High Altitude Brown Butter Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies

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It may be a cliche, but chocolate chip cookies truly are my favorite cookie. I love their buttery flavor, the perfect balance of salty and sweet, their crispy crumbly edges, the chewy and slightly underdone centers. And, of course, the dark chocolate chips throughout. These high altitude brown butter and rye chocolate chip cookies have all of that, and they are just so good.

Looking for more cookie recipes? You’ll love my favorite high altitude chocolate chip cookies, gluten free buckwheat chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate chip cookies, and flourless peanut butter chocolate chip cookies.

A stack of rye chocolate chip cookies, one with a bite taken.

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Browned Butter for Baking

I based this recipe off of my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, which are just the best. They’re the cookie I crave with an afternoon cup of coffee, when my boys are in their rooms after lunch. Cookies, hot coffee and a quiet hour to myself lets me re-charge and feel sane after a busy morning.

So what is brown butter, you might be wondering? Quite simply, it’s butter that’s been cooked on the stove, allowing the water to evaporate and the milk solids to toast. As the butter cooks, you’ll see nutty brown solids collect on the bottom of the pan, and the butter will be incredibly fragrant. Browned butter has a deeper, richer flavor, and is just fantastic in all kinds of sweet and savory recipes. I’ve used browned butter in countless cookie recipes, in buttercream, or drizzled over pasta.

Rye Flour in Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you are a baker, then you might have seen King Arthur Flour’s recent news that they updated their name to King Arthur Baking Company. Although their name has changed, they are still the company that we all know and love. Their new logo, the wheat crown, represents their heritage, quality, and commitment to agriculture. Their updated logo is so beautiful, and I was lucky enough to be one of the first recipients of a bag of their newly branded organic rye flour.

Today I’m using their rye flour in these thick and chewy cookies. They’re similar to my Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies, but with dark chocolate chips instead of chopped chocolate. They also have a little more brown sugar, and half all-purpose flour and half rye flour. These cookies are big, really thick, with lightly crisp edges and soft chewy centers. They’re the best. The rye flour adds a lovely nutty flavor that’s just perfect with the brown butter and dark chocolate chips. They might just be my new favorite version of chocolate chip cookies.

Rye chocolate chip cookies on a baking sheet.

A brown butter rye chocolate chip cookie with a bite taken.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

Butter. I use unsalted butter, so if you use salted, just be sure to eliminate the extra salt in the recipe.
Sugar. A blend of white granulated sugar and dark brown sugar adds sweetness and a hint of molasses.
Egg. Binds the dough together and gives it structure.
Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
Flour. All-purpose flour + rye flour gives the cookies structure and strength.
Baking Soda. Leavens the dough so the cookies puff up a little.
Salt. Coarse Kosher salt balances the sweetness and enhances the flavors. If you use table salt, you should use half the amount, since it has a finer grain and is saltier.
Chocolate Chips. Dark, semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips are all great in these rye chocolate chip cookies.

Instructions

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue to cook the butter, swirling occasionally, for several minutes, until the water evaporates and nutty brown solids form at the bottom of the pan.
Immediately remove the pan from the heat, scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan and pour the butter into a bowl to cool. Let cool at room temperature for several hours until the butter returns to a (soft) solid.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar for about 5 minutes, scraping the bowl several times, until light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix in gently on low speed.
In a separate bowl, combine the flours, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients by spoonfuls, mixing just until combined.
Use a cupcake/ice cream scoop to portion out the cookie dough into 15 balls. Cover and refrigerate the dough balls for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350. While the oven preheats, freeze the dough balls for 10 minutes.
Place the cold dough balls three inches apart on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake on the center oven rack for 13 minutes (it seems like a long bake time, but these are large cookies). The edges will appear set, but the centers should still look underdone. Let cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with any remaining dough.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

Will this recipe work without the rye flour?

Yes, you can just use all-purpose flour in place of the rye flour.

Can I skip the step of browning the butter?

If you prefer not to brown the butter, you can just use softened butter and follow the recipe after that step. Reduce the butter by 1 tablespoon, since some of the liquid in the butter evaporates during the browning process.

How long do these cookies stay fresh?

Store cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or wrap well and freeze for up to 3-6 months. A little trick to keep cookies soft at room temperature is to keep a slice of plain sandwich bread in the container with the cookies.

How do you make perfectly round cookies?

There’s a technique called “cookie scooting”, and it’s genius! Immediately after taking a pan of cookies out of the oven, take a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter (it needs to be slightly larger than the circumference of the baked cookies), and “scoot” it around the hot cookie. This pulls in any uneven edges to form a beautiful, perfectly round cookie. Watch the video by Cloudy Kitchen to see the technique in action.

Chocolate chip cookie brownies, sprinkled with salt and cut into bars. — Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

Chocolate chip cookie dough truffles, sprinkled with sea salt. — Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies

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