I feel like I have done so many iterations on corn cookies in the past, but I keep making tweaks to my recipe in an attempt to make the absolute most perfect version of one. My usual corn cookie recipe starts out like your standard American cookie, with whipped butter and sugar, then to that you add yours leavening, vanilla, eggs, and flour, and in the case of a corn cookie, some form of corn powder. My beloved pastry-arch Christina Tosi would use freeze-dried corn powder, but I prefer Kotoshima brand Japanese corn powder, which results in a fluffier, lighter cookie with subtler corn notes. The Japanese corn powder is made with dried and milled corn, instead of freeze-dried, resulting in both that lighter texture and color. Corn powder deep dive aside, in the case of this particular corn cookie, I have made three unique substitutions to my usual recipe – brown butter, miso paste, and depending on your level of bravery, furikake. The brown butter adds a nutty flavor profile that plays off of the corn pleasantly, the miso adds in that nice punch of umami(if you ever had miso butter corn, you would know exactly what I am talking about here), and the furikake(a seaweed sesame mix that is usually sprinkled on top of rice for pops of flavor), adds a little texture and a salty contrast throughout the cookie. If you have ever had either furikake popcorn or furikake chex mix, this cookie basically hits on both of those nostalgia points, with the sweet, salty, caramelly, and corny flavors really coming through in these cookies.

From a technical standpoint, what makes these cookies not as fun to make is trying to incorporate brown butter into a dough. Brown butter is made by heating up regular butter until it turns this amber gold(I personally take mine darker than that, just to get more brown butter flavor) color, and it smells like those yellow butterscotch candies. It is absolutely delightful, and I love baking with it. In cakes, usually. The issue with making a cookie dough with brown butter is that you either have to chill down the brown butter so that it is a solid again, or you have to chill down your entire cookie dough if you made it with liquid-warm brown butter. In the case of my recipe, I did the latter, aka starting the dough with liquid-warm brown butter. The initial result is my dough looking a lot more like a batter at first, but one overnight stay in the refrigerator will alleviate you of that issue, and you will have perfectly scoopable cookie dough with a pleasant butterscotch flavor profile! Because of the brown butter inclusion, the dough is literally just made from mixing everything together, chilling it down, scooping out balls of it, optionally sprinkling furikake on top(make sure the furikake you use is a vegetarian one, since some furikake blends can contain meat or worse, dried fish), and baking the cookies in the oven. I would say fairly straightforward. These corn cookies are one of my most-requested baked goods, because of how tasty they are, so I hope you enjoy making these at home, furikake-included or not!

Makes 16-24 cookies:
1 stick unsalted butter, browned
1 egg
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbsp miso paste
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup Kotoshima brand Japanese corn powder
3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
vegetarian furikake*

In a pot, whisk the brown butter, egg, sugar, miso paste, and vanilla until combined. Add in the remaining ingredients, sans furikake, and stir until combined. Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour, just so that it can solidify, and scoop out 2 tbsp-sized balls. Space these balls about 2-3 inches apart from each other on a lined sheet tray. Sprinkle furikake on top of the cookies if you want that crunch and salty pop! Bake at 375 degrees F for 15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool before transferring to a desired serving surface.