Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies (with sea salt!)
These cookies have the best balance of all your favorite cookie elements: a deliciously crisp edge, a chewy center, tons of gooey molten chocolate and a prefect sprinkle of flaked sea salt on top to round it all off!
Cream butter, sugars, and flavor: preheat your oven to 375°F. Cream the butter, sugars, and vanilla together until light and fluffy (2 minutes on med-high using a mixer).
Beat in egg: add the egg and beat until it’s fully incorporated and the batter smooths out and looks fluffy again (another minute on med-high using a mixer).
Add in dries: stir together all the dry ingredients (except the chocolate). Add that dry mixture to the batter and stir just until it’s mostly combined (about 80% of the way mixed).
Add chocolate chips: add in the chocolate all at once and stir in by hand just until it’s evenly distributed throughout the dough (you can do this using a stand mixer carefully on the lowest setting, but the dough might be too stiff for your hand mixer to work well here).
Scoop and tray: scoop dough into rounds using a scant ¼ cup of dough per cookie (an ice-cream scoop works well here for easy portioning!).
Bake em' now or later!*3
Bake immediately: place scooped cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets at least 2” apart. For an extra hand-made touch, gently press a chocolate chip into the top of each dough ball. If using, sprinkle a few crushed flakes of sea salt on top of each cookie as well. Bake for 10-12 minutes, just until there’s a golden-brown ring around the edges, but the centers are still pale.Or...
Bake from the fridge: line up dough balls on a parchment-lined tray or plate that fits in your fridge. For an extra hand-made touch, gently press a chocolate chip into the top of each dough ball. Chill until dough balls are firm (about 2 hours). Store dough balls either covered in plastic wrap or in an air-tight container for up to 3 days. TO BAKE: preheat your oven to 375°F, and place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets right from the fridge, at least 2” apart. If using, sprinkle a few crushed flakes of sea salt on top of each cookie as well. Bake for 10-12 minutes, just until there’s a golden-brown ring around the edges, but the centers are still pale.Or...
Bake from the freezer: line up dough balls on a parchment-lined tray or plate that fits in your freezer. For an extra hand-made touch, gently press a chocolate chip into the top of each dough ball. Chill until dough balls are firm (about 2 hours). Store dough balls in a zip-top bag or in an air-tight container for up to 1 month. TO BAKE: preheat your oven to 350°F, and place cookies on parchment-lined baking sheets right from the freezer at least 2” apart. If using, sprinkle a few crushed flakes of sea salt on top of each cookie as well. Bake for 15-18 minutes, just until there’s a golden-brown ring around the edges, but the centers are still pale.
Knock ‘em down: as soon as you take the cookies out of the oven, knock the tray firmly on the counter or hit it a few times from underneath (this helps to settle the molten batter while it’s still all gooey and give you that nice crackly look).
Cool, share and enjoy: cool cookies as long as you can keep away from them (usually about 2 minutes in my kitchen...if even), then pass them around and enjoy the ooey, gooey, chewy goodness!
Notes
*1Which chip? I prefer dark chocolate chips in this recipe; the higher the quality, the better in my book, but if Nestle’s semi-sweet chips is what you grew up loving, then definitely stick with those if you like for that extra touch of nostalgia!
*2To salt, or not to salt? The sea salt flakes are optional in this recipe as they only serve as a garnish, but I highly recommend them for a perfect salt balance to the sweet chocolate cookie base.
*3Chilled bakes: if you have time, for the chewiest cookies, it’s helpful to let your chilled or frozen dough balls come back to room temperature by setting them on the counter for a few hours before baking. You then can just follow the “bake immediately" instructions. That said, if you just can’t wait that long for a cookie, you’ll find instructions above as well for baking chilled or frozen dough balls without any need to thaw and they will still be delicious - I promise!
Make 'em kid-friendly! If you're mixing a batch of these up for kiddos, feel free to leave the sea salt off for a classic chocolate chip cookie your little ones will gobble down!
Storage: these cookies will keep for a week in an air-tight container at room temperature (although if they last that long...I'd be super impressed by your award-winning self-restraint *hehe).
It’d mean so much to me if you could please give the recipe card a ⭐ rating on the site and leave a comment to help others find this sweet recipe! Xo, Jocelyn @ Mint+Mallow