Chocolate chip cookie recipes abound, but many are a spin on the classic Tollhouse recipe. This cookie distinguishes itself by combining unexpected ingredients. The result is a cookie that has chocolate pieces in it, but is anything but ordinary.

The dry ingredients are where we find our first surprises: rye flour, ground coffee or espresso, cardamom and cinnamon. It even makes a pretty picture:

We start by creaming two sticks of butter with granulated and brown sugars and salt. Two eggs are added, one at a time, then vanilla extract. The dry ingredients go in, followed by the next ingredients that make these cookies special: a combination of the baker’s choice of seeds. I added kasha (a favorite addition of mine from another Dorie cookie), poppy seeds, sesame seeds and flax seeds.

After mixing, the cookies can be baked right away, which results in a larger cookie, or refrigerated. I chose to refrigerate the dough.

When you’re ready to bake, scoop the dough with a medium sized dough scoop and drop onto cookie sheets a couple inches apart. Sprinkle each cookie with more of the seed mixture and top with a few flakes of flaky sea salt.

I baked half a dozen and put the rest on a sheet to freeze for future bakes.

After baking for about 12 minutes, the cookies were ready to come out. They need to sit on the pan for a couple of minutes before being removed to a rack to cool for another fifteen minutes. (I think my husband thought the fifteen minute wait was excessive and unfair.)

The resulting cookies were just delicious. Complex in texture and flavor, they are a real winner. My only regret is that my mom, who passed away last month, couldn’t be here to enjoy them with us. She was a huge fan of my baking and she would have loved these. I miss her.