These soft and gooey chocolate chunk cookies are full of melty, dark chocolate chunks and topped with flaky sea salt. The best part? No chilling time or mixer required!
When I first spotted this chocolate chunk cookie recipe in Tara O’Brady’s cookbook, Seven Spoons, they looked so pretty and delicious. As soon as I baked a batch and tasted one, I knew it was a recipe I wanted to feature on the blog. Not only are they absolutely chewy, gooey, and delicious, but these chocolate chunk cookies are very simple to make: no mixer involved, no room temperature ingredients, no dough chilling. You just have to melt, mix, and bake to have perfect homemade cookies.
What I also love about this recipe is that it uses chocolate bars or high quality dark chocolate (semisweet or bittersweet) instead of chocolate chips which have stabilizers and a different flavor and texture. That’s part of why these cookies are so great.
How to make chocolate chunk cookies
- Melt the butter. I prefer doing this on the stovetop, but you can also use the microwave.
- Combine the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
- Combine butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Pour the melted butter into a large bowl and whisk in sugars until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, whisking well until combined. Stir in vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients and chocolate chunks. Add the flour mixture and mix, using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, until mostly blended. Stir in chocolate and keep mixing as little as possible, just until everything is blended.
- Bake. Roll dough into balls about the size of 3 tablespoons, and arrange on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing them 3 inches apart. Sprinkle each cookie with a bit of sea salt and bake at 360°F/182°C until the tops are cracked and very lightly golden, 10-12 minutes.
Baker’s tip: Want to make super simple, delicious ice cream sandwiches? Make a batch of no-churn vanilla ice cream and place a scoop between two cookies! Store in the freezer and enjoy.
Would you like to save this recipe?
We'll email this recipe link to you, so you can come back to it later!
Tips for making chocolate chunk cookies
-Don’t overmix your cookie batter. This can result in tougher, more dense cookies, and we want them to be chewy and soft. To prevent this, just mix the ingredients until they come together.
-Use good quality chocolate. The better quality chocolate you use, the better your cookies will taste.
-Don’t overbake your cookies. Your cookies will be done baking as soon as the edges appear slightly golden brown. Pull them out as soon as you see this. Otherwise, the cookies will be crispy and crunchy.
Can I use chocolate chips in these cookies?
You definitely can, and the cookies will still be delicious. But using good quality chocolate bars just makes the cookies taste even better. Also, chocolate chips have stabilizers which makes the chocolate less melty. Using chocolate bars ensures you get nice, melty chocolate pieces in your cookies (and who doesn’t love that?).
Can I make the chocolate chunk cookie dough ahead of time?
Yes. You can certainly make the cookie dough in advance and store in the fridge until ready to bake. You can also form cookie dough balls immediately after making the dough and store them in a storage container so they are ready to be baked whenever you want. Just keep in mind chilled cookie dough will need an extra minute or two of baking time.
More of my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes
- Small-Batch Chocolate Chip Cookies: For when you have a craving for a warm, gooey cookie right right now.
- Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies: Super soft, chewy, and loaded with chocolate chips.
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: Smooth, creamy peanut butter helps create super chewy cookies.
- Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies: Made with yummy tahini for a unique flavor and amazing texture.
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: Brown butter gives these cookies an amazingly nutty, caramel flavor.
Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Chewy, amazing chocolate chunk cookies made with melty dark chocolate and a sprinkle of sea salt. No chilling or mixer required!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks/227g) unsalted butter, chopped
- 3 ¼ cups (420g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt (or ¾ teaspoon fine salt)
- 1 ½ cups (300g) light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 340 g/12 oz dark chocolate , chopped into small pieces*
- flaky salt , to sprinkle on top
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 360°F/182°C. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper
-
In a heavy bottomed saucepan over the lowest heat possible, melt butter, stirring occasionally. Or, you can use the microwave. Don’t let the butter bubble or boil or else it will lose moisture.
-
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
-
Pour melted butter into a large bowl and whisk in sugars until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, whisking well until combined. Stir in vanilla. Add the flour mixture and mix, using a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, until mostly blended. Stir in chocolate and keep mixing as little as possible, just until everything is blended.
-
Roll dough into balls, each about the size of 3 tablespoons, and arrange them on the prepared pans, spacing them 3 inches apart. You can bake them right away or cover and refrigerate. Sprinkle each cookie with a bit of sea salt and bake until the tops are cracked and very lightly golden, 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes, then gently transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
-
Cookies can be kept at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days. They also freeze well for up to 2 months.
Recipe Notes
*I highly recommend using chocolate bars cut into chunks for this recipe instead of chocolate chips. They taste better and are more melty and gooey. However, if chocolate chips is what you have, you can certainly use them.
Recipe source: Seven Spoons by Tara O’Brady.
Maya says
these look great, I’ll try this recipe next time. I love the addition of the salt on top, cookies taste so good with salt.
moodybaker says
Hey, there. I’ll leave my two thoughts on this recipe since I have just baked these cookies and I always find the tested comments from readers very helpful and interesting when I am looking at a recipe to try. Usually I do because of what I have on hand, but I did not make any changes to this recipe. I tried baking some of the cookies at room temperature rights after mixing, and I also baked some after being refrigerated for 1 hour, and sat at room temp. while the oven preheated. I do believe I rolled my cookies quite a bit smaller than recommended. my cookies were about 2.5″ in finished diameter. I baked them for 10 minutes exactly and that was perfect for the nonrefrigerated batch. Literally pull them out as soon as they start to color on the edges. For the ones out of the fridge, that was 11 minutes 30 seconds. Both cookies looked exactly as pictured. I tried a few with no salt added on top, which resulted in a VERY chocolatey chocolate chip cookie, but pretty plain. I tried some with coconut on top instead of the salt. These were. Finally I put flaked salt on quite a few, which was delicious and really made a balanced cookie with how full of chocolate goodness these are. The only big difference I noticed between the non- and the refrigerated batches was the refrigerated batch took a minute and a half longer to bake and they also had a bit more volume to the cookie after cooling. The non- was just a bit flatter and uniform for cookies. Overall, a solid cookie and an awesome cookie when you haven’t baked cookies for a while due to a handheld mixer shortage at your apartment. Cheers.
moodybaker says
Hey, there, even though my last post was quite long, I had to follow up and say that these cookies the next day are so good. Even better than fresh baked in my opinion because the chocolate gets a chance to firm up. Though I do love a melt-in-your-mouth cookie, with this much chocolate I like it better solid.
Also, the coconut on top of the cookies was good also. It didn’t burn in the oven at 10 minutes but came out nice and toasted. I would still sprinkle these with salt before topping with coconut, I used coconut chips, not shredded coconut.
Erika says
Hi, is it possible to substitute the butter with coconut oil and also cut down on the sugar a bit?
Shiran says
Hi Erika, you probably can use coconut oil, but I haven’t tested it so I can’t guarantee the result (it would be different than the original recipe though). You can cut down on the sugar if it’s too sweet for you.
Robin says
Did you let the melted butter cool at all before mixing the cookies? I made these months ago and they came out fantastic but it was on a day I tested a ton of cookie recipes so I can’t remember what I did! I made it again exactly as written, didn’t wait for butter to cool at all, and they aren’t as good. Thinner and very chewy. I’m wondering if that’s where it went wrong.
Shiran says
Hi Robin, it can be a lot of things. Baking is tricky and it’s possible to get different results for so many reasons such as how long the batter was mixed, the ingredients and their temperature, the oven temperature, the baking time etc. Unfortunately it’s hard to tell without being there.
Elaine says
Recipe sounded chewy and gooey cookies which was not results I got. Cookies more on cakey side and not much crinkles. If I make again will probably lessen amount of flour and perhaps a bit more sugars.
rara says
do you think these cookies would still work with commercial chocolate chips?? thx !
Shiran says
Yes, the flavor would be different, but it will work.
Maddy says
I’m hoping to bake these today when I have time, then freeze and unthaw this Sunday before the super bowl. I’ve tried this recipe before and loved it, but am wondering if freezing and unthawing will make a difference in the flavor/texture at all? Thanks!
Shiran says
No, if you freeze them they will still taste good!
Pimrak says
Hi I had done these recipe but still can’t get the crack surface like it your picture. Do you wait until cookies surface crack like your pic before pull them out from the oven? Mind get brown not gold before can see crack. Thanks
Sandy says
Yum! These were delicious! Fabulous recipe, thank you!