I Baked Over 1,000 Cookies This Year, and I Add This 1 Ingredient to Every Recipe

Don’t judge me, but between 2024 and 2025, I baked over a thousand cookies. Why so many, you ask? Well, I was deep in the recipe testing and development trenches for my newest cookbook, 108 Asian Cookies.

Out of those thousand cookies, at least half of them had the same unexpected ingredient: red miso. And there is a good reason for this secret ingredient that boosts the flavor of so many types of cookies.

Red miso is a Japanese pantry staple used in soups, dressings, and sauces. It’s probably the last ingredient most people think to add to cookie dough. However, in my cookie cookbook, the word “miso” appears 251 times. I developed six recipes with the word “miso” in the name. While I developed the recipes, whenever I could swap plain salt for miso, I did.

Why Red Miso Works in Cookie Recipes

Like a pinch of salt—or using salted butter—red miso tempers sweetness while adding salinity, depth, and balance. My taste testers often tell me my cookies have layers of flavor, are never cloying, and always carry that irresistible je ne sais quoi. Red miso is my secret.

Made by fermenting soybeans with salt and barley or rice, miso is a staple in Japan and around the world, thanks to its savory, umami-rich flavor. It's known as aka miso in Japan. Red miso undergoes a longer aging process than white miso, giving it a saltier, more robust character. That intensity is precisely what makes it shine in my cookies and desserts.

Many bakers will often recommend using white miso to make their sweets, but I find it too mild. Red miso has the boldness to bring balance and dimension to desserts. It makes buttery shortbread more complex, turns my curry peanut butter cookies even more unforgettable, enhances the creaminess of ube in my ube linzer cookies, and slices cleanly through the sweetness of any chocolate chip cookie while deepening all the chocolatey notes.

How To Add Miso to Your Cookies

So, how exactly do I incorporate red miso in cookie dough? Right when I cream softened butter with sugar, I drop in the red miso. You always want to add the paste to your wet ingredients because that way, it will blend smoothly into the dough. You don’t want to end up with a mouthful of unincorporated miso.

As for how much miso to add, for every stick of butter, I like to start with a tablespoon of miso. If that feels too savory for your taste, scale back to half a tablespoon and adjust from there.

My Favorite Brand of Red Miso for Baking

If you’re wondering what the best brand of miso is to use, well, I can’t tell you because I’m a little biased. When I moved to Renton, Washington in 2017, I visited Uwajimaya, the local Japanese supermarket, and I just picked the tub of miso that had Japanese characters on it and advertised itself as organic. I landed on Hikari organic red miso. I’ve been loyal to it ever since—and it’s the miso I reach for every time I cook or bake.

After baking nearly a thousand cookies to perfect the recipes in my cookbook, I can say with confidence: Once you try baking with red miso, you’ll never look back. Skip the salt, or save it for a finishing sprinkle, and reach for that tub of red miso in your fridge instead.

GET THE COOKBOOK: 108 Asian Cookies