If you don’t have a sweet tooth, this is the dessert for you. Doenjang, a Korean fermented soybean paste — similar to Japanese miso — infuses this dough with intensely savory, nutty undertones, and then brown butter takes it home. There’s an intensely fudgy, just-barely-cooked center and deep golden-brown, crisp edges that will make people fight for the corner pieces. A little flaky sea salt in the last five minutes of cooking makes it lean slightly savory — my ideal level of sweet for any dessert.
These blondies were inspired by two of my mom’s recipes: the cookie bars she adapted from the back of the Toll House chocolate chip bag and her butterscotch blondies (made with lots of brown sugar and butter — but no actual butterscotch). I added a few modern twists and Korean flair to represent my Korean American adoptee identity and the cultures that curated my taste buds.
Brown butter makes everything better. Semisweet chocolate wafers (or discs, pistoles, or fèves) have a deeper, richer, and less-sweet chocolate flavor than chocolate chips and melt beautifully throughout the bars, and even stay slightly melty long after they cool. The dough is accented with just a teaspoon of toasted sesame oil to make people say, “Hmm, what is that?” (Think: nutmeg in a bèchamel sauce.) And a finishing of flaky sea salt adds that final touch of savoriness.
The paste de résistance is the doenjang, my preferred fermented soybean (even though my dog is named Miso). This was my first experiment to see if doenjang would work the same as miso in baked goods, and it blew me away with the backbone of nuttiness it brings to the bar. If you’re a first-time doenjang buyer for this recipe, make sure to read the ingredients list — some have added anchovies, seafood, garlic, onion, or some combination of savory ingredients. These bars taste better with minimal-ingredient doenjang (soybeans, water, and a fermentation agent like koji) but if you accidentally grab one with ‘chovies in it, it still will be delicious — just a tidge more savory.
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