Kinako is roasted soybean flour. It is very nutty and I would say tastes close to peanut butter. Kinako is most commonly used to dust and flavor mochi so it doesn’t stick, but you can also find it used in other Asian desserts, specifically Japanese, and snacks (like ice cream!).
You can find Kinako at most Asian grocery stores. The one I use is the Welpac brand. Here is the Amazon page for it for your reference. It is typically overpriced online, so I highly recommend hitting up your local Asian grocer!
The Recipe
These cookies are super quick and easy to make and the recipe is pretty foul-proof, which I really like. Simply mix together the ingredients and bake! The whole process end-to-end took me about 25 minutes. The resulting cookies have deep cracks with chewy edges and some textured sugar on top for added texture.
If you like nutty flavors, like peanut butter or sesame seeds, you will enjoy the flavor of these cookies!
Kinako Sugar Sugar Cookie – Quick & Easy Recipe
Ingredients
- 75 g unsalted butter room temperature
- 80 g cane sugar or 70g white granulated sugar
- 40 g sucanat sugar or 30g brown sugar
- 25 g egg (about 1/2 an egg)
- 22 g kinako (soybean flour)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- pinch salt
- 150 g all purpose flour
- extra cane sugar for rolling the cookie dough in
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Cream together butter and sugar. Then mix in egg and combine until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Evenly combine kinako, salt, baking soda and flour. Gradually add this dry mixture into the egg mixture until a thick batter forms.
- Using a spoon, scoop up the cookie dough and roll into balls. Roll them in sugar and place it on a baking mat and lightly flatten. Repeat.
- Bake for about 12-15 minutes or until the cookies have set with lots of cracks
- Enjoy!
Looking for more Kinako recipes? Check out these posts
