DARK CHOCOLATE RYE COOKIES WITH HONEY CREAM CHEESE
Notes: Rye flour is nutty, earthy and malty. Combine these flavors with dark chocolate and I can’t get enough. If you love coffee, you’ll love these cookies because they have similar flavor complexity. Such richness needs a little cream and the addition of cream cheese with honey and vanilla dolloped on top is heavenly. These cookies stay tender for a long time, even straight out of the fridge. And unlike chocolate chip cookies where the consensus is to refrigerate the dough for a day to allow the flour to fully hydrate and let the flavors marinate, you can get away with an hour or two before baking.
Ingredients in grams were weighed and the cup measures are approximations.
Makes ~11 cookies
Special equipment:
Ideally use a digital kitchen scale to weigh your ingredients
Ice cream scoop (conventional size)
Several mixing bowls
hand electric mixer
Prep time: 25 mins Fridge time: 1-2 hrs (over night is ok too), Bake time: 13-15 mins
Ingredients:
Cookie dough:
129g good dark chocolate (I used 70% dark)
120g (1/2 cup) neutral vegetable oil (I used organic canola oil)
140g (1 cup) packed dark brown sugar (I used coconut brown sugar, which is not sticky and more finely milled than regular brown sugar)
*If you’re using a cup measure with regular brown sugar then tightly pack it.
130 g (1 cup) AP flour
73 g (3/4 cup) dark rye flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp salt (I used pink Himalayan)
If using kosher salt, use a little less: 3/4 tsp
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk
*Save the extra egg white for breakfast :)
Honey cream cheese:
8 oz softened cream cheese (room temp)
38 g (2 tbsp) honey
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt
Directions:
Cookie dough:
Melt the butter in a microwave.
In a medium mixing bowl whisk together the AP and rye flours, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl pour in the butter and oil along with the dark brown sugar. Thoroughly whisk to combine.
Chop up the chocolate into chip sized pieces then melt using the microwave tempering method: Start with a 30 sec burst and then thoroughly mix with a spatula, followed by another 30 second burst and a thorough mix. If there is stil residual unmelted chocolate chunks after mixing well you can follow with one more 20 second burst as needed.
Add the melted chocolate to the large bowl with oil and sugar and thoroughly whisk. Add in the vanilla, egg + egg yolk and thoroughly whisk.
Pour in the dry ingredients and use a rubber spatula to fold the dough together. The dough should look shiny and smooth. Refrigerate the cookie dough uncovered for at least 1 hour (you can definitely wait until the next day too). While the dough is in the fridge make the honey cream cheese (directions below).
When the dough is almost done chilling in the fridge preheat the oven to 350 F.
Use an ice cream scoop to portion the dough onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone baking mat, with the cookies spaced at least 2 inches apart. You may have noticed I used tart ring molds in my video, which are not necessary.
Bake for 13-14 minutes.
Straight out of the oven use the bottom of a glass to stamp down the middle of each cookie so that the honey cream cheese has a flat surface to sit on.
Let the cookies mostly cool to room temp before dolloping the honey cream cheese on top. The cookies keep well in the fridge and stay mostly soft.
Honey cream cheese:
In a medium mixing bowl combine softened cream cheese, honey, vanilla and pinch of salt and whip/beat until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.