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Dorie Greenspan’s Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies Just For Me

rye-cranberry chocolate-chunk cookies

I’m here today with a sweet treat. I know desserts are crowd pleasers, so you could see these cookies as a peace-offering – or maybe just an apology. The last time I presented something sweet the bees were buzzing and the birds were chirping. It was a time of renewal. What calendar watchers would call spring. Now its autumn and I’m left wondering where summer went. Why didn’t a burger post happen? Or coleslaw? Shouldn’t I have churned up ice cream in an inventive flavor? These things used to be my seasonal rituals. However, this summer I began to feel my blog slipping away from me. Or maybe I mean me slipping away from it. Anyway, I’m hoping to sweeten my little blog (and my place in the blogosphere) by turning to cookies, Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies to be exact.

We’re all busy. We’ve all got our stuff. My stuff involves caregiving for my partner’s elderly mother. We’re in a particularly trying phase of life here. I hesitate to call it the end-phase (because I don’t believe that it is) but there is certainly a slowing down of routines. Dressing is a big chore. A walk down the hall takes two rest stops when it used to take one. Little things like meals can take a whole afternoon. So as the calendar year closes I find myself carefully choosing the activities I call my own.

Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

This week I chose baking. And I thank Mokonuts Cafe and Bakery and Dorie Greenspan for just the right inspiration. Greenspan has a charming story in the New York Times about how she discovered these Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies. I’ll let you read that on you’re own. But I promise it will make you want to board a plane for Paris before the last paragraph. If only I could…

What caught my attention in this recipe was the ingredient list: rye flour, poppy seeds, and flaky sea salt. These are savory ingredients that become sweetly complex when paired with cranberries and chocolate chunks. You might be tempted to call her cookie just another version of a Chocolate Chip Cookie, but you’d be shortchanging the appeal by more than a dollar. Filled with shards of melted chocolate and laced with pinpoints of poppy seeds it’s the texture that separates these cookies from the other cookies in the jar. They’re baked at 425 degrees F and are deeply browned. They’re imperfect to the point of craggy and would never be mistaken for store-bought. This recipe makes just 15 cookies so these cookies are big (mine weighed 54 grams each before baking). Which is another appealing aspect in my opinion. While these Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies are indeed slightly savory – they’re still the sweet treat I promised myself. GREG

Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies 

Print This Recipe Total time Yield 15Source Dorie GreenspanPublished

My dough divided in fifteen 54 gram balls before baking.

chocolate-chunk cookies

Ingredients

  • 130 gram medium rye flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill dark rye flour)
  • 85 gram all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 140 gram unsalted butter (at cool room temperature)
  • 100 gram granulated sugar
  • 100 gram light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 50 gram poppy seeds
  • 80 gram moist, plump dried cranberries
  • 113 gram bittersweet chocolate (chopped into chunks)
  • flaky sea salt (such as Maldon)

Directions

Whisk together the rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sea salt, and baking soda; set aside.

Working with a mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment, if you have one), beat the butter and both sugars together on medium speed for 3 minutes, until blended; scrape the bowl as needed. Add the egg, and beat 2 minutes more. Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once, then pulse the mixer a few times to begin blending the ingredients. Beat on low speed until the flour almost disappears, and then add the poppy seeds, cranberries, and chocolate. Mix only until incorporated. Scrape the bowl to bring the dough together.

Have a baking sheet lined with parchment, foil or plastic wrap nearby. Divide the dough into 15 pieces, roll each piece into a ball between your palms and place on the baking sheet. Cover, and refrigerate the dough overnight or for up to 3 days. (If you’d like, you can wrap the balls airtight and freeze them for up to 1 month. Defrost them overnight in the fridge before baking.)

When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven, and heat it to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Arrange the cookies on the sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie (work with half a batch at a time and keep the remaining balls of dough in the refrigerator until needed). Sprinkle each cookie with a little flake salt, crushing it between your fingers as you do.

Bake the cookies for 10 or 11 minutes, pull the baking sheet from the oven and, using a metal spatula, a pancake turner or the bottom of a glass, tap each cookie lightly. Let the cookies rest on the sheet for 3 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a rack. Repeat with the remaining dough, always using cold dough and a cool baking sheet.

Serve after the cookies have cooled for about 10 minutes, or wait until they reach room temperature.