Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies

With almost every other flour known to man lingering in the baking drawer, I delved into the archives, back to the days of adventures and experiments with alternatives. These delicately rich salted beauties from Tartine Book No. 3 made with rye flour came to the rescue. An old jewel in the crown for the ever growing cookie compendium, Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies are known in my kitchen as “the ones that taste like a brownie but in cookie form”. The dream. 

I originally stumbled across this recipe when deep into sourdough bread baking and searching for sweet ways to use up excess rye flour (which incidentally adds a wonderful nutty flavour). Chad Robertson and Elizabeth Prueitt (of Tartine Bakery fame) opened my mind to the world of baking without plain flour in their third book, packed with fabulous recipes using whole and ancient grains and modern replacements for the everyday white. 

I swiftly discovered I am not the only local with a not so secret love of these cookies. Versions of Tartine’s chocolate salted rye treats are found on the counters of local beloved San Francisco admirers right here on my doorstep. Run, don’t walk to the kitchen and whip up a batch of these cookies, adored and devoured by all, a cinch to make and the perfect snack/desert/pick-me-up.  

These are adapted ever so slightly from Tartine Book No. 3 by Chad Robertson and Elizabeth Prueitt

These cookies also feature in the Towpath Cookbook by Lori di More & Laura Jackson

I basically halved the recipe from the original, as while we consume an eye watering number of cookies here, I prefer to make half a batch at a time to allow for variation in the repertoire.  If you are baking for a crowd or for gifting seasons, don’t hesitate to double, or triple this recipe.

Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a glass bowl set on top of a pan of boiling water or bain marie (make sure that the bowl does not touch the water). Stir occasionally. Once melted, remove the bowl from the pan and allow to cool a little.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Add the eggs to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment.  Beat the eggs, slowly adding the muscovado sugar (making sure any lumps are broken up before you add it to the eggs).  When all the sugar in incorporated, turn up the mixer to high and whisk for 6-8 minutes until the eggs have tripled in volume. 

Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the cooled chocolate and butter mixture and the vanilla.  Mix to combine, scraping down the sides once or twice.  

Then add the flour mixture and until just combined.  

The dough will be very soft.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes (if you leave it in for longer it will take a little time to warm up before scooping and baking).

Preheat oven to 180F (350C)

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.  

Remove the dough from the fridge and scoop rounded tablespoons either with a small ice cream scoop or a spoon and place on the baking sheets, spaced about 5cm apart.

Top each ball/mound of dough with a light sprinkling of sea salt, pressing down gently so that they don’t fly off as you transfer the trays into the oven. 

Bake for 8-10 minutes until the cookies have puffed up.  

Allow to cool for a few minutes on the sheets before transferring to a rack to cool completely.  

The cookies will keep for 3 days in an airtight container (if they last that long). 

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