Created in partnership with Wolf, these nutty rye chocolate chip cookies are made with fragrant toasted rye flour and a few extra drizzles of molasses.
For the past year, I’ve been working with Wolf on their Reclaim the Kitchen Initiative and it’s gotten me thinking about my own family. Wolf aims to encourage everyone to do more cooking, whether by acquiring new skills or honing them. On their site, ReclaimtheKitchen.com, you’ll find everything you need to make something homemade and delicious. Resources range from basics like how to stock a pantry to fundamental techniques like dicing an onion or making a roux. (Trust me when I tell you that it’s all simpler than you might think.) And while I use these skills all the time, I haven’t passed much of that knowledge on to my daughters.
I want my kids to grow up as confident cooks. Not the kind of people whose parents cooked great food, but people who know how those recipes were made and can make them themselves, too. Somewhere along the way, though, I’ve become a control freak about the kitchen. I think of the kitchen as my personal space and strongly prefer all the messes there to be made by me. This attitude doesn’t leave much room for encouraging my daughters to cook on their own. When they do cook, I tend to hover and micromanage their every step. This is a far cry from my afternoons as a latchkey kid baking up every cookie recipe in my mom’s weathered copy of The Betty Crocker Cookbook, experimenting and making messes with abandon.
Knowing this, I’m trying to relax a little and give my daughters more freedom in the kitchen. My oldest has reserved Friday afternoons for baking adventures, while my six year-old is learning the basics of measuring and pouring, breaking eggs (and then getting little bits of shell out), and mixing. I’m hoping this knowledge will give them the confidence to cook and experiment for themselves as they get older.
One skill I’ve worked on in tandem with my six year-old is measuring. I know the adage “baking is science,” and while I find plenty of wiggle room in pies and tarts, cakes and cookies need solid math to back them up. To get more consistency in the kitchen, and to make things simpler, I’ve started measuring dry ingredients by weight. This takes the guesswork out of things and makes for excellent cookies every time. (And – parenting secret here – it even involves a little real world math.)
Measuring by weight tends to separate serious bakers from casual ones, so I’ve been hesitant to switch over to weights here on BkS. The recipe below is in both, but I’d love to know more about what kind of recipes work for you.
Now, about these rye chocolate chip cookies. They have a deep caramel sweetness and a delightfully nutty fragrance. Pan-toasted rye flour brings a rich nuttiness to the cookies and they bake up with crispy edges and a gooey center.
These salty sweet rye chocolate chip cookies are made with fragrant pan-toasted rye flour and a few extra drizzles of molasses.
To allow flavors to develop, chill dough in the fridge overnight or for as long as three days. If you're pressed for time, chill dough at least two hours.
- 1 cup (130 grams) rye flour
- 1 1/3 cups (170 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 12 tablespoons (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
- 3 tablespoons (64 grams) molasses
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 8 ounces (225 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate chips or wafers
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Measure and toast rye flour. Carefully tip flour into a medium skillet and set over medium heat. Stirring frequently, toast 7 minutes, or until flour edges just a couple shades darker and becomes very fragrant. Keep a very close eye during the last 4 minutes. Scrape flour into a mixing bowl, and mix in all-purpose flour, baking soda, and sea salt.
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In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or with a hand-held mixer, beat butter on low speed until pale and fluffy, scraping down sides as needed. Add sugar and molasses, and mix 4 minutes more. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down sides as needed. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated. With mixer on low, fold flour mixture in in two batches. Finally, fold in chocolate chips, mixing just until chocolate is well distributed.
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Cover dough and refrigerate at least 12 hours or as long as 3 days.
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line an 18 x 13-inch baking sheet with parchment.
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With a 1-ounce cookie scoop or using two spoons, measure 3 tablespoons dough into round balls. Arrange 6 - 8 on baking sheet. Sprinkle each ball of dough with a generous pinch of flaky sea salt.
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Bake 12 - 14 minutes, or just until the edges begin to turn a golden hue and the centers have puffed up.
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Cool on baking sheet for 4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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these cookies look amazing! i consider myself a fairly serious baker but still use a mix of volume/weight measurements. having both available in the recipe is the best option! xo
Agreed, Michelle! I’ve always been hesitant to go to all measurements because I didn’t want the recipes to feel to complicated for readers.
Wow ok these cookies look totally divine!! Love working with Rye flour – such a fun twist
So glad you think so too, Christiann!
My greatest food influence growing up was (and continues to be) my mom. I give her all the credit for my passion for cooking. So, I think what you’re doing with your children is wonderful… and they will be grateful for it when they’re older.
As for these cookies… wow… just wow. I figured there were few things that have been done with a chocolate chip cookie, but these look absolutely incredible.
Awww, your words inspire me to hope my daughters will inherit a love of cooking. And thanks for the kind words about the cookies – the rye really does lend that je ne sais quoi.
What a lovely thing to teach your children! I know as a kid, I loved being able to measure things out in the kitchen. Chocolate chip cookies for the win!
Yes! They love the measuring (and messes that accompany it) SO much.
I fully support this initiative, as you know. Thanks for spreading the message of kids in the kitchen. They are our future.
Aimee, you and your family are always a huge inspiration to me. When I cook with my kids, I think, “What would Aimee do in this situation?” Truly.
I am such a big fan of baking in weights as well – such as a fast way to improve baking results, and as long as you have electronic scales (which are a pretty cheap investment!), I think it’s even easier than measuring! Especially flour – 10 people would all weight 1 cup so so differently. Especially when it comes to the different systems between the US and the rest of the world – even your cup sizes are different, so I’m always grateful for a measurement by weight. Anyway, rant over haha- such a good idea to get your girls baking – my younger brothers really only started when I left home and cleared out of the kitchen (and left them with no-one filling the tins – it quickly forced them to start learning if they wanted dessert!!)
I’m with you on team weights, for sure. And I do love that it makes my recipe accessible to people from all over the world. Your story of your brothers learning to cook cracked me up. The desire for cake and cookies is one of the big reasons I taught myself to cook, too. Cheers!
Loved this post! Your kids will have great memories, as I was one of those kids who had a mother who always involved me in the kitchen.
I always cook in weights, but that’s what I grew up in. Italy has so many different kinds of flours (even just different varieties of wheat) and if you measure a cup volume and weight it you’ll see that they each have a different weight. I don’t think it matters much in recipes like cookies, but for long leavenings and some french recipes it has an impact.
Hi Valentina! I’m glad you liked the post! And that’s a great point about the various flours – I know rye and a-p have very different weights per cup. I’ve always liked making pies best of all, and I think it’s because there’s so much leeway in the measurements. Now that weighing is second nature, I might be able to tackle something more complex.
I really love this. It’s a good reminder to me that as Zo gets older, I need to let her into “my” space in the kitchen a little more. These cookies look just perfect too!
Sarah, I can’t wait to see pics of that sweet baby cooking (something cheese-focused, obvs). xo
I made these cookies this week. They’re good if you like a heavier, cakey texture to your cookie. An interesting texture thanks to the rye flour and molasses.
I just came across your recipe after searching for choc-chip cookies with rye and I am so glad that I did -these cookies are delicious! The toasted rye flour really adds a subtle but noticeable flavor that sets these apart. Thank you!
Any tips for making cookies less cakey and more chewy? No matter what recipe I use they’re always cakey.
Hi Katherine,
Have you checked your oven temp? It might be too low and causing the cookies to bake more slowly, so they get cakey instead of crisp outside, gooey inside.
I also always take care to measure for cookies very carefully using the dip and sweep method.(https://www.thekitchn.com/measuring-dip-and-sweep-45962)
Hi i came across you website and your recipe looks really great. my question is that will it be better to chill the cookie dough before baking it ? Thank you. 🙂