Double chocolate sea salt cookies
- Preparation 15 min
- Cooking 10 to 12 min
- Servings 16
- Freezing Absolutely
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🍪 A chocolate cookie. A seriously indulgent one.
Let’s get this straight: it’s a cookie. Not a cake pretending to be a cookie, not something in between. It’s a chocolate cookie, full stop, and a very, very good one.
It came out of the same long baking day as the rest of the series, when I tried version after version to get cookies on the site. But this one doesn’t start from the same dough as my chocolate chip cookies.
🍫 Double chocolate: melted dark chocolate, then cocoa
In the others, the chocolate goes in as chunks in a creamed butter dough. Here, 200 g of 70% dark chocolate melts with the butter before there’s even a dough. Cocoa powder follows with the flour. Two kinds of chocolate in every bite. That’s the double.
And it all happens in one bowl, with a whisk, by hand. Sugars and eggs for two minutes, the cooled chocolate, the dry ingredients folded in with a spatula. No mixer to dig out of the cupboard.
🧂 Flaky sea salt at serving time, and a big glass of milk
The fleur de sel no longer goes on the dough balls before baking. It comes at the very end, a pinch on each cookie right before serving, so it crunches against the dark chocolate instead of melting away.
My kids go crazy for these double chocolate cookies, my friends too. They get tucked into lunchboxes, turn a Wednesday into dessert night, and every December they earn a spot on the Christmas cookie tray. What to drink with them? A big glass of milk. No question.
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🥄 By hand, with a whisk
That’s how I make it. One bowl, one whisk, two minutes for the sugars and eggs until the mixture thickens a little. That’s all it needs.
An electric mixer works too, but on low speed and not for long. Just lightly. Overdo it and the texture changes, and you lose the cookie you were after. Same once the flour goes in: fold with a spatula and stop while a few streaks of flour remain.
And let the melted chocolate cool before pouring it in. Too hot and it cooks the eggs.
🧊 The fridge, only if the dough is too soft
With melted chocolate in it, this dough is softer than a classic cookie dough. If it won’t hold a shape, 30 minutes in the fridge sorts it out. Otherwise, skip it. Then bake one sheet at a time: the other waits in the fridge while the first one bakes.
⏱️ Pull them while the centre looks underdone
Your eyes will tell you to leave them in. Don’t listen. After 10 to 12 minutes the tops are cracked but the centres are still soft to the touch, almost shiny. Take the sheet out anyway. They finish setting during the 5-minute rest on the hot sheet, then as they cool on the rack.
Leave them in until they look firm and they’ll be hard once cool. For a crispier cookie, add one minute. No more.
🧂 Fleur de sel goes on at serving time
Not on the dough balls before baking anymore. A pinch on each cookie, right before they hit the table. Use real flaky sea salt: table salt just makes the cookie saltier, without the little crunch.
🍫 A good 70% dark chocolate bar
The chocolate is half the cookie, so this is where spending a dollar more pays off. Lindt Excellence 70% is one of my favourite chocolates, and every grocery store carries it. Chocolate chips are often mediocre quality; with a bar you pick your chocolate, and it makes better cookies.
A 60% gives you a sweeter cookie, an 80% a more bitter one. 70% is the sweet middle.
📅 Make ahead
The night before, chop the chocolate and sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together into a jar. The next day, the dough takes fifteen minutes.
Even easier: bake the whole batch on a Sunday. They keep 3 to 4 days on the counter in an airtight container, and once cooled, 3 months in the freezer. Let them thaw at room temperature and add the fleur de sel right before serving.
✅ What to serve with my double chocolate sea salt cookies?
A big glass of milk, no question. Having people over? Build a tray with the rest of the family: my classic chocolate chip cookies, my chocolate mint cookies, my chocolate orange cookies and my white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.
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Ingredients
- 200 g (7 oz) 70% dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- ½ cup (115 g / 4 oz) unsalted butter
- ¾ cup (150 g / 5.3 oz) brown sugar, firmly packed
- ¼ cup (50 g / 1.8 oz) white sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125 g / 4.4 oz) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (25 g / 0.9 oz) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 tsp (5 ml) baking soda
- ½ tsp (2.5 ml) fine salt
- Fleur de sel (flaky sea salt), for serving
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Preparation
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Melt the dark chocolate and butter in a double boiler or in the microwave in 30-second intervals, stirring between each interval. Let cool for 5 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar, white sugar and eggs by hand until smooth and slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla and the cooled chocolate mixture. Mix well.
- In another bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and fine salt. Fold into the wet ingredients with a spatula. Don’t overwork the dough. A few streaks of flour are fine.
- Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes if it’s too soft to shape. Using an ice cream scoop or a large spoon, form balls of about 2 tbsp (30 ml) and divide them between the two baking sheets, spacing them at least 5 cm (2 in) apart.
- Bake one sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes, until the tops are cracked but the centres are still slightly soft to the touch. The cookies will firm up as they cool. Keep the other sheet in the refrigerator in the meantime.
- Let rest 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack. Bake the second sheet the same way.
- Right before serving, sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of fleur de sel.
It takes the edge off the bitterness. Salt makes your tongue read dark chocolate as rounder and deeper, so a 70% tastes rich instead of harsh. Flaky salt adds something else too: a little crunch that breaks up all that dense chocolate. That contrast is the whole point of these cookies.
Two different jobs, depending on where it goes. The ½ tsp of fine salt in the dough balances the sugar, so the cookie doesn’t taste flat. The fleur de sel on top is for flavour pops and crunch. I sprinkle it on right before serving, so the crystals stay whole instead of dissolving into the cookie.
Melt 200 g of 70% dark chocolate with the butter and let it cool 5 minutes. Whisk brown sugar, white sugar and 2 eggs by hand for about 2 minutes, add vanilla and the chocolate, then fold in flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Scoop 2 tbsp balls, bake one sheet at a time at 350°F (175°C) for 10 to 12 minutes, and pull them while the centres are still soft. Fleur de sel goes on at serving time.
Yes, just keep it on low speed and brief, only until the sugars and eggs come together. Beat it too much and the texture of the cookie changes. Honestly, a whisk and two minutes of elbow grease is all this dough needs, and that’s how I make it.
Three to four days on the counter in an airtight container. For longer, freeze them once baked and completely cooled: they keep for 3 months. Thaw at room temperature, then add the fleur de sel. Pull two or three out in the morning and they’re ready for the lunchbox.
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