Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

closeup of sea salt chocolate chip cookie on a white background

Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies made with brown butter and a sprinkle of sea salt bring out that rich chocolate flavor and take those cookies from good to gourmet!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 12

Servings cookies

Calories 292kcal

Author Elizabeth Marek

Ingredients

6 ounces unsalted butter
7 ounces brown sugar
2 ounces white sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ Tablespoons vanilla extract
8 ounces all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon sea salt flakes for sprinkling on top of cookies

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 375ºF. line a pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and set it aside.
Place your butter into a medium-size saucepan and bring it to a simmer over medium-high heat, whisking constantly.
Continue whisking the butter until it begins to turn a golden brown color and releases a nutty aroma. Do not walk away from the butter or it can get burned. Set it aside to cool until it no longer feels warm. You can put it in the fridge in a shallow pan to speed up the process.
Once your butter has cooled, place it into the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment. Add the white and brown sugar and cream until light and fluffy (3-4 minutes on medium speed)
While mixing on low, add in your eggs, letting the first one mix in fully before adding in the second one.
Then add in the vanilla and whisk to combine.
Remove the bowl from the stand mixer. Add in your flour, baking soda, and the first quantity of salt and hand mix with a spatula until just combined.
Fold in your chocolate chips with a spatula. Do not over-mix your dough.
Cover your dough with plastic wrap and place it into the fridge to rest for a minimum of 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
Use a small cookie scoop (roughly two Tablespoons) to scoop your dough and place them onto your cookie sheet about 2" apart.
Add a few chocolate chips on top of the balls if you want to make them look extra pretty after baking
Bake your cookies for 11-12 minutes or just until they start to get golden brown around the edges. It's better to under-bake then to over-bake. This makes the cookies extra soft and chewy.
Immediately after your remove the cookies from the oven, sprinkle some more sea salt on top of the cookies.
Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the cookie sheet before carefully transferring them to a cooling rack (if you can stop yourself from eating them!)

Notes

For this recipe, your ingredients do not need to be at room temperature

You don't have to brown the butter but the browning does add a lot of delicious flavors

Leftover cookies can be stored at room temperature in a ziplock bag for up to a week or frozen for up to 6 months.

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