#29: Chocolate Rye Molasses Cookies

a healthy cookie 😉

Dec 01, 2021

Last Christmas, when the world was sad and I was stranded in the middle of the country away from my family, I spent a ridiculous amount of time baking. I baked a handful of different cookies and assembled dozens of cookie boxes. Boxes that were shipped all over the country, delivered to neighbors, and boxes that I gave to every wonderful USPS/UPS/FedEx courier that came to my house.

Besides being the ultimate escape from life and a way to share love with people, you have to bake around the holidays. It’s mandatory. Is it even Christmas without cookies? No.

This year, I won’t be shipping boxes (sorry family) but I am still making some to hand out locally and I’m adding a few new cookies to the rotation. The first are my new Chocolate Rye Molasses Cookies! There are three ingredients in the name because they each play a big part in the cookie. Let’s break it down.

Chocolate

First and foremost, these are chocolate cookies and they get their chocolate flavor in two forms: cocoa powder and chopped chocolate. Cocoa powder helps flavor the dough lightly and the chopped chocolate creates gooey chocolate puddles when warm and nice chocolate bites when cooled.

We have touched on using chopped chocolate before. A lot of times it is my preferred method of adding chocolate to recipes because of how irregular the chocolate bits become when chopped. Small pieces melt completely into the dough adding to the overall flavor while larger pieces add bites of chocolate and texture.

I suppose you don’t have to use chopped chocolate but I highly encourage it. The most common substitution would be adding chocolate chips instead but that will yield a very different result. Chocolate chips have loads of stabilizers in them that help them keep their shape (think Tollhouse cookies with perfect chips). Those stabilizers also make the chocolate feel waxy and will dull the flavor. You won't get puddles with chips!

Rye Flour

When I proposed the idea of a cookie with rye flour to Marco he respond with “hm that’s an interesting flavor for a cookie.” Like Marco, most of us associate the flavor of rye with rye bread but what we are really thinking of is caraway. Ya know those little seeds on the crust and inside the bread. That is NOT what these cookies will taste like.

Rye flour is made from ground rye berries. You’ll find three common types: light/white, medium, and dark. Rye berries, like other whole grains, are made up of bran, germ, and endosperm. The darker the rye flour the more whole grain there is. This also means that darker rye flours have more nutty, earthy, and yummy grainy flavors. Those are the flavors that are present in these cookies. The whole grains also add a texture to the cookie. It is slightly gritty and fibrous in a great way.

I use Bob’s Red Mill Dark Rye Flour. Different brands will vary slightly but Bob’s Red Mill is pretty accessible across the country.

Molasses

Just like rye flour, molasses comes in three common types/colors. When sugar cane is crushed the juices are boiled to create sugar crystals. Remove those sugar crystals and what is left behind is molasses. After the first boiling, you have light molasses which is sweet and sugary. Boil the sugar a second time and you have dark molasses. Dark molasses has less sugar, is thicker, and is darker in color. This is what is often used in ginger cookies. If the sugars are boiled a third time you will be left with a super thick and very dark molasses called blackstrap molasses. It has the least amount of sugar, tastes almost bitter, and is high in iron and B6 vitamins.

Molasses is added to baked goods for warm, almost smoky, flavors and it also aids in texture. Adding molasses adds more moisture because it is a liquid, which helps create a very specific soft chew. Not gooey or dense but a light chew where your front teeth sink in and the back teeth have a slight stickiness to them while chewing. We all know it.

Traditionally speaking light and dark molasses are the two most commonly used in baking. Because blackstrap is a little more bitter it is used more in savory dishes like baked beans. As a general rule, you can not substitute blackstrap in a recipe that calls for light or dark. You will get a very different result.

Today we’re using blackstrap! I like the slightly bitter notes. It pairs with the bitter dark chocolate flavors and since this cookie has a ton of sugar in it already, it comes out really well balanced.

The most important thing when buying molasses is making sure you grab an unsulfured bottle. Sulfured molasses has sulfur dioxide added as a preservative and a strong chemical taste from it. No bueno.

So since these cookies have whole grains and high levels of minerals and vitamins from the blackstrap molasses, can we call these healthy cookies?! Yes, I say yes.

Now for making the cookies…the method is painfully simple.

Dry ingredients in a large bowl
Wet ingredients mixed into the dry ingredients
Chopped chocolate added last
Shape into balls
Roll in demerara sugar
Bake

The dough will be soft, thick, grainy, and slightly sticky. Work fast when rolling the dough between your hands and wash them as often as needed to prevent sticking. Don’t worry about the balls being perfectly round. They spread out nicely.

Demerara sugar is minimally processed raw sugar that comes in large granules. I roll the cookies in this type of sugar because it keeps its shape when baked and the cookies have a pretty sugar coating. Any large granule finishing sugar will work.

Chocolate Rye Molasses Cookies

79.4KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Chocolate Rye Molasses Cookies

240g Dark rye flour, such as Bob’s Red Mill

20g Unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder

10g Baking soda

5g Morton’s Kosher Salt

100g Granulated sugar

66g Light brown sugar

88g Blackstrap molasses

1 Egg

1t Vanilla extract

113g Butter, melted

113g 70% dark chocolate bar, chopped

Demerara sugar for rolling the cookies in

Heat an oven to 350º

In a large bowl, add rye flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. Whisk ingredients together and set aside.

In a separate bowl add granulated sugar, brown sugar, molasses, 1 egg, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth. Add the melted (but cool) butter and whisk to incorporate.

Switch to a rubber spatula and pour the wet ingredients into the dry. Use the spatula to fold ingredients together until a smooth dough forms with no dry patches. Last, fold in the chocolate chunks.

Scoop dough into 1.5T scoops and roll into smooth balls between your palms. Roll each ball in demerara sugar to completely coat and arrange on a parchment paper lined sheet tray. I fit 6 per tray staggering them to allow space for spreading.
Bake for 12 minutes. Let cookies cool completely on the tray.