby.

Gochujang Caramel Cookies from NYT Cooking

113 grams unsalted butter, very soft

25g brown sugar

20g gochujang

200 grams granulated sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

4g kosher salt

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon baking soda

185g AP flour

Take about 15g from the very soft butter or about a tablespoon, the brown sugar and gochujang and mix together to make a paste. Set aside.

In the bowl, mix by hand the remaining butter, sugar, egg, salt, cinnamon and vanilla. Once well  combined add the baking soda and flour. Mix well, scraping the sides, then refrigerate. 

Preheat the oven 350 degrees. Prepare 2 half sheet pans with parchment. 

Remove the base dough from the refrigerator. Add the gochujang paste in three clumps and swirl through the dough 2 or 3 times making sure to not mix too much. Scoop the cookies onto the prepared pans, assuring you have a swirl of the gochujang in each cookie. Don’t let the swirl be too big or the cookie won’t hold together once baked. Leave plenty of room to spread. 

Bake for a total of 15 minutes. Turn the cookies half way through the baking time. Cool. They should be flat and chewy. 

Next time: 

For a smaller and less flat cookie I’ll increase the flour and chill longer. -after scooping to get the gochujang chilled to help better shape the cookie. 

I used a yellow/#20 scoop to make 9 cookies. I will use a black/#30 scoop next time and get 15 -16 cookies (I assume) These were bigger than I really like to make.