Go Back
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

These thick, chewy salted chocolate chip cookies are the ONLY chocolate chip cookie recipe you'll need! Plus a tip to keep them super soft for days!
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings: 24 servings
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Calories: 154
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup salted butter (at room temperature 1 stick)
  • 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup + 2 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg (at room temperature)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
  • 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips ((more or less to your tastes))
  • sea salt flakes (for sprinkling)

Method
 

  1. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour and baking soda. Whisk vigorously for about 15 seconds. Do not skip this step, unless you genuinely enjoy biting into a bitter, soapy clump of pure baking soda
  2. Place the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar into the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat with the paddle attachment on medium speed for about 2 minutes, until the mixture looks smooth, pale, and fluffy. If you try doing this by hand with cold butter, you will question all your life choices.
  3. Drop in the room-temperature egg and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed just until it comes together. Note: If your egg was cold right out of the fridge, the mixture might look a little curdled. Don't panic; it will bake up perfectly fine.
  4. Pour the dry flour mixture into the wet ingredients in two halves, keeping the mixer on its lowest speed. Stop mixing the exact second the flour disappears. If you overmix this, you will develop too much gluten and your cookies will be tough instead of soft and tender.
  5. Dump in the semisweet chocolate chips and fold them in gently by hand using a wooden spoon or sturdy spatula. A few extra chips might fall out of the bowl onto the counter; eating those is the chef's tax.
  6. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Chilling cookie dough is non-negotiable. I once tried to rush this step, and my cookies melted into one giant, flat, unbaked blob on the pan
  7. About 15 minutes before you are ready to bake, set your oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
  8. Use a large cookie scoop to portion out round balls of dough. Place them about 2 inches apart on the parchment to prevent them from fusing into a mega-cookie.
  9. Press a couple of extra chocolate chips into the tops of the dough balls for that bakery-style look. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. They will look totally raw and gooey in the middle when you take them out—trust the process, they keep cooking on the hot pan.
  10. Immediately upon removing them from the oven, sprinkle the tops of the hot cookies with a pinch of flaky sea salt. Do not go crazy here; you want a delicate, crunchy dusting, not a mouthful of ocean water.
  11. Leave the cookies on the hot baking sheet for exactly 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire cooling rack. If you try to move them immediately, they will fall apart, and you will be eating cookie crumbles off the kitchen floor.

Recipe Notes

Chef Tips
1. Recipe adapted from
Williams Sonoma
2. If you use UNsalted butter, add 1/4 tsp salt to the dry ingredients
3. I measure my flour by whisking flour beforehand, scooping the flour with the measuring cup, leveling off with the back of a butter knife, then making sure to whisk the flour again before adding to the dough.