As many of you know, I love baking with whole grain flours. The added flavor and depth you achieve when pushing beyond all-purpose flour is endlessly exciting to explore. I’ve been working my way through a bag of whole grain rye flour over the past couple of weeks and wanted to share a recipe for these rich, flavorful, wildly fudgy dark chocolate brownies made with 100% whole grain rye flour. For brownies like these, I’d be hard pressed to go back to all-purpose flour.

I think there’s a lingering hangover from the leaden, hippie-style baking of the 1960s and 70s. There was a lot to admire from that era (an enthusiasm for local, whole foods, home baking), but we’ve come quite a way since then. Whole grain baking today can be very nuanced, unexpected, and deeply flavorful – with a range of wonderful textures – not just the heavy, earnest sort many people still associate with whole grain baking.

Making brownies with whole grain rye flour brings depth and maltiness that rides shotgun naturally to a good-quality bittersweet dark chocolate. It’s robust enough to stand up to it. Salt counterbalances everything, and you end up with brownies that will suck you straight into the chocolate vortex. And if you’ve never baked with rye flour before, brownies are a perfect place to start. You don’t need to worry about gluten development, hydration, or any of the other variables that give rye a bit of a temperamental reputation.

Rye Brownie Variations:

A few directions you can go with this brownie base:

• With nuts: add some chopped, toasted walnuts with the flour mixture – 1 1/2 cups or so. Classic match made in chocolate heaven here.
• With dark coconut sugar: I tested a batch of these brownies using coconut sugar (it was Big Tree Farms Organic Brown Coconut Sugar), just to see how the brownies would hold up to a less refined sweetener, also lower glycemic index. At first I was skeptical because the batter was much thinner and runnier – I just wasn’t feeling it. But they baked up beautifully, and the sweetness was rounder with noticeable caramel notes. This is a long way of saying, if I happen to have the coconut sugar on hand the next time I bake these, I’d absolutely use it. That said, tthe version with dark brown sugar (cane), is excellent as well.

If I had a bakery, I’d do the coconut sugar version with 100% rye flour, and 70%+ chocolate, and not skimp on the salt. That’s my brownie.

Step by Step: How to Make Rye Chocolate Brownies

One of the great things about these brownies is that there’s no need to get a big mixer out. You basically combine the chocolate and butter in a heat-proof bowl (pictured below), and stir it together until it’s nice and smooth.

You combine the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in another bowl, and the flour and salt in a third.

You fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, and then sprinkle it with the flour. You can see what it should look like at this stage in the photo above.

Keep folding the ingredients together with a spatula or wooden spoon until it looks something like the above photo. And then transfer the batter into the prepared baking dish.

Here’s what they should look like after baking and cooling (below). I highly recommend letting them rest for a few hours, more on that below.

Brownie Storage

Ideally, allow these to cool out on the counter and then transfer to a refrigerator overnight. You can eat them shortly after baking, but they really hit all the right notes after they’ve cooled and set. These brownies also freeze incredibly well. I like to freeze them individually on a parchment-lined baking sheet, then transfer to a freezer bag.

More Rye Recipes

And if these brownies make you even more rye curious, here are some other recipes to explore.

• Rye Crepes
• Swedish Rye Cookies
• How To Make a Sourdough Starter (with Rye Flour)

Continue reading 100% Rye Chocolate Brownies on 101 Cookbooks

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