Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies | Baking with Dorie

I’ve been busy making and eating these cookie, and somehow, it escapes me to tell our readers all about them. Dorie says: To describe the Mokonut’s rye-cranberry chocolate chunk cookies as extraordinary good is to understate its merit. That’s everything you need to know about the cookies. Ever since we started making them (end of 2021), they have become the family’s favorites. Hands down, very few cookies come close.

The texture of the Mokonuts’ rye-cranberry chocolate chunk cookies are soft and chewy in the middle, and crunchy around the edges. The cookie dough is 60% rye with the rest in all-purpose flour. The unique chewy-yet-tender texture is due to rye’s low gluten content as compared to wheat; it doesn’t form a strong gluten matrix. Rye also offers better moisture retention, making these cookies very moist and tender.

To advance on the wholesome and healthy-ish quotient, replace all-purpose flour with whole-grain wheat flour. This is similar to the approach of the Swedish rye cookies, the plain sugar cookies with very few ingredients. In both of these cookies, they showcase the best qualities of rye flour. Earthy and complex due to the high proportion of rye. If you haven’t used rye in your baking before, this is a great place to start. And there is no going back!

In terms of the flavor of the rye-cranberry and chocolate cookie, I’d say it’s a little offbeat. It’s a surprise: sweet, but barely, edgy, because of the bittersweet chocolate and there are tangy cranberries in the mix. Let’s not forget, rye flour and a good measure of poppy seeds add another earthy and nutty dimension. If you grow up thinking there is only vanilla ice cream, you might be missing out a whole host of incredible flavors out there. However, it’s never too late to try something new and exciting.

That leads me to touch on the origins of the Mokonut’s rye-cranberry chocolate chunk cookies. According to Dorie Greenspan, people from around the world come to eat at Mokonuts in Paris’s 11th Arrondissement. It’s a small restaurant that is always full and everyone wants the same thing for dessert: the cookies. The baker Moko Hirayama has worked on her recipes with a lot of care and creativity. Mokonuts’ cookies share one thing in common: the signature indentation in the center.

We get that by tapping each cookie slightly, but firmly, deflating it with a metal spatula when it finishes baking. These cookies are fragile fresh from the oven, but they firm up in about 10 minutes. The hard part is to wait for the cookies to cool down before devouring them. I never have just one; it’s too good!

Print Recipe

Mokonuts' Rye-Cranberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies | Baking with Dorie

Serves: makes 15-20

The dough is 60% rye, which gives the cookies a unique chewy-yet-tender texture. The flavor is a surprise: sweet, but barely, edgy, because of the bittersweet chocolate and there are tangy cranberries in the mix.

Ingredients

• 1 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (130 grams) medium rye flour
• ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (85 grams) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 10 tablespoons (140 grams) unsalted butter at cool room temperature
• ½ cup (100 grams) sugar
• ½ cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• ⅓ cup (50 grams) poppy seeds
• ⅔ cup (80 grams) moist, plump dried cranberries
• 4 ounces (113 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
• Flake salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling

Instructions

1

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

2

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 thebowl 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.

3

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.)

4

When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven, and heat it to 425°F. 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.

5

Bake the cookies for 10 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.

6

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

Notes

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019534-mokonuts-rye-cranberry-chocolate-chunk-cookies