(Last Updated On: April 19, 2023)
These sea salt chocolate chip cookies taste as good as they look. Loaded with chocolate chips and sprinkled with a pinch of sea salt on the top of each cookie gives them a unique taste all of their own. And…I bet you can’t eat just one! 🙂 They are that good!
What’s in these Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Yummy stuff like cocoa powder, butter, semi-sweet chocolate chips, light brown sugar, eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and of course, sea salt sprinkled on top of each cookie.
I love baking cookies as much as my granddaughters love eating them. They get so excited when it’s cookie baking time, especially when they get to help make sugar cookies with all of the different colored frostings on top, and chocolate chip M&M cookies, which I am pretty sure they like the best.
Key Ingredients for Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
- 2 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon of table salt
- 1 cup of butter
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 ½ cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 ⅓ cup of light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup of granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon of sea salt
Step-By-Step Instructions with Photos
Step 1. Preheat the Oven
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Step 2. Add the Dry Ingredients to a Bowl
In a medium-sized bowl, add 2 cups of all-purpose flour together with 1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon of table salt, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
Mix all of the dry ingredients – the flour, unsweetened cocoa powder, table salt, and baking powder while using a whisk or a spoon.
Step 3. Melt the Butter
Next, in a microwaveable bowl, melt one cup of butter in the microwave for about forty seconds. One cup equals two sticks of butter.
Step 4. Add Sugars to Wet Ingredients
In a different bowl, add the wet ingredients – 4 large eggs, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and then add the melted butter. Then add 1 and 1/3 cups of light brown sugar and 1 cup of granulated sugar to the bowl. Whisk it up altogether in the bowl.
In one bowl we have the flour, unsweetened cocoa, table salt, and baking powder as the dry ingredients, and in the other bowl, we have the light brown sugar, granulated sugar, 4 eggs, vanilla extract, and melted butter as the wet ingredients.
Step 5. Add the Wet Ingredients to the Dry Ingredients
Slowly add the wet ingredients together with the dry ingredients. You may have to use a spatula or a spoon at this time because the ingredients are getting thicker.
Stir with a spatula or spoon until completely blended into a creamy chocolate cookie dough.
Step 6. Add the Semi-sweet Chocolate Chips
Add 1 and 1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips together with the chocolate cookie dough mixture.
Keep stirring the cookie dough and chocolate chips until well blended. Put the cookie dough in the refrigerator for a couple of hours to chill before baking to firm up the dough. If you don’t have 2 hours to spare, at least shoot for 30 to 60 minutes to chill the cookie dough.
Step 7. Scooping the Chocolate Chip Cookies Dough
Fill up a medium cookie scoop with cookie dough, it’s about 1.7 tablespoons. If there is a bit of excess cookie dough hanging out of the cookie scoop, that’s okay.
This cookie dough is a bit sticky, so you can use a spatula instead of your finger if you want to level out any of the excess dough from the scooper, or leave it as is. There’s not that much excess so it doesn’t matter.
Step 8. Line a Cookie Sheet with Parchment Paper
Next, we will need to line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. We are advising you to use parchment paper. Without it, the cookies will spread out more than usual, hence, becoming thinner and crunchier, and running into the cookie next to it, and also the cookies could stick to the cookie sheet even if you apply a cooking spray first.
Drop the cookie dough out of the cookie scoop onto the parchment paper. The photo below is for demonstration purposes only, so you can put 12 scoops of cookie dough on the cookie sheet instead of the five shown, and space them about 2 inches apart from each other.
Note: It is easier to drop the cookie dough on the parchment paper if you cut the parchment paper the exact size of the cookie sheet so it will lay flat.
Step 9. Bake the Chocolate Chip Cookies
Place the cookie sheet in the oven and bake at 350 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes until the top of the cookies are set and kind of crinkly. Depending on your oven, check the cookies at 10 minutes.
Step 10. Sprinkle with Sea Salt
After 10 – 12 minutes, remove the cookies from the oven and leave them on the cookie sheet for about 2 to 3 minutes. At this time, lightly sprinkle each cookie with sea salt while the cookies are still warm. We used sea salt, bought in the spice section of the grocery store, but you can buy sea salt flakes if you like.
Then, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack until they are cooled completely.
FAQs for Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
1. Which Chocolate is the Best for Making Chocolate Chip Cookies?
Semisweet chocolate chips are the preferred chocolate chips to use for cookies. They’re not too sweet or too bitter but just right.
2. Is Refrigerating Cookie Dough Necessary?
Cookie doughs are not all the same. Some cookie doughs are not as thick as other cookie doughs. And some cookie doughs are stickier than others.
Chilling the cookie dough in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, or more (like 24 hours), helps the cookie dough set up or firm up so it’s not so sticky and also it won’t spread out into a thinner cookie on the cookie sheet while baking in the oven. Even chilling cookie dough for at least 30 to 60 minutes makes a big difference.
3. Is Parchment Paper Necessary?
Sometimes it’s necessary to use parchment paper and sometimes it’s not. If the recipe you are making says to use parchment paper, then use it, and if the recipe doesn’t mention using parchment paper, then you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to.
Parchment paper, or baking paper, is heat-resistant, greaseproof, and non-stick so no need to use cooking spray. Cookies or even banana bread won’t stick to it. It’s easy to clean up. Cookies cook more evenly when baking. It also helps thinner cookie dough from spreading out more than it would without it. Caution: Do not use parchment paper if the cooking temperature exceeds 400 degrees, or it could catch on fire.
Final Thoughts
We did a cutesy while the girls were in school. We put some cookie dough in this little heart-shaped cast iron pan we had and baked it for the same amount of time as we did the cookies. When the girls got home from school, they loved it. It was just like a Pizookie®. Isn’t it just the cutest thing?
Note: The pizookie is a variety of deep-dish pizza pan cookies and desserts, made for one person or shared with someone, at BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse.
Just A Fun Idea
If you have a few of these heart-shaped cast iron pans lying around, wouldn’t it be fun to fill them up with this chocolate chip cookie dough and bake them in the oven? And then serve them for dessert with a scoop of ice cream over the top of all of them!
A fun-to-make and great-tasting little cookie filled with lots of sweet chocolate. There are just the right amount of chocolate chips added to these cookies, that’s what makes them so yummy, gooey, and delicious! You surely can’t go wrong with serving these amazing little cookies to your family and friends. Enjoy!
If you love to make cookies and love to eat them too, then you must try these amazing ranger cookies filled with rolled oats, raisins, and rice crispies. They are fun to make and taste so good! Or try these amazing cream cheese cookies with sprinkles that melt in your mouth with a chocolaty surprise inside, a couple of chocolate chips.
Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
🫕 Equipment
- Parchment paper (one sheet)
🧂 Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 1 tsp table salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup butter
- 1⅓ cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 tbsp fine sea salt (or sea salt flakes to sprinkle on top of the cookies)
👩🍳 Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, add the flour, unsweetened cocoa, table salt, and baking powder.
- Melt butter in a microwaveable bowl in the microwave for about 40 seconds.
- In a different bowl, add the light brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract. Mix it all up. Then add the melted butter.
- Then add the flour mixture to the sugar and butter mixture. Stir.
- Add the chocolate chips. Stir.
- Put the cookie dough in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours. Even chilling for 30 to 60 minutes is better than nothing. (See Notes)
- Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. This is a must if you don't want the cookies to stick to the cookie sheet or run into the cookie next to it.
- Use a cookie scoop and drop 12 scoops of cookie dough onto the cookie sheet that is lined with the parchment paper.
- Bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 – 12 minutes. Check cookies at 10 minutes.
- After baking, let the cookies cool on the cookie sheet for about 2 to 3 minutes. While waiting, lightly sprinkle each cookie with sea salt (bought in the spice section of the grocery store)
- Transfer to a cooling rack for a few minutes until cooled.
*️⃣ Recipe Notes
- We used regular sea salt sprinkled on top of each cookie for this recipe, but if you can find sea salt flakes, that would make for a more aesthetically pleasing looking cookie.
- Chill the cookie dough for a couple of hours, or at least 30 to 60 minutes before baking. This helps firm up the dough so it won’t spread out as much on the cookie sheet while baking.
A wife, a mother to a son and a daughter, and a grandmother to three granddaughters. Flo loves sharing recipes passed down from her own mother, her mother-in-law, and her grandmother as well as new recipes created with her daughter, Tamara Ray.
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