Over the holidays this year I baked five different goodies and gave them away as gifts in little tins. Out of them, this was the most popular cookie! Crisp and flaky on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside. They last for days, smell fantastic, and taste amazing. The rye flour gives the cookie a bit of a nutty, more rounded flavour that compliments the dark chocolate beautifully. The only drawback is the wet dough that’s a bit finicky to work with, but the cookies are well worth it.

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Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies

Recipe adapted from Tasting Table

Yield: about 40-45 cookies

Notes: You’ll need at least 30 minutes for the dough to chill after preparing it. I’ve made these multiple times and found chilling the dough for 30 minutes to overnight doesn’t make a difference in how the cookies turn out. The only difference is the longer you chill the dough the easier it is to work with. I would recommend baking them as soon as you can to the 30 minute chill mark – this dough is not designed to last for multiple days in the fridge!

If you don’t have Maldon or fleur de sel salt for topping, feel free to use sea salt or kosher salt. While expensive, I find the thin flecks of fleur de sel make a difference and go a long way for finishing recipes and adding something more to food presentation. 

Ingredients:

Dry

• ¾ cup dark rye flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt

Wet

• 2⅔ cups (or 1 pound) chopped bittersweet chocolate or 12 one-ounce chopped semisweet chocolate baking squares
• ¼ cup or 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 large eggs at room temperature
• 1½ cups turbinado or raw sugar (original recipe calls for muscovado, you can try this!)
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
  

Topping:

• Maldon or fleur de sel salt (you can sub sea salt or kosher – see Note)

Directions:

1. Bring 1” to 2” of water in a saucepan to a gentle boil.
2. Place a heatproof bowl or double-boiler on the saucepan. Make sure the bowl is not in contact with the water.
3. Add the bittersweet chocolate and butter and gradually stir with a heatproof spatula until evenly melted. Remove from heat to cool slightly.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
5. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs on medium-high and gradually add in the sugar.
6. Switch speed to high and beat until eggs have at least doubled in volume and are light and fluffy (5 to 6 minutes).
7. Switch speed to low and add melted chocolate mixture and vanilla extract. Continue mixing until evenly combined. Before the next step, scrape down the sides of the bowl.
8. Add the whisked dry mixture and continue to mix on low until just combined. You’ll likely need to adjust the whisk to remove any dry flour caught in the middle.
9. Cover the bowl of dough and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
10. Preheat oven to 350°F.
11. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
12. Remove the bowl of dough from the fridge. Using a tablespoon to measure, place balls of dough about 1” in diameter roughly 2” apart on the baking sheets. I found it helped to remove the dough from the tablespoon with a chopstick or smaller spoon, otherwise you’ll have loads of dough sticking to your fingers.
13. Sprinkle a few flakes of salt (topping) onto each ball.
14. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes (every batch took precisely 11 minutes for me) until cookies have spread out, puffed up, and have a crackled surface texture. The crackled parts should be evenly brown.
15. Remove from oven and cool on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes, then transfer cookies on the parchment paper to a cooling rack to cool fully. They are much easier to remove from the parchment once fully cooled. If you try and remove them too soon, they’ll likely fall apart into a gooey, delicious mess.
16. My cookies lasted about 3-4 days in an airtight container at room temperature. 

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