Chocolate Chip Cookies for Grown-ups is what Milk Street calls these toasted rye flour chocolate chip cookies. I was a little skeptical at first, but tried them anyway.

Toasted Rye Flour
Along with the rye, the cookies have a full tablespoon of molasses. I've made cookies with rye flour, cookies with molasses and cookies with toasted all-purpose flour, but this was the first recipe I'd ever tried with toasted rye flour and molasses. As a bonus, the rye toasting made the whole house smell good -- almost like popcorn.

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Grown-ups Batter
Here are a few pictures from the process. As mentioned, I was a little worried at first that the cookies might taste a little too grown-up.

And after my first bite I did find that the flavor was a little strong, but all the flavors mellowed out a bit towards the end and I really started appreciating the interestingness of the cookies. My family, especially my daughter, did too.

My friend Debbie already posted her take on the recipe, so you can grab it from her. Better yet, get it free off Milk Street and then subscribe.
New Version
I recently came up with a spin on this recipe using less rye flour, brown butter and a completely different mixing method. Here's that version if you want to give it a try. There's no brown sugar in the recipe, just granulated sugar and molasses. For the flour, I used King Arthur Classic Medium Organic Rye and King Arthur AP The steps are below.
- Toast ½ cup each rye and all-purpose flour (135 grams total) together in a skillet and weigh to make sure you have 125 grams after moisture loss from roasting. Mix with 125 grams all purpose, baking soda and salt.
- Brown some butter and add vanilla bean paste and molasses to browned butter.
- Beat eggs and white sugar until thick, then stream in the melted butter mixture.
- Add flour and stir to make a soft dough. Let cool slightly if warm.
- Add chips and nuts, then scoop into balls and chill until ready to bake.
Recipe

Toasted Rye Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup rye flour or ½ cup each AP and rye (135 grams)
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (125 grams)
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon salt (Morton kosher), scant, use less if you don't like a bit of salty flavor
- 12 tablespoons salted butter, cut into chunks**
- 1 tablespoon molasses (20 grams)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
- 2 large eggs
- 1 ¼ cups sugar (250 grams)
- 10 oz bittersweet chocolate chips, Ghirardelli (280 grams)
- 1 cup pecans, toasted and chopped
- sea salt for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with the rack in the middle position. Line 1 baking sheet with parchment. This is so you can bake some test cookies, but plan on (also) doing this later in the process because these cookies are the best with dough that's been chilled for 24 hours.
- In a large skillet, toast the 1 cup of rye flour (or half rye and half ap) by heating over medium and moving it around with heavy duty scraper until it starts to darken a little and become fragrant. Scrape it into a bowl and let it cool slightly. It will have lost some moisture and should be around 125 grams now. If it's very lumpy, you can sift it.
- Add 1 cup (125 grams) of all purpose flour, baking soda and salt and whisk to remove lumps.
- Brown the 12 tablespoons of salted butter. Once brown and fragrant, add vanilla bean paste and molasses and let cool.
- In a stand mixer bowl fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the eggs and sugar for at least 3 minutes or until thick light in color. Turn down the mixer to medium and stream in the melted butter (or do it by hand with a whisk).
- Remove the mixer from the stand and stir in the flour mixture by hand using a heavy duty scraper. If you'd rather use the mixer for this, switch to the paddle attachment and use low speed of the mixer. The dough should be soft and almost candy-like and probably a little warm if your butter wasn't completely cool. Let it stand for 10 minutes, then stir in the chocolate chips.
- Use a medium size scoop and scoop out balls of dough and put most of them on dinner plates lined with plastic wrap. Cover with plastic wrap and forget about them for a day or two. Meanwhile, bake up some immediate gratification cookies.
- Arrange on parchment lined baking sheet, spacing 2 inches apart. Sprinkle sea salt over cookies (if you like) and bake for about 8-12 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through.
- Immediately remove parchment paper from tray and let cookies cool on parchment on the counter for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack or a plate and let cool completely.





Sue says
Entertaining recipe review. Wish I had time to make them.
Anna says
Heh, thanks! It's good to be back in the kitchen baking. I'm working on a write-up about Paris, but it's taking me a while.
Sonya says
LOL, loved your write-up on this! Hope they're delicious on day 2!