Rye Earthquake Cookies

Photo by Michael Piazza / Styled by Catrine Kelty

“Earthquake” or “crinkle” cookies are essentially fudgy, moist brownies in cookie form. In this one, the typical outer coating of confectioners’ sugar is replaced with rye flour. (Rye and chocolate make for an excellent bittersweet matchup.) Any style of rye flour, sifted or whole, will work in this recipe. Chilling the sticky dough in several stages makes dividing and shaping uniform cookies easy. To achieve the proper fudgy texture, be sure not to let these cookies overbake. As always, using a kitchen scale to measure the weights of your ingredients will lead to a more precise bake, but I have included volume measures here as well.

Makes 24 cookies

140g (1¼ cups) medium or dark rye flour, plus 56g (½ cup) for coating cookies
45g (½ cup) unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch process
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon sea salt
250g (1¼ cups packed) brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 tablespoon instant coffee or espresso granules or powder, dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
113g unsweetened chocolate, broken into small pieces
56g (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter
50g (¼ cup) granulated sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk rye flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In a large bowl, whisk brown sugar, eggs, instant coffee and vanilla together. Combine chocolate and butter in a bowl, cover loosely, and microwave in 30-second increments, stirring occasionally, until melted. Stir mixture until uniform.

Whisk chocolate mixture into egg mixture until combined. Add flour mixture and, using a spatula, fold dough together until no dry flour remains. Cover bowl and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Fold 16- by 12-inch sheet of parchment in half crosswise and unfold. Transfer dough to one half of the parchment and, using a bench scraper, shape the dough into a rough 8- by 6-inch slab. Cover dough with remaining half of parchment and return to refrigerator until firm, about 90 minutes. (Dough may be wrapped well and held in the fridge for up to 48 hours at this stage if desired.)

Thirty minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 325°F.

Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Place granulated sugar and remaining rye flour in separate small bowls. Using a bench scraper and rolling pin, shape dough into an 8- by 6-inch rectangle, then divide crosswise and lengthwise into quarters. Divide 2 quarters into 12 equally sized pieces (about 28g each).

Roll each piece of dough into a smooth ball between palms. Drop each ball into the granulated sugar and roll to coat. Transfer each ball to rye flour and roll to coat. Transfer balls to the prepared baking sheet, spaced evenly apart. (Repeat with the remaining 2 quarters of dough while the first sheet bakes.)

Bake the cookies 1 sheet at a time until distinctive cracks appear, 12 to 14 minutes. (Interiors of cookies may still seem raw at this point, but they will set as they cool down; do not overbake.) Allow cookies to cool completely on the pans before serving. (The cookies will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container at room temperature.)

This recipe appeared in the Winter 2022 issue as part of a larger story on rye flour cookies.