These Ginger-Miso Cookies have crispy edges and a crinkled exterior that descends into a deliciously moist and chewy interior. Packed with the flavours of miso, molasses, ginger, and other fragrant spices, they are an absolute joy for the holiday season!

There are more ginger-molasses cookie recipes than you could swing a bat at. And yet, this time of year, the internet almost crashes with everyone searching to find “the” one. Well, I hope this one ends your search because it did mine.
This ginger-miso cookie recipe is gold. It fills the criteria for all the comforting, warming flavours you crave in a ginger cookie, but adding white miso makes them that much more interesting and lethally addictive.
Incredibly easy to throw together, these ginger-miso cookies also keep well for days. And because they aren’t too fragile, they are great for gifting, or to bring along on your holiday travels.
Fragrant, spice-flecked, with an absolute perfect chew, bake them once and you will see why they are worthy of a top place on your holiday season cookie list.
Why Miso in a Ginger Cookie?
A few years ago, the New York Times published a recipe for Peanut Butter-Miso Cookies and the internet went crazy. With good reason. As peculiar as it sounds, miso’s deep umami-savouriness is wonderful to pair with sweets.
I haven’t made the peanut butter-miso cookies yet, but I thought it would be great to test a very similar approach with a ginger-molasses based cookie. The result: Outstanding, amazing, delicious, mind-blowing. You simply must try it to believe it.
The flavour of white miso is very subtle and I’d be surprised if anyone could detect it. But not only does it add a rich nuttiness to these ginger cookies, it also makes them incredibly chewy and moist. Like, for days.
The texture, the flavour, the ease to prepare it – once you add miso to this classic, there is no turning back. We can’t get enough of them.
Ingredients & Notes
If you bake regularly, aside from miso and molasses, you probably have all these ingredients on hand. Buy a couple of tubs of miso for the holiday season, trust me, you’ll want to make many batches of these cookies.
- Flour – I used all-purpose to keep it simple but stay tuned as I test more and more variations. Though I haven’t yet tested it, a gluten-free version should be very easy to achieve by swapping in a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour.
- Baking soda and baking powder – To help the cookies rise.
- Kosher salt – Just a pinch to balance and pop the flavours.
- Spices – Like all good ginger-molasses cookies, this one has ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and a smidge of allspice. If you don’t have allspice you can use cloves or nutmeg. Cardamom, if you love it, will also work here.
- Light brown sugar – As usual, I reduce the sugar on these by quite a bit and I still find them plenty sweet with no compromise to their chewiness. If you like your cookies really sweet, feel free to add and extra 1/4 cup of light brown, or white sugar.
- Butter – You need 1 stick of cold-room temperature butter for these ginger-miso cookies.
- Egg – One egg helps give the dough structure.
- Molasses – I use this unsulphured molasses which is very robust and dark but not bitter as some blackstrap molasses can be. A regular cooking molasses such as Crosby’s molasses, will work fine.
- White miso paste – I have only used white miso for these cookies which is very mild in flavour. Red and brown miso have a much stronger flavour and I don’t recommend them here.
- Vanilla extract – The fragrance and flavour of vanilla is wonderful in these cookies.
- Cane sugar – For rolling the cookies. This is optional but it gives the ginger cookies their signature crispy, crunchy crust.
How To Make Ginger-Miso Cookies
Have you watched this delightful video of Deb Perlman (Smitten Kitchen) making sugar cookies? She makes the entire dough in a food processor which eliminates the step of creaming the sugar and butter and makes the whole process very, very easy. I used her method here and it works beautifully. If you don’t have a food processor, you can do it all by hand but the dough does get a little thick so you will get a little work out.
Here is the step-by step to make the cookies:
- Place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, light brown sugar, spices, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 5 to 6 times to mix.
- Add in the cubed butter and process until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough looks sandy and clumpy, about 15 seconds.
- Pour in the egg, molasses, miso, and vanilla and process until it forms an even sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Transfer the dough to a medium bowl and chill for about 10 to 15 minutes. Chilling the dough will make it easier to roll into balls.
- Use a medium sized cookie scoop (such as this 1 ยฝ tablespoon scooper) to portion the dough. Roll each scoop into a ball. If you don’t have a cookie scoop, use two tablespoons per cookie. Roll the balls in the cane sugar and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet spaced 3 inches apart. Tip: I like to only roll the top and sides of the cookie in the sugar. This prevents them from browning too much on the bottom.
- Bake the cookies in a preheated 350ยบF oven for 16 to 18 minutes. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for just 3 to 4 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Note: I’m not much of a perfectionist but for the purpose of publishing a recipe, I go all the way. You will get exactly 18 cookies if you weigh them to be 40 grams each.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to chill the dough?
Bottom line, yes. But not for as long as other recipes call for. The batter for these cookies is pretty soft and sticky so it really benefits from a little chill time in the fridge. 10 to 15 minutes is all it needs. Once the cookies are scooped and rolled, it really is best to chill again. This chill time can be as little as 15 minutes but 1 hour is ideal. The chill time will allow the flavours to meld together and also prevent the cookies from spreading too much when baked.
All this said, during the winter, when my kitchen is quite cold, I have occasionally skipped all the chill time and the cookies still turn out pretty great.
Can I freeze the cookies?
The un-baked cookies freeze beautifully. Place the scooped and rolled cookies on a sheet pan and place in the freezer. Once frozen, transfer the cookies to an airtight container, or ziplock bag and freeze for up to 2 months.
Can I bake two cookie sheets at the same time?
These miso-ginger cookies will spread significantly so unless you have a very large commercial baking sheet, you will likely need two baking sheets. However, I do not recommend baking both sheet pans at the same time, even with convection mode, because they will not bake evenly. Convection mode can also cause the cookies to flatten so it is best to always use the regular baking mode to bake these cookies. .
Why are my cookies flat?
If your dough was too warm, the cookies will not puff up as much. Chilling the dough really ensures the cookies will not spread too much.
How do I know the cookies are done?
I have baked these cookies dozens and dozens of times and in my oven they are always ready after 16 to 17 minutes. All ovens are different but it is important not to overbake the cookies or they will be dry. The cookies are ready to come out of the oven when they are puffed and look slightly underdone in the middle. Once out of the oven, they will deflate and the crackly texture will become more pronounced.
Tips
- Add more spice – I lean towards the conservative side with the spice level in these ginger-miso cookies. If you adore a spicier cookie, go ahead and add more!
- Remove from hot tray quickly – I like to remove the cookies fairly quickly from the hot tray. As soon as they have firmed up enough, usually about 4 minutes, I transfer them to a cooling rack. This way they don’t keep cooking on the hot baking sheet which might cause them to lose their soft chewiness.
- The brand of molasses can make a difference. The consistency of molasses can vary between brands. This can affect the texture of the dough. If your dough is too soft, make sure you chill it a little longer.
- Use cold/room temperature butter. In other words, the butter shouldn’t be too cold or too soft.
To Store
These ginger-miso cookies are fabulous the day they are made but even better the next day. Store the leftover cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days on the kitchen counter.
After 3 days the cookies can be frozen but will lose some moisture and flavour.
More Holiday Cookies To Try
If you give this Ginger-Miso Cookies recipe a try, please feel free to leave a comment and/or a star rating below. We appreciate and welcome all your feedback. Thank you!
Ginger-Miso Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
- ยฝ teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 3/4 cup (160g) light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ยผ teaspoon allspice (or ground cloves)
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt omit if using salted butter
- ยฝ cup (115g) unsalted butter, cubed and brought to room temperature (should not be too soft)
- 1 large egg room temperature
- 3 tablespoons (50ml) unsulphured molasses
- 1/3 cup (85g) white miso paste
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup cane or turbinado sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Place the flour, baking soda, baking powder, light brown sugar, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, allspice, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse 5 to 6 times to mix.
- Add in the cubed butter and process until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough looks sandy and clumpy, about 15 seconds. Pour inย the egg, molasses, miso, and vanilla and process until it forms an even sticky dough, about 30 seconds.
- Transfer the dough to a medium bowl and chill for about 10 to 15 minutes. Chilling the dough will make it easier to roll into balls.
- Use a medium-sized cookie scoop to portion the dough. Roll each scoop into a ball. If you don't have a cookie scoop,ย use two tablespoons per cookie. Roll the balls in the cane sugar and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced 3 inches apart from each other (you may need to bake in batches).
- Chill the cookies for at least 15 minutes, or up to 1 hour. You can skip chilling but the cookies might spread a little more.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350ยบF. Bake cookies until crisp at the edges and slightly puffed in the middle, about 16 to 18 minutes.
- Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for just 3 to 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- The brand of molasses can make a difference. The consistency of molasses can vary between brands. This can affect the texture of the dough. If your dough is too soft, make sure you chill it a little longer.
- Use cold/room temperature butter. In other words, the butter shouldn’t be too cold or too soft.
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