Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (with Rye Flour!)

I'm going to be straight with you here:  Scott and I recently "cleansed" for 19 days.  We were supposed to do it for 21 days, but by the time we reached 19 days, we decided to call it quits.  On day 19, reason set in, and we had a little conversation about whether or not those last two days mattered and decided that they didn't.  There are only so many days a person can take of vegetables and shakes.  Do you know how many hours you have to spend eating just to get enough calories if vegetables are pretty much all that you are eating?  We barely had time for anything else!  Despite its difficulties, the cleanse was an enjoyable experience.  I felt amazing while we were on it, slept better than I have slept in years, and got to eat some amazing veggie dishes that Scott created for us.  It's just that I was ready to eat more than vegetables and be back in my apron, playing with flour. 

I can, though, safely attribute these cookies to the cleanse.  Around day 13 or so, I began to fixate on chocolate chip cookies.  That was completely normal behavior when they contained everything that was verboten, right?  At some point, I decided that rye flour could only make a chocolate chip cookie taste better.  Then I moved on to daydreaming about sugar and how the buckwheat honey my brother and sister-in-law recently gave us would probably go well with rye flour...

So, there you have it, I probably never would have thought of these cookies if we hadn't done the cleanse.  If you ever make one chocolate recipe that I share with you, make these.  They are perfectly chewy (thanks in part to the rye flour), chocolaty, and have a light honey finish.  If you didn't know they contained rye flour, you'd never guess it.  They're big and attractive and a definite crowd-pleaser.  You might never make another kind of chocolate chip cookie again.

Notes:
Buckwheat honey has a very distinctive flavor.  If you're not a fan, you can use a different type of honey.  I like the buckwheat in these cookies because the honey flavor is strong enough to linger through to your last chew.  If you grease the tablespoon before measuring the honey, the honey will slide off the spoon without any scraping.  You could make these with just all-purpose flour, but the rye flour really adds some depth and helps make them chewy.  These cookies spread, so be sure to leave plenty of room between them on the cookie sheet. 

Adapted from The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion: The Essential Cookie Cookbook

Ingredients:
1 cup rye flour
1¼ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1½ sticks (¾ cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
⅔ cup light brown sugar
⅔ cup granulated sugar
2 tablespoons buckwheat honey
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3 cups dark chocolate chunks or chips

Yields about 4 dozen cookies, depending on the size. 

Whisk, Cream, Add, Scoop, Bake:
Place your oven racks at the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350°F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats and set aside.  In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the rye flour, all-purpose flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and set aside.  In a separate bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar, honey, and vinegar until the mixture is light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, until each egg is fully incorporated, then beat in the vanilla extract.  Add the flour mixture in halves and then stir in the chocolate chunks. 

Use a cookie scoop or two spoons to shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls.  Place each ball on the prepared cookie sheets with three-inch spacing. Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes.  The centers will probably appear slightly undercooked; that's ok.  Transfer the cookies to racks to finish cooling (the heat within the cookie will continue to cook it).  Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the freezer.

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