Peanut, Stem Ginger & Miso Cheesecake Swirl Cookies
These are my ode to the sweet and salty lovers. I am one of them so these are also for me! Since making my Ginger White Chocolate & Rye Cookies, I have been a bit obsessed with making flavoured chocolate barks for my cookies. It has really opened up so many possibilities to add in flavours that you don’t necessarily want in the actual cookie dough.
If you’re looking for an adventurous, out of the ordinary cookie; then these are for you. With the mound of roasted peanuts sitting on top, the salty miso cheesecake bark and the half chocolate cookie dough, these are a sweet and savoury treat that will keep your tastebuds dancing.
Ingredients - Makes 15 Cookies
Miso Cheesecake swirl:
100g white chocolate
100g cream cheese, warm
1/2 tsp vanilla paste
40g light miso paste
Peanut cookie:
160g unsalted butter, softened
140g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
120g peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 egg yolk
1 egg
250g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
70g stem ginger, diced
20g Cocoa powder
2 handfuls of roasted salted peanuts
Method
For the cheesecake swirl:
Break the white chocolate up into a bowl and melt. Add in the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Pour out onto a baking tray lined with parchment and spread into an even layer, a few mm thick. Put the tray into the freezer to set for approx. 1 hour. Once set, peel off the baking paper and cut into 1cm chunks. Place the bark back into the freezer until needed.
For the cookie dough:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, lightly cream the butter and both sugars. Add in the peanut butter and vanilla and combine before adding in the eggs. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients into the bowl, mix until just combined and lastly, stir in the chopped stem ginger. Weigh the dough and divide it in half. Place half of the dough back into the bowl and mix through the cocoa powder so that you have half a plain peanut cookie dough and half a chocolate peanut cookie dough.
Prepare a baking tray lined with baking paper. Divide each dough into 15 x 30g balls. Take the cheesecake bark out of the freezer. Take one of each of the cookie doughs (one peanut and one chocolate), push them together before pushing in a few pieces of the cheesecake bark. Roll this between your hands into a ball and place onto your prepared baking tray. Repeat with all of the cookie dough, leaving 15 pieces of cheesecake bark for the tops. Once all of the cookies are rolled, press a piece of cheesecake bark into the top of each one followed by a small mound of roasted peanuts. Refrigerate the cookies for at least 3 hours, but preferably overnight. They also freeze well.
When you’re ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 175°C. Place however many cookies you wish to bake onto a baking tray lined with baking paper, leaving a few inches in between them. Bake for 12 minutes before rotating the trays and baking for a further 3 minutes to ensure even baking. The cookies should be set and browning around the edges but soft in the middle. You don’t want to overbake these as the cheesecake swirl will loose its gooey texture. Enjoy warm.