Cookies Holidays

Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate Chunk Cookies

This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan’s fabulous new baking book, Baking with Dorie. I must admit that I am obsessed with these cookies, and have made them many, many times since purchasing her book. The combination of rye, cranberry, chocolate, and poppyseed was intriguing to me when I read the recipe, but the picture immediately sold me; the golden brown cookie with a slight indentation was so beautiful, and I jumped in the kitchen to start baking.

Dorie writes in the recipe headnote: “People come from around the world to eat Mokonuts, a small restaurant in Paris that is always full, and everyone wants the same thing for dessert: one of Moko Hirayama’s cookies. Moko makes only a few varieties, but they all share a similar chubbiness, great texture, an offbeat choice of flavor combinations and a signature indentation in the center that looks like Moko’s handprint but is actually made by tapping each cookie with a spatula.”

This rye cookie will be included in my holiday cookie baking this year, and I’ve been making a plain chocolate version that my kids are obsessed with. The rye flour lends a nutty complexity that balances the chocolate.

On the first day of baking this cookie has crisp edges, a gooey center, and incredible flavor. While it loses its crisp edges the following days, it still is incredible in its softened state, and is slowly becoming a dangerous addiction.

Baking with Rye Flour

Rye and wheat are two very different grains, so compared to all-purpose flour, rye flour will react differently (in a good way!) in baking.

It has a delicious nutty, malty flavor that brings out the best in ingredients like chocolate, ginger, caramel, brown butter, cinnamon.

Rye flour contains very little gluten, so it does need an additional flour to provide structure for baked goods, which is why you’ll see a good portion of all-purpose in this recipe, too.

More Cookie Recipes:

Rye chocolate chunk cookies on parchment paper

Cranberry-Rye Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Servings: 15 cookies
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Refrigeration Time: 8 hours
Rye flour adds a delicious nutty flavor to these chocolate chunk cookies, paired with cranberries and poppy seeds. They have a chubbiness, great texture, and a signature indentation in the center that looks like a handprint, but is actually made by tapping each cookie with a spatula.
Sarah Kieffer
4.89 from 17 votes
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Ingredients

Instructions

  • Whisk together both flours, baking powder, and baking soda.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, both sugars, and the salt together on medium speed for 3 minutes, or until thoroughly blended; scrape the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat for two minutes more.
  • Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients and mix only until combined. Add the cranberries, poppy seeds, and chocolate and mix again until just combined. Scrape the bowl to bring the dough together. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Divide the dough into 15 pieces, roll each piece into a ball between your palms and place on the baking sheet. Cover the balls and refrigerate overnight.
  • Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 425F [220C]. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Keeping the remaining balls of dough in the refrigerator until needed, arrange 8 cookies on the sheet, leaving 2 in [5 cm] between them. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaky sea salt, crushing it between your fingers as you do.
  • Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, then pull the baking sheet from the oven and, using a metal spatula, the bottom of a glass, or the back of a spoon, tap each cookie lightly but smartly – you want to deflate a bit of the cookie and leave an indentation. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 3 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a rack. Repeat with the remaining dough, using a cool baking sheet.
  • The cookies are ready for munching after they’ve cooled for about 10 minutes, or you can wait until they reach room temperature. These are best eaten the day they are baked and really best shortly after they come from the oven. But they’re still way above average even 3 days later; keep them in an airtight container.

Notes

Note: Dorie recommends using a medium rye if you can find it. I could only find dark, and after trying several brands, find Great River 100% organic Dark Rye Flour to be my favorite in this recipe (not sponsored, I just loved how it tasted here the best).
*This recipe is from the cookbook, Baking with Dorie.
  • Reply
    Erin Richardson
    Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 5:24 pm

    Hi Sarah!
    I wanted to know what type of cranberries you used? I’m just a little confused by the meaning of moist plump dried cranberries. I wanted to ask if you bought dried cranberries and sweetened or altered them in some way.

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Monday, December 11, 2023 at 2:00 pm

      Hi Erin – I didn’t alter the dried cranberries in any way. The recipe is written as it is in Dorie’s book, and she calls for the moist, plump cranberries. I think she just wants you to make sure that your dried cranberries aren’t extra dried out (if they have been sitting on the shelf for awhile they can get hard) so that they don’t taste hard in the cookie.

  • Reply
    Millette
    Friday, October 27, 2023 at 6:08 pm

    5 stars
    Hi Sarah,

    I LOVE “RYE” – However, I have never used Dark Rye in baking. Was it an intense flavoring? Better yet, is the Medium Rye considered a light tasting? Not sure which to buy.

    Thank you,
    Millette

  • Reply
    Wonder314
    Tuesday, December 20, 2022 at 3:10 pm

    4 stars
    I too had issues with these getting very dark, almost burnt on the bottom. Not sure why. I had them on the middle rack and used the regular aluminum half sheet pan. I turned my oven down to 400 and baked for about 11/12 minutes. Any idea why the first one got soo dark? These are a more adult and not overly sweet cookie. We really enjoyed them.

  • Reply
    Wonderful cook
    Tuesday, December 6, 2022 at 9:34 pm

    5 stars
    These cranberry chocolate cookies were delicious!! My family and I loved it. Thank you sooo much for sharing!

  • Reply
    Christie
    Monday, November 28, 2022 at 10:54 pm

    5 stars
    I made these last year as part of my Christmas baking and I plan on making them again this year. They truly are delicious! Thank you for sharing!

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Wednesday, November 30, 2022 at 8:27 am

      I’m so glad you like them!

    • Reply
      Sarah
      Monday, December 5, 2022 at 4:10 pm

      5 stars
      Hi. These sound amazing!!! Any ideas to make them GF? I am always looking for the perfect CCC, GF.
      Thanks in advance.

  • Reply
    Irene
    Monday, February 7, 2022 at 2:58 pm

    5 stars
    Thank you for this absolutely delicious recipe!! I’m making them for the second time this week!

  • Reply
    CMW
    Wednesday, January 19, 2022 at 1:29 pm

    5 stars
    Made these over the snowy weekend and they turned out great! My only question is what the cookie should look like coming out of the oven? At 10 minutes, the center was very soft and almost looked a bit raw. I do have a slow oven though! Baked for 15 and the still were a bit soft in the center, but I’m still curious (I love a chewy cookie)!

  • Reply
    Kim
    Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 9:11 pm

    4 stars
    I made these and the flavor and texture are amazing! I had one issue, which was that the bottoms seemed to burn a bit. It’s almost as if some of the chocolate pooled and burned? I’m using my trusty aluminum baking sheets, parchment, etc.

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 6:30 pm

      I’m sorry you had trouble with the bottoms. I’m not exactly sure what could have cause that – what shade are your baking sheets? If they are a darker metal, sometimes that can cause the bottoms to bake faster. Also, was your oven rack in the center position of the oven? You could try moving it up (even if it was) to see if that helps.

  • Reply
    Heidi
    Friday, December 10, 2021 at 3:10 pm

    5 stars
    I made these a few days ago as a trial run to see if I wanted to include them in my holiday cookie boxes. I decided they were not quite right for the box as they were maybe a little too interesting for some palates…BUT they’ve been sitting on my counter in a container and both me and my husband find ourselves eating at least one everyday because they are SO good.

  • Reply
    Kristen Baggerly
    Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 2:02 pm

    Would these still be worth making if I couldn’t refrigerate the dough overnight and baked them the same day?

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 6:38 pm

      I would recommend refrigerating them at least for a couple of hours if you can’t do the overnight chill. You want the dough to firm up in the refrigerator before baking.

  • Reply
    Jeff Berg
    Thursday, December 2, 2021 at 9:50 pm

    Hi Sarah. A question on instruction 4. The balls are taken from the fridge and baked. Are the balls flattened into cookies before or will they flatten during baking?

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Saturday, January 8, 2022 at 6:41 pm

      The cookies flatten as the bake – but they still will be slightly mounded when you pull them from the oven. Then you give them a slight smash/tap, which helps them be the perfect height.

  • Reply
    Sara Gardinier
    Sunday, November 28, 2021 at 8:02 pm

    When you say “plain chocolate” version do you mean you’re leaving out the cranberries and poppy seeds? Or leaving out the rye?

    • Reply
      Sarah Kieffer
      Monday, November 29, 2021 at 8:22 am

      leaving out the cranberries and poppy seeds.

      • Reply
        Sara Gardinier
        Monday, November 29, 2021 at 9:07 pm

        Thank you!

4.89 from 17 votes (8 ratings without comment)

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