Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
These are the cookies that stopped me in my tracks. I was wandering along a side street in Paris’s 11th Arrondissement, saw these cookies on a counter in the back of Mokonuts, a small restaurant, and walked right in to buy a few. The baker Moko Hirayama has worked on her recipe with so much care and invention that it’s almost difficult to see any family resemblance to cookie's inspiration: the classic American chocolate-chip cookie. Her cookies have chunks of fine chocolate (not store-bought chips), dried cranberries, rye flour and a good measure of poppy seeds, for color, crunch and surprise. Plan ahead: Once the dough is made and formed into balls, it should be refrigerated overnight before baking. Fresh from the oven, the cookies are fragile; they firm as they cool. They’ll keep for about three days at room temperature or they can be frozen for up to two months; in either case, they should be wrapped well.
- Total:
- Serves: 15 persons
Ingredients
- 1cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons (130 grams) medium rye flour
- ½cup plus 2 tablespoons (85 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1teaspoon baking powder
- ¾teaspoon fine sea salt
- ½teaspoon baking soda
- 10tablespoons (140 grams) unsalted butter at cool room temperature
- ½cup (100 grams) sugar
- ½cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
- 1large egg
- ⅓cup (50 grams) poppy seeds
- ⅔cup (80 grams) moist, plump dried cranberries
- 4ounces (113 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
- Flake salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling
Instructions
Step 1
Whisk together the rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sea salt and baking soda; set aside.Step 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.Step 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.)Step 4
When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven, and heat it to 425. 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.Step 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.Step 6
Serve after the cookies have cooled for about 10 minutes, or wait until they reach room temperature.