Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies

Updated April 16, 2025

Mokonuts’ Rye-Cranberry Chocolate-Chunk Cookies
Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne.
Total Time
50 minutes, plus overnight chilling
Rating
4(1,615)
Comments
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These are the cookies that stopped me in my tracks. I was wandering along a side street in Paris’s 11th Arrondissement, saw these cookies on a counter in the back of Mokonuts, a small restaurant, and walked right in to buy a few. The baker Moko Hirayama has worked on her recipe with so much care and invention that it’s almost difficult to see any family resemblance to cookie's inspiration: the classic American chocolate-chip cookie. Her cookies have chunks of fine chocolate (not store-bought chips), dried cranberries, rye flour and a good measure of poppy seeds, for color, crunch and surprise. Plan ahead: Once the dough is made and formed into balls, it should be refrigerated overnight before baking. Fresh from the oven, the cookies are fragile; they firm as they cool. They’ll keep for about three days at room temperature or they can be frozen for up to two months; in either case, they should be wrapped well.

Featured in: Elevate Your Chocolate-Chip Cookies

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Ingredients

Yield:About 15 cookies
  • 1cup plus 1½ tablespoons (130 grams) medium rye flour
  • ½cup plus 2 tablespoons (85 grams) all-purpose flour
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾teaspoon fine sea salt
  • ½teaspoon baking soda
  • 10tablespoons (140 grams) unsalted butter at cool room temperature
  • ½cup (100 grams) sugar
  • ½cup (100 grams) light brown sugar
  • 1large egg
  • cup (50 grams) poppy seeds
  • cup (80 grams) moist, plump dried cranberries
  • 4ounces (113 grams) bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
  • Flake salt, such as Maldon, for sprinkling
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (15 servings)

283 calories; 12 grams fat; 6 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 3 grams monounsaturated fat; 2 grams polyunsaturated fat; 43 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams dietary fiber; 21 grams sugars; 4 grams protein; 158 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Whisk together the rye flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, sea salt and baking soda; set aside.

  2. Step 2

    Working with a mixer (fitted with the paddle attachment, if you have one), beat the butter and both sugars together on medium speed for 3 minutes, until blended; scrape thebowl as needed. Add the egg, and beat 2 minutes more. Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once, then pulse the mixer a few times to begin blending the ingredients. Beat on low speed until the flour almost disappears, and then add the poppy seeds, cranberries and chocolate. Mix only until incorporated. Scrape the bowl to bring the dough together.

  3. Step 3

    Have a baking sheet lined with parchment, foil or plastic wrap nearby. Divide the dough into 15 pieces, roll each piece into a ball between your palms and place on the baking sheet. Cover, and refrigerate the dough overnight or for up to 3 days. (If you’d like, you can wrap the balls airtight and freeze them for up to 1 month. Defrost them overnight in the fridge before baking.)

  4. Step 4

    When you’re ready to bake, center a rack in the oven, and heat it to 425. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Arrange the cookies on the sheet, leaving 2 inches between each cookie (work with half a batch at a time and keep the remaining balls of dough in the refrigerator until needed). Sprinkle each cookie with a little flake salt, crushing it between your fingers as you do.

  5. Step 5

    Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, pull the baking sheet from the oven and, using a metal spatula, a pancake turner or the bottom of a glass, tap each cookie lightly. Let the cookies rest on the sheet for 3 minutes, then carefully transfer them to a rack. Repeat with the remaining dough, always using cold dough and a cool baking sheet.

  6. Step 6

    Serve after the cookies have cooled for about 10 minutes, or wait until they reach room temperature.

Ratings

4 out of 5
1,615 user ratings
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Comments

I used Red Mill dark rye flour, not medium rye, and Ghirardelli bittersweet chips, not chunks. I followed detailed instructions for timing each step. Excellent. Highly recommended. Smiling here.

These are the best cc cookies I ever made! The poppy seeds, rye flour and cranberries make them delicious and more interesting than most cc cookies. I soaked the dry cranberries in a little hot tea before adding them to the recipe. I added a little bit more chocolate chips. I divided the dough in 21, not 15 parts, making normal sized cookies and I baked for exacly 10 minutes in a convection oven. The cookies came out perfect! Moist, chewy, just sweet enough, with lots of dark chocolate.

To divide the dough into 15 cookies - which I can't do by eye! - each of my lumps of dough needed to weigh about 54 grams. These are substantial cookies.

OMG. When I saw this recipe I knew I had to make these. My family loved dining at Mokonuts two years ago - and the cookies were to die for. These came out delicious and are now a family favorite

Nice variation on the classic. I read the comments about sweetened cranberries, which were what I had on hand. I don't like cloyingly sweet desserts, but I'm wary of cutting sugar too drastically. It affects the structure and moisture content of baked goods. I cut the sugar by a tablespoon and used 70% chocolate, and the result was delicious and not overly sweet. I accidentally used black sesame seeds along with poppy seeds, and that turned out fine! Will try unsweetened cranberries next time.

With no cranberries at the store, I swapped in currants for a sweeter result. Love 'em.

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