When used like salt, soy sauce can provide a complex, umami-rich flavor to baked goods. This isn’t a crazy idea if you’ve made chocolate chip cookies or salted caramel with miso. Both ingredients impart more than just saltiness—it’s a flavor that’s earthy, rich, savory, and sweet all at the same time.
This recipe found its spark from Hetty McKinnon’s soy sauce brownies. In her cookbook To Asia, with Love, McKinnon says the splash of soy sauce provides a “rich caramel glow”. And true enough, these brownies have that wisp of salted caramel beneath the fudgy chocolate. Brown butter adds more butterscotch notes. Friends and family will love these addictive brownies—and they won’t believe the secret ingredient.
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Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a 9×13 baking pan and grease with oil.
Make brown butter: Add 1 block of unsalted butter in a pan over medium low heat. Cook butter, stirring occasionally, until it melts and starts to foam. Continue cooking until milk solids start to brown, butter smells toasty, and there is little to no sizzling, about 5 minutes. Pour brown butter into a heatproof bowl and set aside to cool for a bit.
Sift all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder in a bowl.
In another bowl, add chocolate chips. Pour brown butter over the chocolate. Stir with a rubber spatula until chocolates are melted and mixture is smooth. Add coffee granules and stir until dissolved.
Combine eggs, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and soy sauce in a third bowl.
Add the brown butter-chocolate mixture into the egg-sugar mixture.
Fold dry ingredients into the wet batter until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain. Do not overmix!
Pour the brownie batter into the greased baking pan and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let brownies cool in the pan for 1 hour to overnight. Slice evenly into squares and serve.
This recipe can fit two 8x8 pans. If using one 8x8 pan, halve the recipe. The baking time may change with smaller pans—keep a close eye and test doneness with a toothpick.
We suggest using unsalted butter so you can control the exact amount of seasoning in the recipe.
It’s also easier to burn salted butter while browning it. It foams more than unsalted butter, making it harder to see the color change.
Yes you can, but browning your butter makes for a more complex flavor profile. The browned milk solids adds nuttiness and caramel notes to your brownies. Skipping this step also means skipping on those extra flavors!
Chopped chocolate can be used in place of chocolate chips.
You can place your chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave and stir completely to avoid burning the chocolate.
We used Kikkoman soy sauce but any brand would work.
We used Bensdorp cocoa powder but any brand would work.
We used Emborg unsalted butter but any brand would work.
