Chocolate and Pistachio Oatmeal-Rye Cookies

Apr 6

Apr 6 Chocolate and Pistachio Oatmeal-Rye Cookies

Do you ever find yourself with a pantry full of odds and ends, random unused ingredients from various cooking adventures? After a busy holiday season of baking followed by a creative baking course with Christina Tosi, mine is full of wonderful ingredients in need of a worthy baked-good home. Simple, stir together cookies are an excellent low risk / high reward vehicle for experimenting with different combinations. So these crazy but delicious pantry cookies include:

Dark chocolate

White chocolate

Pistachios

Unsweetened shredded coconut

Poppyseeds

Old fashioned oats

Rye and all purpose flour

Light brown sugar

And look at the gorgeous texture all of those ingredients create! They're large, bakery style cookies, crisp on the edges and chewy in the middle. The chocolate, coconut, and pistachios balance the intenseness of the rye and poppyseeds. The coconut, brown sugar and oats create the chew. I also may try them again without the poppyseeds and more pistachios one day. (I'm a devoted pistachio fan.) Bake them all at once or freeze the portioned out dough for whenever a cookie craving strikes.

Not in a cookie mood? The Potica sweet bread I made a few weeks ago was excellent for using up lots of walnuts and pecans and is absolutely scrumptious.

Chocolate and Pistachio Oatmeal-Rye Cookie Recipe:

Yield:
Approximately 18 large cookies

Difficulty:
Easy

Ingredients:

125 grams all purpose flour
83 grams medium rye flour
1½ tsp Diamond Crystal coarse kosher salt (or 1 tsp Morton kosher salt)
1¼ tsp baking soda
200 grams light brown sugar
226 grams (1 cup or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 TBSP vanilla extract
5 ounces semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 ounces white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 cup old-fashioned oats
½ cup chopped unsalted pistachios (roasted or raw, but if raw, be sure to toast them before you chop them up)*
¼ cup poppyseeds
¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

*Be sure to include your shards of chopped nuts and chocolate. Folding them into the dough along with the bigger pieces ensures you have those flavors throughout the cookie, however subtle.

Instructions:

Whisk both flours, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk brown sugar and butter until very thick and smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and whisk vigorously until mixture is a shade lighter and smooth, about 30 seconds. Add dry ingredients and whisk until completely until no dry spots are visible and batter is smooth. Fold in chocolate, oats, pistachios, poppyseeds, and coconut with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until thoroughly distributed.

Scoop balls of cookie dough with 2 ¾ ounce scoop (or a ⅓-cup measure) onto on a parchment-lined baking sheet. You can place them close together so they all fit on a single pan, we're just refrigerating them at this point. (Feel free to make them smaller, but when you bake them, start checking for doneness after about 10 minutes.) Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate or freeze until firm. Arrange oven racks in the top and bottom third of the oven.

Preheat oven to 350°. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

Place 5 cookies on each baking sheet spaced at least 3-inches apart, they're going to spread out into very large cookies. Slightly flatten the tops. Bake, rotating baking sheets top to bottom halfway through, until dark and crisp on the edges and still a little shiny in the middle, around 14-17 minutes. (If just baking one tray, check a little sooner.) Let cool 10 minutes on baking sheet then transfer to cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining cookies or freeze until you're ready to bake them.

Enjoy!