Chocolate Chip Paht (Sweet Red Bean) Cookies

published Nov 27, 2022
red bean cookies in a tin
Credit: Photo: Christopher Testani; Food Styling; Jesse Szewczyk; Prop Styling: Sarah Smart

Adding sweet red bean paste gives these chocolate chip cookies some lightness, while also imparting chewiness. You’ll soon understand why these are the best new take on chocolate chip cookies you've ever had!

Makes12 cookies

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red bean cookies in a tin
Credit: Photo: Christopher Testani; Food Styling; Jesse Szewczyk; Prop Styling: Sarah Smart

This recipe is a part of Secret Family Cookies — a dozen recipes from our favorite bakers, inspired by the people who make them feel at home. Get all the amazing cookies here.

One of my favorite things to do is to sneak flavors from my childhood into unexpected dishes (think: gochujang in my lasagna and doenjang in my potato salad). I came up with this recipe because I was once again pondering that “eggsistential” vegan question: What do I sub in for eggs?

Credit: Photo: Christopher Testani; Food Styling; Jesse Szewczyk; Prop Styling: Sarah Smart

Because eggs provide protein, I immediately zeroed in on beans, but the idea of adding chickpeas or black beans, while provocative, seemed too farfetched. And then I remembered paht (red bean paste)! My parents would eat ice cream, Popsicles, breads, and rice cakes stuffed with red beans, so its use in desserts was totally natural for me. Here, the beans not only provide a chewy texture for the cookie, but they also provide that slight “what is that?” factor that makes a recipe memorable. And in this case, it’s a recipe that brings me home, too.

Chocolate Chip Paht (Sweet Red Bean) Cookies Recipe

Adding sweet red bean paste gives these chocolate chip cookies some lightness, while also imparting chewiness. You’ll soon understand why these are the best new take on chocolate chip cookies you've ever had!

Makes 12 cookies

Nutritional Info

Ingredients

  • 4 tablespoons

    (57 grams) vegan butter (see Note)

  • 1/4 cup

    (50 grams) light brown sugar

  • 1/2 cup

    (100 grams) cane sugar

  • 1/2 cup

    (160 grams) paht (Korean red bean paste)

  • 2 tablespoons

    plant milk

  • 1 tablespoon

    vanilla extract

  • 1 1/4 cups

    (215 grams) all-purpose flour

  • 1 teaspoon

    baking soda

  • 1/2 teaspoon

    salt

  • 1 bar

    (17 ounces / 90 grams) dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

Instructions

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  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

  2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat together the vegan butter, brown sugar, cane sugar, red bean paste, plant milk, and vanilla on low speed until the ingredients are combined.

  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chunks. Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients using the stand mixer or a wooden spoon, until a dough forms.

  4. Using a large spoon or ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of dough (roughly the size of golf balls) and place on the prepared baking sheet. Using the back of a spoon, press down on them a little, as they will not “melt” the way normal cookies do.

  5. Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake for 11 minutes. The cookies will seem undercooked, but trust me. Cool the cookies on a wire rack for about 2 minutes before diving in.

Recipe Notes

You can use coconut oil instead of vegan butter, though it will make the cookies much harder.

From THE KOREAN VEGAN COOKBOOK: REFLECTIONS AND RECIPES FROM OMMA’S KITCHEN by Joanne Lee Molinaro, published by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2021 Joanne Lee Molinaro