• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Bonni Bakery
  • Home
  • About
  • Recipes
    • Cake
    • Muffins
    • Cookies
    • Treats
    • Desserts
  • Work With Me
    • Food Photography
    • Recipe Development
    • Partnerships
    • Client Portal
    • Get in Touch
menu icon
go to homepage
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • RECIPES
  • PHOTOGRAPHY
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • HOME
    • ABOUT
    • RECIPES
    • PHOTOGRAPHY
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
  • ×

    Home » Recipes » Cookies

    Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Cookies

    February 25, 2022 by Jules 3 Comments

    Jump to Recipe
    dark chocolate and sea salt cookies
    dark chocolate and sea salt cookies
    dark chocolate and sea salt cookies
    dark chocolate and sea salt cookies
    dark chocolate and sea salt cookies

    These dark chocolate and sea salt cookies are like the sophisticated big sister of regular chocolate chip cookies. The dark chocolate gives them a rich, luxurious flavour and the sea salt throws you into a moreish 'sweet-salty-I need more' loop!

    tray of dark chocolate and sea salt cookies on a wooden table with a wooden spoon

    I don't have a single bad word to say about the traditional chocolate chip cookie, but these dark chocolate and sea salt cookies are absolutely next level.

    I am a cookie-lover through and through, some of my all-time favourite cookie recipes include my Truffle Dough Cookies and my Chocolate Chip Shortbread cookies. But this recipe is always, always a winner.

    Jump to:
    • Ingredients
    • Instructions
    • How long to chill cookie dough
    • Variations
    • Storage
    • How to Freeze Cookie Dough
    • Top tip
    • Recipe

    Ingredients

    • All purpose Flour - regular all purpose flour will be fine for this recipe. You can use self raising flour, but just make sure you omit the baking soda.
    • White Sugar - We're using a mixture of two kinds of sugar in this recipe. Regular white sugar is the first, make sure you use extra fine sugar (known as caster sugar in the UK).
    • Golden Sugar - Also known as light brown sugar or soft light brown sugar. It is the toasty golden coloured sugar that has a texture like sand.
    • Eggs - Use large eggs if you can find them, I always recommend free range.
    • Butter - Unsalted butter is best as we'll be adding quite a bit of salt in the recipe.
    • Vanilla - A high quality vanilla extract will round out the flavour and make a nice base for the dark chocoalte and sea salt.
    • Dark Chocolate - The star of the show. Use your favourite dark chocolate and chop it into chunks. If you don't have a favourite, any kind of dark chocolate or dark chocoalte chips will be fine, but the higher the cocoa content percentage, the better. I used 70% cocoa dark chocolate for my cookies.
    • Sea Salt - You want medium coarse sea salt for this, they should be big enough that they won't just dissolve into the cookie dough, but not so large that you're going to have to crunch them into pieces. We'll be putting sea salt both in the cookie dough and on top of the cookies when they are still warm out of the oven.

    See recipe card for quantities.

    close up of dark chocolate chip cookies, chocolate is still warm and melty
    Chocolate chips are best when it's still melty!

    Instructions

    • Beat the butter and both sugars together until pale and fluffy. This means the butter is noticably lighter in colour and looks slightly aerated. I find this takes about 2 minutes with my stand mixer.
    • Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
    • Add the flour, baking soda and sea salt and mix until a smooth dough forms. It will be a relatively soft and sticky dough, but shouldn't be runny like batter. If it is too soft, don't worry, it will stiffen up in the fridge.
    • Add chocolate chips. If you are premade chocoalte chips or chunks, just throw them right in. If you are using a bar of chocolate, chop it into small chunks, about 1cm big. Be careful not to chop them too small or they will just melt away into the cookie dough as it bakes.
    • Chill dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour. See section below on 'how long to chill cookie dough'.
    • When you are ready to bake, remove cookie dough from the fridge, preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
    • Make cookie dough balls and place them on the cookie sheet. An easy way to do this is with an ice cream scoop, but you can also use a large spoon and just roll the balls by hand. Do not press them down or flatten the cookie dough, the cookies naturally spread out as they bake - make sure you leave plenty of room between cookie balls to allow for spreading.
    • Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle immediately with more sea salt. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet.
    plate of dark chocolate chip cookies, one with a bite taken out of it
    Who could resist taking a sneaky bite out of dark chocolate and sea salt cookies??

    How long to chill cookie dough

    Do you HAVE to chill your cookie dough? No. If you want to bake them immediately you can do that, you'll still be left with absolutely scrumptious dark chocolate and sea salt cookies. But letting the cookie dough chill in the fridge will improve the texture and flavour of your cookies, so if you want to make the best cookies ever, let them chill out!

    I would let the cookie dough chill for at least an hour. If you have time and have planned ahead, the optimal amount of chill time is about 24 hours. Make sure the cookie dough is covered so it doesn't try out. Then when you are ready to bake, remove it from the fridge and let it warm up slightly while your oven pre-bakes so that it will be easy to scoop or form into balls.

    You can keep your cookie dough in the fridge for up to 3 days before baking. If you want to make the dark chocolate and sea salt cookie dough further ahead of time, see my section below on freezing your cookie dough.

    Top Tip: If you absolutely don't have time to chill your cookie dough, try putting it in the freezer for a few minutes while your oven preheats - this will help your cookies to hold their shape as they bake and ensure nice thick cookies, rather than flat, sad ones.

    one dark  chocolate chip and sea salt cookie held above a blurred background

    Variations

    In my humble opinion, dark chocolate and sea salt is the ultimate combination for the perfect cookie. But should you want to make a variation of this, you can replace them with whatever mixins you are craving. Some examples:

    • Butterscotch chips and sea salt - if you want to maintain the sweet and salty flavour but aren't a chocolate fan.
    • Dark chocolate AND Milk Chocolate - maybe you want to dabble in dark chocolate but aren't ready to fully commit, put a mixture of dark and milk, or even white chocolate in your cookies to balance out the sweetness levels.
    • Pecans, Walnuts or Pistachios - if you'd like to incorporate some crunch into your cookies, why not add some nuts? I think pecans, walnuts and pistachios all pair really nicely with this base recipe.

    Want to take the base cookie recipe up a notch? Try my Browned Butter Chocolate Chip cookies!

    Storage

    Once the cookies are baked, store them in an air-tight container at room temperature. Make sure they are completely cooled before putting them in the container or the temperature change will make them sweat and they will go soggy.

    Don't keep them in the fridge, it's not necessary and will be detrimental to their texture.

    They should remain fresh at room temperature for up to 5 days (but if they last that long before they are all eaten up then I will be very surprised!)

    pile of dark chocolate and sea salt cookies on a table

    How to Freeze Cookie Dough

    There are two options for freezing your cookie dough:

    Option 1 - Put all the cookie dough in a Ziploc bag together and put it in the freezer. When you want to bake, let it thaw out at room temperature for a few hours before scooping and baking just as per the regular recipe.

    Option 2 - Pre-scoop your cookie dough balls and freeze them as balls. If your freezer is large enough you can put the try in there until the cookie dough balls freeze, and then transfer them to a Ziploc bag for longer storage. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 325°F / 170°C and bake for 5 minutes longer or until they are golden.

    Top tip

    To make your chocolate chip cookies to look extra inviting, try putting a few extra pieces of dark chocolate on top of the cookie dough balls before baking, that way they will be on the very top once the cookie flattens out and bakes and you'll see that gooey dark chocolate goodness right away.

    Recipe

    Dark Chocolate and Sea Salt Cookies

    Chewy cookies with dark chocolate chunks, sprinkled with sea salt
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 5 mins
    Cook Time 12 mins
    Total Time 17 mins
    Course Snack
    Cuisine American
    Servings 18 cookies
    Calories 121 kcal

    Ingredients
     
     

    • 1 stick Butter
    • ¼ cup White Sugar
    • ½ cup Light Brown Sugar packed
    • 1 Egg
    • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
    • 1 ½ cups All-purpose Flour
    • ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
    • 1 cup Dark Chocolate Chunks
    • 1 teaspoon Sea Salt plus extra for sprinkling

    Instructions
     

    • Beat the butter and both sugars together until pale and fluffy
      1 stick Butter, ¼ cup White Sugar, ½ cup Light Brown Sugar
    • Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined
      1 Egg, 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
    • Add the flour, baking soda and sea salt and mix until a smooth dough forms
      1 ½ cups All-purpose Flour, ½ teaspoon Baking Soda, 1 teaspoon Sea Salt
    • Add chocolate chips. If you are using a bar of chocolate, chop it into small chunks and add. Mix through the dough
      1 cup Dark Chocolate Chunks
    • Chill dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour. The longer you chill the dough, the better the cookies will turn out. I try to chill the dough for about 24 hours before baking if I have time
    • When you are ready to bake, remove cookie dough from the fridge, preheat the oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper
    • Use an ice cream scoop or large spoon to scoop out balls of cookie dough and place them on the cookie sheet, do not press them down or flatten them, they will naturally spread out as they bake - make sure you leave plenty of room between cookie balls to allow for spreading
    • Bake for 12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and sprinkle immediately with more sea salt. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet

    VIDEO

    Notes

    If you have time, try to make the cookie dough in advance and chill in the fridge for 24 hours - this will result in a thicker cookie with better texture and flavour.  You can make the dough up to 72 hours in advance of baking.  
    If you don't have time and need fast cookies, you can bake them without chilling, but the results won't be quite as good.  But sometimes you just need fast cookies!

    Nutrition

    Calories: 121kcalCarbohydrates: 17gProtein: 1gFat: 5gSaturated Fat: 3gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 23mgSodium: 210mgPotassium: 25mgFiber: 1gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 170IUCalcium: 10mgIron: 1mg
    Keyword cookie dough, cookies, dark chocolate, sea salt
    Tried this recipe?Show us! @bonni_bakery

    More Cookies

    • Coffee Cookies
    • Pistachio Cookies
    • Coconut Pecan Cookies
    • Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Chris Radwanski

      February 25, 2022 at 1:37 pm

      5 stars
      Ever feel like an after dinner or mid day snack? The big decision to make is, do you want sweet, or do you want salty? Well by golly this is the perfect solution to your problem! These dark chocolate sea salt cookies smack you in the face with bold, bittersweet dark chocolate, while the chunks of sea salt light up your tongue like fireworks. It is a perfect marriage of flavors that causes you think things like “Have I been living under a rock my whole life?” or “Will my partner be upset if I eat all of these cookies in one sitting?”. Regardless of the fact that you are going to eat them all in one sitting, doesn’t change the fact that if you plan ahead, you can go to the store WITH THE COOKIES, and buy more ingredients to make more before you run out of these freshly baked discs of happiness.

      Reply
    2. Terri

      February 11, 2023 at 11:17 pm

      5 stars
      I have to say that your website for a recipe is the best I have ever seen! Now that we don’t pick up a cookbook anymore, and believe I am old ‘enuf! But, the fact that your recipe includes quantities with directions is soooo HELPFUL! I will definitely use your site again!!

      Reply
      • Terri

        February 12, 2023 at 7:15 pm

        5 stars
        Hi, Terri again! Well, tried and tested today! Absolutely delicious, only sub was coconut sugar for brown sugar! Will make again soon!

        Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    Primary Sidebar

    Juliane Grasekamp from Bonni Bakery

    Hi, I'm Jules!

    I'm a recipe developer and food photographer, specializing in baked goods - because, yum.

    After running my own bakery in Scotland for 10 years, I packed up my piping bags and moved across the pond. Now I'm sharing all my tried and true recipes from our kitchen!

    Check out my baking blog and try a few recipes.
    Or just lick the screen a little...

    Happy Baking!

    More about me →

    Popular

    • Black Forest Cupcakes
    • White Chocolate Pecan and Butterscotch Cookies
    • Chocolate and Salted Caramel Bites
    • Tiramisu Cake with Amaretto

    Recipe Categories

    • Cake
    • Cookies
    • Muffins
    • Desserts
    • Cupcakes
    • Tarts & Pies
    • Cheesecakes
    • Frostings
    • Treats
    • Fillings
    • Pastry
    • Bars

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclaimer

    Newsletter

    Sign Up!

    Contact

    • Contact
    • Food Photography
    • Work With Me

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2022 Bonni Bakery