Best Ever Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies

I had no idea I was living with Cookie Monsters until I made these cookies. It's serious. I love cookies. I make them on occasions and often keep some dough frozen. These might be my favorite, like ever.

I baked off some that I had frozen so I could take photos for this blog. I may have given my daughter a bite from the first batch a day prior. To say she didn't waste any time getting into them would be an understatement. I put down the plate and removed my camera lens cover and in my first shot was this tiny hand. I took a few more photos and the cookie was in her mouth. She proved my point and made the cutest photo!

I recently started to follow Smitten Kitchen on Instagram. She had posted this recipe and some great photos. I decided to try it and am so glad I did! It's one of the rare times where I follow someone else's recipe exactly and don't really need to make any changes. I did use Ghiradelli dark chocolate baking chips instead of a bar of chocolate. I find their chocolate great for baking and easy to find. The pieces are larger than standard chocolate chips. The Maldon Sea Salt Flakes are what make this recipe amazing. Use the three (yes 3) kinds of sugar. I promise it's worth it. I also love that there are weights and measures in this version. I am not claiming any credit for this recipe but I can tell you that it is test kitchen approved. You can find the link below to the blog post and I am sharing her version of the recipe. Enjoy!
Smitten Kitchen

Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Cookies
1/2 cup (4 ounces or 113 grams) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons (25 grams) turbinado sugar (aka Sugar in the Raw; you can use more brown or white if you don’t have this, but the subtle crunch it adds is delightful)
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (165 grams) packed light or dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon (or, technically, 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon) fine sea or table salt
1 3/4 cups (220 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 pound (225 grams) semi- or bittersweet chocolate, cut into roughly 1/2-inch chunks with a serrated knife
Flaky sea salt, to finish

Heat oven to 360°F (180°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicon baking mat.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, beating until incorporated, and scraping down the bowl as needed. Beat in salt fine sea or table salt and baking soda until combined, then the flour on a low speed until just mixed. The dough will look crumbly at this point. With a spatula, fold/stir in the chocolate chunks.

Scoop cookies into 1 1/2 tablespoon (I used a #40 scoop) mounds, spacing them apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with a few flakes of sea salt. Bake for 11 to 12 minutes, until golden on the outside but still very gooey and soft inside. Out of the oven, let rest on baking sheet out of the for 5 minutes before transferring a cooling rack.