If the incredible smell of these cult cookies baking in the oven doesn’t bring everyone running to try them, the sound of them being given their defining wrinkles certainly will
RECIPE AND FOOD STYLING POLLYANNA COUPLAND PHOTOGRAPHS INDIA WHILEY-MORTON
Easy bake.
CHOCOLATE ORANGE PAN-BANG COOKIES
Replace the miso, milk chocolate and sesame seeds with 100g dark chocolate chips and a pinch of ground cloves, then mix the finely grated zest of 2 oranges into the batter. Zest over a third orange as the cookies cool on a rack.
BANOFFEE PAN-BANG COOKIES
Leave out the miso and sesame seeds but add 80g crushed banana chips and 80g chopped soft toffees with the chocolate.
Chocolate miso pan-bang cookies
Makes 10-12 cookies Hands-on time 30 min, plus 15 min freezing Oven time 15 min
These giant, perfectly chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside cookies were one of the great discoveries of lockdown. ‘Pan-bang’ refers to the technique used to achieve that pleasing crinkly texture: after the cookies begin to rise and puff up during cooking, you bang the ‘pan’ (baking tray) on the counter. This deflates the dough and causes the cookies to spread out, so they end up huge but slim. We played around with so many flavours, but these are our three favourites.
MAKE AHEAD
Freeze the uncooked dough discs wrapped individually in baking paper, then leave to defrost for 10 minutes before cooking as normal. Or freeze the whole wrapped log, slicing off discs as you need them.
• 230g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 350g light soft brown sugar
• 1 large free-range egg
• 280g plain flour
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ¾ tsp sea salt
• 1½ tsp white miso paste
• 100g milk chocolate, broken into large chips
• 4 tbsp sesame seeds
1 Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy – you can do this in a stand mixer with a paddle attachment for about 3 minutes or by hand for about 8 minutes.
