Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies

Valentine’s Day always seemed a bit unfair. Why must we relegate sweet nothings and romantic dates – let alone heart candies and chocolate – to one day of the year? I love love, but I also love chocolate. I want both all year round.

However. When a day hands you an excuse to make something rich and chocolatey, and then give it out indiscriminately – and eat more of it than you care to admit – in the name of a holiday, you say okay and you do it. So, friends: in honor of Valentine’s Day, I made you these salted chocolate rye cookies. I’m feeling confident you’ll agree to be my valentines, seeing as all the chocolate is on this side of the table. C’mon over.

Would you believe there isn’t a pinch of white flour in these cookies? They came out so rich that in retrospect, I see why the rye is there; not so much to offer its nutty flavor (though it does, albeit subtly), but to offset the fudgy texture and serious chocolate flavor in the cookies. These are serious chocolate-lovers’ cookies. Those who feel mildly about chocolate need not apply.

Happy day of love and chocolate to all of you. Now let’s go enjoy the snow.

Salted Chocolate Rye Cookies
Adapted slightly from Tartine Book #3
Makes 24 cookies

In response to a question below, I think you could make tiny cookies with 1 tablespoon of dough each, but you should decrease the baking time. Probably 7-8 minutes would do it.

3/4 cup whole-grain dark rye flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
14 ounces dark chocolate (I used 72%), finely chopped
4 tablespoons. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Maldon salt or fleur de sel, for sprinkling

In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt.

Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water – keep , stirring until just melted and combined. Remove bowl from pan; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, whip eggs on medium speed until fluffy. Keep the mixer on low and slowly add sugar. Once all the sugar is added, increase speed to medium-high and keep beating until eggs have nearly tripled in volume, about 6 minutes. Add reserved chocolate mixture and the vanilla; mix until combined. Again, with mixer on low, slowly add dry ingredients until a soft, loose dough forms. Cover dough with plastic wrap; chill 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 350°. Using 2 tablespoons for each, drop cookies onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets, spaced about 2” apart. Sprinkle cookies with Maldon salt or fleur de sel. Bake until cookies are puffed, 8-10 minutes, 10-12 if refrigerated for longer than 30 minutes. (Rotate pans halfway through the baking time). Let rest on baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a serving platter.