Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies
An unbelievably delicious, better-than-your-average chocolate chunk cookie. Adapted from The Vanilla Bean Baking Book, The New York Times, and my Grandma Nora’s recipe box.Â
- Yield: 11 or 12 cookies 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Kosher salt
- 1/2 lb. butter at room temperature (2 sticks)
- 1–1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup packed light brown sugarÂ
- 1 large egg
- 3 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp molasses
- 1 Tbsp water
- Two, 4-oz semi-sweet chocolate bars, chopped
- Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling (such as Maldon)
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Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and place the oven rack in the middle position. Cover two large baking sheets with aluminum foil, shiny side facing up.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl with a hand-held electric mixer), cream together the butter and sugars until very smooth, about 3 minutes. Add the egg, vanilla, molasses, and water and then mix until well-combined. Add the flour mix to the wet mix and beat to combine. Stir in the chopped chocolate, mixing just until evenly combined.
- Scoop golf-ball sized (heaping tablespoons) balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets. I usually only do 6 cookies per sheet.Â
- Bake the cookies, in batches, for 7 minutes. Then, open the oven door and lift one corner of the pan(s) in the air and then let it drop down onto the baking rack again – creating a BANG (see NOTE). This drop will deflate the cookies and help to create those gorgeous ripples. Do this every minute until the cookies have baked for a total of 11 – 12 minutes. You’ll drop them about 3 – 4 times total.
- Remove the cookies from the oven when they’re just golden, and sprinkle them right away with a little flaky sea salt. Allow them to cool and firm up before transferring them elsewhere, about 6 to 8 minutes. Continue baking and freezing your pans until you’ve made your way through all of the dough.
Notes
The pan-banging method used in this recipe was learned from Sarah Kieffer, of the Vanilla Bean Baking Blog.Â
Keywords: best ever chocolate chunk cookies