Recipes › Simple bakes› Cardamom rye chocolate chip cookies
Simple bakes · Easy · Serves 16

Cardamom rye chocolate chip cookies

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies with a small handful of dark rye flour and a generous pinch of cardamom. Crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, just a little Nordic.

Anna Lind Harper
by Anna Lind Harper
Tested twice · Published 2026-06-06
About a dozen freshly baked cardamom rye chocolate chip cookies cooling on a stainless steel wire rack on the marble counter, golden brown crinkled tops with visible melted dark chocolate chunks across the surfaces, scattered flakes of flaky sea salt, one cookie at the front broken in half to reveal a tender soft interior with a long pull of melted chocolate stretching between the two halves. A small ceramic bowl of chocolate chunks, a small bowl of green cardamom pods, and a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel sit on the marble beside the rack. Soft afternoon light from the kitchen window.
Prep
15 min
Cook
12 min
Serves
16
Difficulty
easy

These are the cookies I make when I want to bake but I don't want to commit to a project. Twenty minutes of dough work, ten in the oven, and the kitchen smells like brown butter and cardamom for the rest of the afternoon. The dark rye flour is the small detour that turns a familiar cookie into something a little more interesting.

Rye adds a faint nutty backbone (it's the same flour that goes into Danish dark bread), and the cardamom pulls everything toward warm and Scandinavian without anyone needing to ask what's different. Brown butter does the rest.

“Twenty minutes of dough work, ten in the oven. The kitchen smells like brown butter and cardamom for the rest of the afternoon.”
Why this one earns a weeknight

What you'll love about it

  • 01Twenty minutes of hands-on work, ten in the oven. The whole batch is done while the kitchen still smells like brown butter.
  • 02Cardamom and rye are the small Nordic detour that makes these feel like a real recipe, not just a chocolate chip cookie.
  • 03Crisp at the edges, soft and a little chewy in the middle. Big puddles of dark chocolate. A pinch of flaky salt on top.
  • 04Flexible: swap the rye for whole wheat, swap the dark chocolate for milk chocolate, swap the cardamom for cinnamon. Still good.
A hand in a fitted white tee and beige linen apron using a stainless steel cookie scoop to release a ball of brown butter cookie dough onto a parchment-lined half-sheet pan, with six dough balls already placed in a casual grid showing visible dark chocolate chunks. A cream-speckled stoneware mixing bowl with more cookie dough and a wooden spoon sits at the upper-left, a small ceramic dish of extra dark chocolate chunks at the lower-left, and a folded striped cream-and-blue linen tea towel to the right, on a white marble counter.
Two heaped tablespoons of dough per cookie, with 2 to 3 inches between them. The cookies spread, the chocolate chunks don't.
Ingredients

For the cookies

  • 10 Tbspunsalted butter
  • ¾ cuplight brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cupgranulated sugar
  • 1large egg
  • 1large egg yolk
  • 2 tspvanilla extract
  • 1¼ cupsall-purpose flour
  • ½ cupdark rye flour
  • 1 tspground cardamom
  • ½ tspbaking soda
  • ½ tspkosher salt
  • 6 ozdark chocolate, chopped into chunks (or use chips)

To finish

  • for the topsflaky salt
Method

How I make it

  1. 01
    Brown the butter.
    In a small saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Continue cooking, swirling occasionally, until the butter foams, then turns golden, then a deep amber with toasty brown flecks at the bottom, about 5 minutes. Pull off the heat and pour into a large mixing bowl. Cool 10 minutes (or stick the bowl in the fridge for 5 if you're impatient).
  2. 02
    Mix the sugars and eggs in.
    Whisk the brown sugar and granulated sugar into the cooled brown butter. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla; whisk until the mixture is smooth, glossy, and slightly thickened, about 30 seconds. The shine is a good sign.
  3. 03
    Whisk the dry, fold it in.
    In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, rye flour, ground cardamom, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry to the wet and fold gently with a spatula, just until a few flour streaks remain. Fold in the chocolate chunks. The dough will be soft and a little glossy.
  4. 04
    Scoop and chill briefly.
    Heat the oven to 375°F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Using a medium cookie scoop or two tablespoons, scoop heaping mounds of dough onto the pan (about 2 Tbsp each), leaving 2 to 3 inches between each one (they spread). Sprinkle the tops with a small pinch of flaky salt. Pop the pan into the fridge for 5 minutes while the oven finishes preheating; this keeps the cookies thicker.
    A pair of hands in a fitted white tee and beige linen apron scooping brown butter cookie dough from a large cream-speckled stoneware mixing bowl with a stainless steel cookie scoop, the other hand steadying the bowl from the side. The dough is light tan and packed with dark chocolate chunks. A parchment-lined sheet pan with two already-scooped dough balls sits at the lower-right edge of the frame, and a small ceramic dish of extra chocolate chunks rests at the lower-left, on a white marble counter.
    Press the scoop straight down into the dough and twist. The scraper releases a perfect ball every time.
  5. 05
    Bake and cool.
    Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are set and golden but the centers still look slightly underbaked. They'll firm up as they cool. Move the pan to a wire rack and let the cookies sit on the pan for 5 minutes (they're still cooking), then slide the parchment with the cookies onto the rack to finish cooling. Eat one while it's still warm. Save the rest for later.
Macro close-up of one cardamom rye chocolate chip cookie torn cleanly in half, held slightly apart with a long stretchy strand of melted dark chocolate pulling between the two halves. The tender interior crumb shows visible dark chocolate chunks and tiny dark cardamom flecks. A few cookie crumbs sit on a piece of parchment paper below, with a wire cooling rack and more whole cookies softly out of focus in the background.
A note from Anna

Don't skip browning the butter. It's five minutes that the recipe spends on you, and it's the difference between a fine chocolate chip cookie and one people text you about the next day. Watch the butter as it cooks; it goes from golden to burnt in about a minute. The moment you smell toasted nuts and see a thin layer of brown flecks at the bottom of the pan, pull it off the heat.

What to serve with it

Round out the table.

  • ·01
    A cold glass of milk
    Or oat milk, if that's your kitchen.
  • ·02
    Strong drip coffee
    Or an afternoon espresso. The cardamom plays beautifully with both.
  • ·03
    A small scoop of vanilla ice cream
    For the half-baked cookies you took out at minute 10.
Storage & reheating

Keeping the leftovers good.

Fridge: Cookies keep in a sealed container at room temperature for 4 days. The chocolate stays soft and the cardamom gets a little more present overnight.

Reheat: 10 seconds in the microwave brings the chocolate back to molten. A 300°F oven for 3 to 4 minutes works too.

Make ahead: Scoop the dough into balls, freeze on a sheet pan, then transfer to a freezer bag. Bake from frozen at 375°F for 13 to 15 minutes when you want fresh cookies with no morning effort. The dough also keeps for 3 days in the fridge before baking.

Freezer: Raw dough balls freeze for 2 months. Baked cookies freeze too; wrap individually and reheat in the oven.

Recipe card

Cardamom rye chocolate chip cookies

Brown butter chocolate chip cookies with a small handful of dark rye flour and a generous pinch of cardamom. Crisp at the edges, soft in the middle, just a little Nordic.

Prep
15 min
Cook
12 min
Serves
16
Total
27 min
Ingredients
  • 10 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • ¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 large egg yolk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup dark rye flour
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • 6 oz dark chocolate, chopped into chunks (or use chips)
  • for the tops flaky salt
Method (short version)
  1. 01Brown the butter.
  2. 02Mix the sugars and eggs in.
  3. 03Whisk the dry, fold it in.
  4. 04Scoop and chill briefly.
  5. 05Bake and cool.

Nutrition information is an estimate. See full nutrition disclaimer.

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