Jamie Oliver has a new show on Channel 4 called Quick And Easy Food. Canal Cocina, the Spanish food network, has started airing the episodes and they are fantastic with fab looking food and a slick production. Jamie is a former featured chef at I Heart Cooking Clubs and for that reason I’ve chosen to make his Rye and Chocolate Cookies for this month’s ingredient challenge: chocolate and/or vanilla.
Why Rye and Chocolate?
The premise of the new show is that he uses just 5 ingredients and a few pantry staples to crank out some really good looking food. In order to keep his ingredient count down for these cookies, the rye bread is turned into crumbs and mixed with some butter and melted chocolate. The flavor combination is great and these little cookies are perfect with a cup of tea.
Now, I’m sure I’ve complained explained before about how it can be difficult to find ingredients where I live. I didn’t expect to find any type of rye bread, but after some searching I found a couple different types. I chose a dark baguette that didn’t contain the caraway seeds.
Tips for making the cookies
I have a small food processor but I just worked the bread in batches until I had some fine crumbs and then mixed them with the remaining ingredients in a bowl. The batter is more like a cake than a cookie, but it was easy enough to use a piping bag to form the cookies. Melting the chocolate is easy, just put a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water.
The cookies take about 10 minutes to bake. Jamie Oliver recommends a sprinkle of sea salt but I wasn’t that enthusiastic about it, so be warned. I think a handful of mini chocolate chips or some chopped nuts (or both) would be a good addition. Just because our guy has limited himself to 5 ingredients doesn’t mean we have to!
Ingredients
- 100 g dark chocolate I bought a bar that said 100 grams, you'll want 3.5 ounces
- 100 g butter 7 tablespoons, not quite an entire stick
- 100 g rye bread about 2 cups of crumbs, unpacked
- 2 large eggs
- 50 g sugar about 1/4 cup or 4 tablespoons
Instructions
- Prepare two trays with baking paper and heat the oven to 350°F/180°C
- Use a food processor to break the bread into crumbs.
- Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl over simmering water. Stir in the butter until smooth.
- Add the chocolate, sugar and eggs to the rye bread crumbs and mix until well combined. The batter will be more cake like than dough like.
- Fill a pastry bag with the batter and cut off the tip.
- Pipe the batter into disks about an inch and a half wide. Use a knife or spoon to smooth the top of the cookie. You should be able to fit a dozen onto the tray.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until the cookies have spread slightly and have cooked through.
- Transfer to a rack to allow to cool.
Notes
It’s actually easier to weigh the ingredients, but for those who don’t have a scale, I’ve included the standard measurements. Jamie recommends oiling the baking paper as well, but with all the butter in the cookies it was kind of overkill.
You might be surprised to learn several cooking cultures use breadcrumbs to make cookies. This is a frugal way to use up a loaf of bread; search “breadcrumb cookies” if you’re interested.
It’s the last ingredient challenge of the year at I Heart Cooking Clubs! It’s hard to believe. I’m excited to see what the other bloggers have chosen to make. With so many featured chefs there will be a nice variety of chocolate recipes. Be sure to drop by and see!
What an interesting cookie recipe. I was expecting to use rye flour and not rye bread. These sound interesting. Chocolate with anything sounds good to me.
The use of the bread is what made me want to try it. I already have too many flours in my pantry (for low carb stuff). Thanks!
New idea using rye bread as an ingredient. It works well for me. I have a small loaf which has been siting around for a while. The cookies look moist and scrumptious.
They were a pleasant surprise…and I was glad for the opportunity to use my piping bag. Thanks!
Oh I just love Jamie and wish I could get this new show over in the states. This is the first time I’ve heard of using breadcrumbs in place of flour in cookies. It is interesting and has me curious. I can appreciate the idea, having used oatmeal and such, it does make sense. They look chocolately and delicious that’s for sure!
I’ve included the links for Channel Four at the top of the post. I hope they work for you if you want to stream the show. Thanks!