Best Ever Rye Chocolate Brownies

Post Sponsored By Doves Farm

Last week’s recipe, the tahini and chocolate cookies, may well have been your first introduction to the perfect pairing of chocolate with rye flour (or maybe it was my crinkle cookies) but today, with the help of Doves Farm (LINK), we’re taking this magical combination to its logical conclusion, brownies! Rye flour is another example of an ancient grain, and another of my favourites. Rye might be more well known as the flour used to make dark, flavoursome loaves of bread most often associated with Scandinavian baking but using it in sweet recipes adds a wonderful depth of flavour not found with regular wheat flour - malty and nutty. Rye happens to be lower in gluten (though not gluten free) which helps makes these brownies extra tender and because of the added flavour coming from the rye, these have a deeper more interesting flavour. But even if you like good old fashioned brownies don’t worry you’ll still love these, they’re just..well..better. 

When it comes to choosing your flour you have two types of rye, white and wholewheat, just as with regular wheat flour. And just as with wheat flour the choice of which you use will affect the flavour. Personally I almost always use the wholewheat variety as it has so much more flavour and in these brownies it is competing with a strong flavour in the form of chocolate, so the nuances would just be lost with white rye.  

Rye Chocolate Brownies

175g Doves Farm organic wholemeal rye flour
50g cocoa powder 
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
200g unsalted butter, diced
300g dark chocolate (65-75% cocoa solids)
150g caster sugar
220g light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180C (160C fan). Lightly grease, and line with parchment, a 9x13 inch brownie pan.

Into a large bowl sieve together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder. The main reason for this is to remove any lumps of cocoa but there will also be a little bran from the rye flour left at the end. This can either be added to the dry goods or omitted, depending on your preference (it’s still quite finely ground bran so it doesn’t add much texture so I tend to leave it in, plus the bran has lots of flavour).

Place the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water, and heat, stirring occasionally, until fully melted. Remove and set aside for a few minutes.

Meanwhile place the eggs, sugars and vanilla into a large bowl and using an electric mixer whisk together for 3-4 minutes or until the eggs have increased in volume and the mixture is pale and fluffy. This whisking action helps to give the finished brownie a shiny crackly crust and the ideal dense and fudgy texture. With the mixer still running pour in the cooled butter and chocolate mixture, whisking until fully combined. Switching to a spatula pour in the dry goods and mix together just until everything is combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared brownie pan and spread into an even layer. As I think all chocolate recipes benefit from salt you can also add a little extra sprinkling of salt at this stage, in the form of flaked sea salt. This really helps to bring out all the flavours in the rye and chocolate and makes these brownies shine. You can omit this is you prefer, just don’t omit the salt in the batter as the finished brownies will taste flat and dull. 

Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. The finished brownies will be puffed up a little but still gooey inside. As the brownies cool the mixture will sink back a little, creating the perfect dense fudgy texture we all love. Allow to cool at room temperature for an hour before transferring to the fridge for a couple hours to cool completely. Lift the brownies from the pan and use a sharp knife to cut into squares. The brownies are on the rich side, they are brownies after-all, so I tend to cut them into 16 small squares. 

Kept in a sealed container the brownies will keep for at least 4 days. 

My Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe - Cookie Chronicles

After three weeks and five of the most popular recipes around it is time for me to put my money where my mouth is and give you my perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Each of the test recipes were delicious and I would definitely make them all again, but in each recipe there was that perfect something that I loved. For my final recipe, my ‘ultimate’ if you want, I thought I would take these elements, smoosh them together and see if I could make the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. 

Now I should probably say there is no such thing as the one perfect recipe, this just happens to be my personal favourite recipe as it has everything I love in a chocolate chip cookie. It has crisp edges but a soft and ever so slightly chewy centre, a lot of chocolate, a good balance of sweet and salty and dough that has a good flavour of its own. All of these elements are subjective but they are what I look for in my perfect cookie. When it comes to chocolate I was surprisingly stuck over my choice. Should I use chips or wafers, the chocolate style I was testing throughout this process? I expected this to be an easy choice, going with my bias and regular use of the wafers but the chips make a wonderful cookie too and I think this comes down to exposure to bad chocolate chips in the past. Over the past eight years of working in food the only chocolate chips I have had easy access to were low quality chocolate, bulked out with vegetable oil, im talking cheap supermarket chocolate chips. This style of ‘chocolate’ (not sure chocolate made with vegetable fat can actually be legally called chocolate) is the stuff I have told you to avoid because it doesn’t melt, has a waxy taste and just work properly when it comes to baking. Thankfully Guittard, who I partnered with to create this series, make a chocolate chip that is nothing but chocolate, pure and simple. There is a difference between chips and wafers and it is important to know the difference. Traditionally chocolate chips, made only of chocolate, are made with less or no added cocoa butter to make the chocolate thicker so that it holds it shape when manufactured, whereas wafers have more added cocoa butter so they fall flat when produced. This simple difference will affect the outcome of the recipe making slight differences to each recipe. The main difference I found when using chips in this recipe is that the cookie spreads a little less than when made with wafers, but unlike poor quality chips that don’t actually melt during baking these still create those beautiful pockets of melted chocolate.

When it comes to method for this cookie I basically stayed with the classic drop cookie style of the original Toll House recipe and the method used in Tara O’Brady and Bon Appetit’s recipe as it was satisfyingly simple and resulted in a delicious cookie. So melted butter it is, but taking a tip from Alison Roman we are using salted butter and taking it one step further like Bon Appetit we are going to brown it too, because why not! I also threw in Sarah Kieffer’s pan banging method because the resulting ripples in the baked cookie add texture and make for wonderful crips edges. When it comes to ingredients we are staying classic the only addition is a couple egg yolks which make for an even fudgier dough. 

My Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

225g salted butter, diced
350g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
200g light brown muscavado sugar
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
340g dark chocolate (I use Guittard 66% wafers or 63% chips)
Flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

Start by preparing the chocolate. Take about a 1/4-1/3 of the chocolate and roughly chop to break up in uneven small chunks.

To make the cookie dough we first need to brown the butter. Place the butter into a saucepan and place over medium heat and cook until first the milk solids separate, then the mixture foams, and then the milk solids brown. With salted butter you need to stir the butter as it browns to make sure the salt doesn’t clump with the milk solids, you’ll also find that the foaming doesn’t dissipate quickly so you wont be able to see the browning as easily, so watch very carefully to make sure the butter doesn’t burn.

Pour the butter into a large bowl and allow to cool for a few minutes before whisking in the sugars. Add the eggs and yolks one at a time, whisking until smooth and combined. Whisk in the vanilla. In a separate bowl whisk together the dry goods then add to the butter mixture and using a spatula or wooden spoon, mix together just until combined, there should be the odd bit of flour showing throughout the dough. Add the chocolate and mix until evenly distributed. Cover the dough with clingfilm and refrigerate for about 4 hours or until the dough is firm but not rock solid, you should still be able to scoop out portions without too much effort. 

When almost ready to bake preheat the oven to 180C (170C fan) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 

Form balls of cookie dough into portions roughly 85g. You can do this with a cookie scoop or you can roll in your hands. Place the cookies onto the baking sheets, a couple inches apart and sprinkle with a little flaked sea salt. 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 16-18 minutes or until golden brown at the edges but still a little paler and soft in the middle. After baking for 10 minutes remove the tray from the oven and firm bang on the work surface to collapse the cookie. Repeat this process every two minutes or so, creating a ripples effect at the edges of the cookie (this adds great texture on the finished cookies). Once baked allow to cool on the baking sheets for about 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Kept in a sealed container these cookies will keep for up to 5 days but personally I think these are best on the first couple days when the texture will be at its best. 

Note: this recipe was developed in metric measurements and with UK ingredients so if making in the US I would suggest making this with extra large eggs and european style high fat butter.

For those asking where Guittard chocolate is available in the UK it is currently stocked by Ocado, Whole Foods, Lakeland, Sous Chef and M&S

Bon Appetit Brown Butter and Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies - Cookie Chronicles

Its the final week of the Cookie Chronicles and for todays recipe we are going a little controversial and talking mix-ins. Do you like your chocolate chip cookies like I do? Unadulterated with nothing more than lots of glorious dark chocolate? Or do you like it with nuts, butterscotch, pretzels and whatever else you might fancy throwing in? If your in the latter camp you might like this recipe as instead of the classic chocolate it also adds in a handful of toffee, in the form of a chocolate coated toffee bar (Skor in the US and I used Daim here in the UK). I adore toffee so I was excited about this recipe. 

Whilst the recipe was published and popularised by Bon Appetit magazine it was actually a user submitted recipe, sent in by Kate Davis, you can follow her on Instagram here. 

The Breakdown

Other than the toffee there are a few key differences to the ingredients in this recipe. It uses browned butter, adding a nutty note to the dough. It also uses dark brown sugar which should add a lot more molasses flavour, which is never a bad thing.

Makes 20

2 sticks (225g) unsalted butter
2 cups (280g) all-purpose/plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup packed (220g) dark brown sugar
1/3 cup (65g) granulated/caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 toffee bars (Skor, Daim, Heath etc) chopped into 1/4 inch pieces
1 1/2 cups chocolate wafers, 72% cocoa
Flaky sea salt

Place the butter into a saucepan and set over medium heat and cook, stirring often, until the butter foams and then browns, about 5-8 minutes. Pour the butter into a large bowl and allow to cool slightly.

Meanwhile mix together the flour, baking soda and salt

Add the sugars into the bowl with the butter and whisk together for a few minutes to combine. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until the mixture lightens and starts to thicken. Add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix until just incorporated. Finally add the chocolate and the toffee bar pieces, mixing just to incorporate. 

Set the dough aside for about 30 minutes to allow the flour to hydrate, the dough will be fairly loose to start with but as it sits it will thicken. 

Preheat the oven to 375F (190C) and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a 1 1/2 ounce ice cream scoop portion out cookies and place on the baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. Sprinkle with a little flaked sea salt.

Bake for about 9-11 minutes or until the edges are golden brown but the centres still a little soft. Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Result
First off, these cookies are fabulous, undeniably delicious and very easy to make. Saying that I find the dark brown sugar a little overwhelming for a chocolate chip cookie and it makes tasting the toffee and little hard. Now to give the recipe its credit, this is an American recipe and I believe this might be more down to the fact that British dark brown sugar is a little stronger in molasses, my cookies looked quite a bit darker than the ones in the magazine, so take that with a pinch of salt. I always love brown butter in a recipe so this is definitely a winning element for me. I would 100% make these again, I am thinking a version made with pretzels and stem ginger would be amazing.

Alison Romans Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Recipe - Cookie Chronicles

How could I do a series on chocolate chip cookies in 2018 and not include what has to be the most popular baking recipe of the past year! Yes today we are talking Alison Roman’s Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread. Now, it may be a little unfair including this recipe as it doesn’t really fall into the same style category as the rest of the chocolate chip cookies in the line-up but I thought there was still plenty we could learn from a cookie of a different sort and the point of this series was to test drive those recipes that have a big following online and what better recipe for that criteria than this. The reason this is different from the rest is of course that is a shortbread style dough. Most chocolate chip cookies tend to be drop cookies, made from a relatively soft dough that can be scooped or spooned from the bowl to the baking tray, things like oatmeal raisin, snickerdoodles and of course our beloved chocolate chip cookies. Yet Alison’s recipe fulfils many of the requirements, uses many the same ingredients and is just as easy to make.

The Breakdown

Alison’s recipe is a fairly classic shortbread style cookie, although less sweet than some and it also uses salted butter, which is definitely less common in baking. The flavour of this butter, according to Alison, has an ever so slightly funky almost fermented flavour and with the salt generally being evenly distributed throughout the butter, and therefore the cookie, the sense of a better flavoured dough should be heightened. When it comes to sugars it still uses a mix of white and brown sugar although the brown sugar is minimal but it is there as a nod to chocolate chip cookies and that more caramel like flavour it lends to a classic cookie. I have gone with using the chocolate chips, roughly chopped so that we get some small shards and some chunks, I also think the slightly smaller form of the chips will make slicing these cookies easier than with bigger pieces. So beyond the flavouring of the dough this recipe also builds in a lot of texture because before the dough is sliced it is rolled in demerara sugar which gives a great crunch to the finished cookie.

Alison Roman’s Salted Butter Chocolate Chunk Shortbread
From her book - Dining In

2 1/4 sticks (255g) cold salted butter, diced
1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (55g) light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups (325g) all-purpose/plain flour
6 ounces (170g) dark chocolate (I used Guittard 63% chocolate chips, roughly chopped)
1 large egg
Demerara sugar, for rolling
flaked sea salt, for sprinkling

To make the cookie dough place the butter and sugars into the bowl of a stand mixer and beat together for 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. If using an electric hand mixer or doing this with a wooden spoon this will take longer, just make suer the texture is light and fluffy or the finished dough will be hard to handle and likely to crumble when cut. 

Add the vanilla to the butter mixture and beat for 30 seconds to combine. Add the flour in one go and mix on low speed, just until the dough is combined. You want to be careful about over mixing the dough at this stage as it will make the cookies tough and chewy. Add the roughly chopped chocolate and mix briefly just to evenly distribute throughout the dough. 

Tip the dough out onto the work surface and use your hands to gently bring together into a ball. A note to those not used to baking this type of cookie. Sometimes not all the flour gets easily incorporated and this can lead to a crumbly hard to handle dough. If when the dough is removed from the bowl there are dry patches use your hands to briefly work the dough a little until a more uniform texture. 

Cut the dough into two roughly equal pieces and use your hands to form into rough sausage shapes, about 2 - 2 1/4 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs in clingfilm and refrigerate for two hours before baking

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.Remove the logs from the fridge and discard the clingfilm. Brush the dough lightly with a little beaten egg, just moistening the edge. Roll the logs in demerara sugar pressing into the dough.

Use a thin sharp knife to cut the logs of dough into cookies about 1/2 inch thick. Place onto the prepared baking sheets, an inch or so apart. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaked sea salt and bake in the preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes until just starting to turn golden around the edges. Let cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Kept in a sealed container these cookies will keep for up to 5 days. 

Result

As I said these are not what I think of when I think chocolate chip cookie, but that doesn’t matter as they are delicious and very easy to make. I love the flavour the salted butter gives the dough and the balance of sweet and salty is perfect. I am a big fan of using demerara sugar to add texture so the edge of this cookie is my favourite part.