Brown Butter Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies

It’s a new year so why not kick it off with a new cookie? These are a variation on my Brown Butter Rosemary Chocolate Chip Cookies (also delicious!) with a little twist. I swapped in rye flour for some of the all purpose to add a bit of depth and nuttiness and took out the rosemary so the rye flavor can really shine. I used about half dark chocolate bars and half Raaka Baking Chocolate because I had them on hand, they’re delicious, and so pretty but you can really use anything you’d like. I personally prefer a baking wafer, disc, or chopped bars rather than chips just because they melt more and you get that molten chocolate effect ribboning throughout the cookie but if all you have are chips, feel free to use those, too. I would really stress using a chocolate on the darker side, however. Aim for about 70-75% cacao. Anything less such as milk or even semisweet will be too sweet with the dough. The darker chocolate offsets the sweetness of the dough and compliments the brown butter nicely.

I also updated the recipe to include weight measurements, which is my new favorite thing. I’ll admit that even though I knew measuring by weight to be more accurate, it wasn’t until I wrote my cookbook last year (coming out September of this year, stay tuned!) where weight measurements were required, that I fell in love with writing and cooking with weight measurements. The accuracy is a huge selling point but so is having less dishes to do! The idea of measuring out whatever I need directly from the container without having to dig out all my measuring cups is a game changer. I linked my favorite scale down at the bottom of the post if you don’t have one yet! Highly recommend. Hope your new year is off to a great start and happy baking!

makes about 30 large cookies

1 cup + 2 tbsp (254 g) unsalted butter, roughly cubed
1 3/4 cups (455 g) dark or light brown sugar
1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp (15 ml) vanilla bean paste (or extract)
1 1/2 cups (188 g) all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups (150 g) rye flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
12 oz (342 g) dark chocolate, roughly chopped (I’d recommend at least 70% or darker)
flaky salt, for topping (Jacobsen is my go-to)

In a saucepan over medium heat, add in the butter. Allow to melt then continue cooking, swirling often to keep the milk solids from burning. The butter with get foamy and bubbly and then as it starts to subside it will brown quite quickly so keep an eye on it. It may take several minutes to get to this point so be patient. As soon as the butter is a deep golden-brown and is smelling nutty, immediately remove from heat and pour into bowl to stop the cooking, being sure to scrape all the golden bits from the bottom, too. Allow to cool for about 15-20 minutes. The butter can be a little warm but it should not be hot or it may start to cook the eggs when we add them in and that would not be delicious.

Add the butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add in the sugars and beat on medium for a minute or so, until well mixed. Add in the eggs and beat on medium-high for two minutes, until mixture is creamy and lighter in color. Meanwhile, whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt and set aside. Add the vanilla paste into the sugar mixture and scrape down the sides of the bowl then turn it back on to incorporate the vanilla. Add in the flour mixture and stir on low just until barely combined. Add in the chocolate and pulse the mixer just a few times to incorporate the chocolate into the dough. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour, preferably overnight. There’s just no getting around it. If you want an exceptional cookie, letting the gluten in the flour relax and letting the dough firm up is just gonna get us there every time. This does a few things: the dough has a chance to properly hydrate and a lot of flavor development happens as it rests, too. This will result in a more flavorful cookie and aids in a more defined shape as it bakes as well as achieving a perfect, golden color. So yes, chilling overnight is definitely annoying but also very worth it, promise.

Preheat oven to 350 F with a rack in the center of the oven. Using a 1 oz spring-loaded scoop (or whatever size you want), scoop cookie dough into balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle tops with flaky salt and bake for about 1 cookie sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes, until golden and crisp around the edges and still a touch gooey in the middle. If you like the ripple effect, you can use Sarah’s pan-banging technique about halfway through the bake time by opening the oven and rapping the cookie sheet on the oven rack a few times. This is totally optional but kind of fun. Allow the cookies to cool for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. You’ll notice since we used chocolate chunks/shards instead of chips, the chocolate may have oozed out a bit (or a lot). It’s totally cool. Once slightly cool (or not), enjoy!