Joanne Lee Molinaro’s Recipe for Chocolate Chip Paht Cookies, From ‘The Korean Vegan Cookbook’

Joanne Lee Molinaro — a vegan chef and lawyer by trade — started her popular food blog, The Korean Vegan, five years ago. She’s since built a large audience for her vegan Korean recipes and stories on YouTube and TikTok, where she’s amassed over two million followers. This month the social media star took her recipes offline with the release of her cookbook “The Korean Vegan Cookbook: Reflections and Recipes From Omma’s Kitchen,” published by Avery.

Here’s a plant-based recipe excerpted from the new cookbook:

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CHOCOLATE CHIP PAHT (Sweet Red Bean) COOKIES

MAKES 12 COOKIES
DIFFICULTY: Medium
ALLERGIES: NF

My husband, Anthony, loves chocolate. There is no easier way to elevate a sweet recipe, in his mind, than to add chocolate chips. I don’t have as developed a sweet tooth as my husband, but I do love a good chocolate chip cookie. Adding sweet red bean paste gives this recipe a lightness, while also imparting chewiness. Add to that the flavor of red beans, and you’ll soon understand why Anthony calls these the best chocolate chip cookies he’s ever had!

4 tablespoons (57g) vegan butter (see Note)
¼ cup (50g) light brown sugar
½ cup (100g) cane sugar
½ cup (160g) paht
2 tablespoons plant milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1¼ cups (315g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 bar (17 oz/90g) dark chocolate, chopped into chunks

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.

NOTE
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

“The Korean Vegan Cookbook” by Joanne Lee Molinaro, published by Avery. - Credit: Courtesy
“The Korean Vegan Cookbook” by Joanne Lee Molinaro, published by Avery. - Credit: Courtesy

Courtesy

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