Everyone should have a favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe in their back pocket. Unless, of course, you don’t like chocolate, which is rare, but it does occur and to those people I will suggest maybe a shortbread or ginger cookie? Regardless, everyone should have some kind of signature, crowd pleasing, can whip up at any time cookie recipe. As a baker, you’d think I would have several, and I did.
Until I lost most of my recipes in a move. Since then I had yet to capture that same magic that made a small restaurant owner offer to buy the recipe from me after tasting them at a gathering. I was content to let it simply be an ephemeral moment of my youth. Until I realized that I’m a professional pastry artist and would not be defeated by the most iconic cookie to exist. I’d have to turn in my apron otherwise.
So I set out to not recreate my old recipe, but to construct an entirely new one. One that would feel nostalgic, but appeal to a more grown up palate too. My current favorite ice cream flavor is the Malted Cookie Dough Shake from Van Leeuwen (that and a scoop of coffee ice cream is the ultimate flavor combination in my opinion) and I knew I wanted that malted flavor in the cookie.
That wasn’t enough. I needed to ground the sweetness with something earthy, nutty. That’s where the brown butter and rye come in. One final pinch of nutmeg to complement the chocolate and we had the makings of a beautifully complex cookie. No flavor outdoes the other.
A quick note before we get into the recipe, if you’ve never used bread flour in a cookie before, don’t fear. It’s actually a great way to create a tender cookie that does not go hard as quickly as an all purpose flour cookie does. If you would prefer to use all purpose instead, that’s fine. Just note that the cookie may be less soft the next day.
Malted Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 199 g bread flour
- 49 g rye flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 198 g unsalted butter 14 tbs
- 75 g granulated sugar
- 149 g dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 35 g malted milk powder
- 1/8 tsp nutmeg
- 1 large egg room temp
- 1 egg yolk room temp
- 212-225 g semi-sweet chocolate chips
- smoked sea salt for topping (optional)
Instructions
- Mix bread flour, rye flour, salt, malted milk powder, nutmeg, and baking soda in a bowl and set aside
- Melt 10 tbs of butter in pan on medium heat, continuously swirling until a toasty brown color. Keep a close eye as butter will go from browned to burnt quickly!
- Add browned butter to large bowl. Add in the remaining 4 tbs of butter and stir until melted
- Add both granulated and brown sugars and whisk until fully combined
- Add egg and egg yolk and whisk until combined
- Add in dry ingredients and fold until completely incorporated.
- Fold in chocolate chips
- Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and using a scoop, portion out your dough
- Refrigerate for two hours or as long as overnight. I personally recommend overnight if you can for the best flavor and to really hydrate the dough. This prevents the cookies from spreading too much.
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Bake straight from fridge for 10 – 14 minutes, until edges are set and center is still soft but golden brown
- Transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling and finish with a sprinkle of smoked salt while still hot, if using