These best salted chocolate chip cookies are truly the best cookie you’ll ever have! I know that’s a big statement, but trust me on this one. Over the years, I’ve made SO MANY different chocolate chip cookie recipes. I have one on my blog that was the recipe my mom made growing up that I loved, but it still wasn’t my perfect chocolate chip cookie. I’ve made recipe after recipe looking for the perfect one. I have officially cracked my own code! This is MY ideal chocolate chip cookie, and it just might be yours too! Crispy on the edges, soft in the middle, loaded with chocolate, and sprinkled with sea salt to bring out the best flavor!

What you need to make my best salted chocolate chip cookies:

• Unsalted butter- You can use salted as well but I always go for unsalted in baking. If you use salted, just decrease the salt in the recipe to 1/2 tsp instead of 1 tsp. Make sure the butter is at room temperature, it makes a huge difference!
• Granulated sugar- A classic in any recipe. You can use white sugar, cane sugar, whatever you prefer. I haven’t tested coconut sugar.
• Brown sugar- Brown sugar gives it that caramel note and adds the perfect sweetness as well as giving the cookies that deep rich brown color.
• Eggs- The eggs help bind the recipe and really help give it taste and texture. Make sure these are room temperature as well (on the counter for at least an hour) to help the recipe bind together better. I don’t know if flax eggs would work as an alternative.
• Vanilla extract- No baked good recipe is complete without vanilla extract in my opinion. It’s key!
• All-purpose flour- I typically bake with all-purpose flour. Almond and coconut flour do not have the same measurements so they will not work for this. However, gluten-free 1:1 all-purpose flour should work just fine. Make sure to find one with xantham gum, I love Bob’s Red Mill, but any should do.
• Baking soda- Helps to produce a light and fluffy and perfectly cooked cookie bar.
• Sea salt- Salt is key in a baked good, because it really helps to bring out the flavor in my best salted chocoalte chip cookies.
• Chocolate chips- I used a mix of semi-sweet and dark chocolate but feel free to use whatever you like! You could use milk chocolate or even dairy-free chocolate chips. Using a mix of two different chocolates does give you a fun depth of flavor! Also of course you can use chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, chopped chocolate bar, chocolate melting wafers, you decide.

Tips for making them:

• Baking at 375 degrees will make these best salted chocolate chip cookies melt faster & get those crispy edges with a soft center AKA the ultimate cookie.
• Refrigerating the dough will help the flavors really come together! It also makes all the difference in baking to get that caramelization.
• Topping with sea salt will help bring out the flavor of the cookie without making it salty. It just basically enhances the flavor in your mouth! I love maldon sea salt.
• Making giant cookies will really give you those bakery style cookies! It’ll also make it so that the cookies are perfectly soft in the middle and crispy on the outside.
• Using 2 different types of chocolate, for example mixing 1 cup of dark chocolate & 1 cup of semi-sweet or milk chocolate will make the flavor insane and even more delicious! Or you can use chocolate chunks to get bigger chocolate pockets!
• Use a cookie scoop to scoop your dough. This makes it much easier to scoop out your dough, and makes your cookies nice and uniform. I use this large cookie scoop!

If you love these, you may also love:

• Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Easy Chocolate Chip Brookies
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake

So that’s everything you need to know to make the cookies! All the different ways to bake them are followed below. I froze a bunch so now we have cookie dough balls in the fridge to pull out and bake whenever we want to just make 1 or 2 cookies rather than a whole batch! I hope you guys enjoy these cookies! As you can tell, I am VERY passionate about them! Tag me on IG in your stories or posts if you make them! I want to hear what you think 🙂

Alright, let’s get to making the recipe! Enjoy friends!

Print Recipe

4.77 from 38 votes

Best Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

These best salted chocolate chip cookies are truly the best cookie you'll ever have! I know that's a big statement, but trust me on this one. Over the years, I've made SO MANY different chocolate chip cookie recipes. I have one on my blog that was the recipe my mom made growing up that I loved, but it still wasn't my perfect chocolate chip cookie. I've made recipe after recipe looking for the perfect one. I have officially cracked my own code! This is MY ideal chocolate chip cookie, and it just might be yours too! Crispy on the edges, soft in the middle, loaded with chocolate, and sprinkled with sea salt to bring out the best flavor!

Course: Dessert

Keyword: chocolate chip, chocolate chip cookies, cookies, dessert

Servings: 14

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature (required)
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup brown sugar light or dark
• 2 eggs room temperature (required)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 cups semi- sweet chocolate chips
• flakey sea salt for topping

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, beat butter & sugar with a hand mixer until smooth & incorporated.
• Add in the eggs & vanilla extract & mix until combined.
• Add in the flour, salt, & baking soda. Mix until everything is well combined.
• Sprinkle in the chocolate chips (you can reserve some for topping or just add more). Using a spatula, mix in the chocolate chips. The batter should be thick and sticky.
• Form the dough into 12-16 large balls! They seem huge, but trust me on this one. This is how they get the perfect crispy to soft/ chewy ratio. They are supposed to be a bakery style/ size cookie. If you don't like big cookies, just eat half, but good luck haha! You can make them smaller, but I promise making them this size is part of what makes them!
• From here, you have three options. You can bake right away, refrigerate, or freeze the dough.

To bake now:

• If you want to bake them right away, you will still get a fabulous cookie, it just won't be very crispy on the bottom. It will be most soft throughout. If that's what you want to do, preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
• Place your cookies on a lined baking sheet. You will have to do 2 batches. If you want, you can top the cookies with extra chocolate chips. This also gives that bakery style look.
• Bake for 8-12 minutes until cooked but still soft in the center.
• When they are done, remove from the oven, sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on your baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. Move to a wire rack & enjoy!

To bake from fridge:

• For refrigerated cookies, which is my ideal method, you can form your dough balls and refrigerate right on your baking sheet for at least an hour. You can also leave them in the fridge for up to 2 days and you'll just bake them directly from the fridge. If you do them in the fridge for more than a few hours, I'd go ahead and store them in an airtight container. This step always seems like it takes too long, but Im telling you IT IS SO WORTH IT! Letting the dough sit for an hour or overnight lets the flavors come together & brings them out even more when baking them. It also creates the perfect cookie that’s crispy & caramelized on the edges and soft and doughy on the inside. It’s perfection!
• When you bake them, preheat your oven to 375F degrees. Take the cookies straight from the fridge to a lined baking sheet (if they aren't on there already), and bake for 12-15 minutes until your cookies are crispy on the edges and still soft in the middle. They should have a little golden on the edges! Remove from oven, sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on your baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. Move to a wire rack & enjoy!

To bake from freezer:

• For the freezer version, all you have to do is store the dough balls in the freezer bag or you can just freeze some if you don't want to cook all 12 at once!
• When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375F degrees. Once the oven is ready, place your cookies on a lined baking sheet and bake for 15-18 minutes until cookies are crispy on the edges and soft in the middle.
• This version will give you the crispiest edges with a super soft middle! They're amazing! Remove from the oven, sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on your baking sheet for 5-10 minutes. Move to a wire rack & enjoy!

Notes

For Storing: Once fully cooled, store in an airtight container on the counter for 3-5 days.

 

For Freezing: As I shared above, freeze in individual dough balls. That way you can pull them out to bake anytime! OR you can also freeze them once they’re freshly baked and completely cooled. Just pull out of the freezer and thaw on the counter until room temperature and enjoy!