Made with 2 types of cocoa powder for an intensely deep chocolate flavor, these salted dark chocolate cookies feature crisp edges and soft chewy centers just like chewy fudgy frosted brownies. A sprinkle of sea salt is the perfect finishing touch on each fudge-like cookie.
One reader said: “These were easily some of the best cookies I have ever made. I was blown away by the rich chocolate flavor! Instead of chocolate chips I used the new Nestle espresso chips, which I HIGHLY recommend doing.”
These dark chocolate cookies are as beloved as our popular chewy chocolate chip cookies and as rich as these brownie cookies. Is your motto the more chocolate, the better? If so, you’re in the right place today.
Tell Me About these Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Texture: While the rich and dark chocolate flavor is certainly outstanding, let’s not forget their unbeatable texture. These salted cookies are balanced with ultra soft and fudge-like centers with chewy, crisp edges.
- Ease: This is a pretty simple and straightforward cookie recipe. You need 2 main bowls—one for dry ingredients and one for other wet ingredients before combining the two together. Expect a sticky cookie dough. Even if you’ve chilled it, this cookie dough is sticky.
- Time: Preparing the dough takes a few minutes, but you’ll need to set aside time to chill the cookie dough. This dough needs at least 3 hours in the refrigerator to properly set up before baking. If you shorten or skip this step, the cookies over-spread into thin and greasy chocolate pancakes. No time to chill the cookie dough? Here are our cookie recipes that don’t require chilling, like snickerdoodles and shortbread cookies.
Same Dough, Different Cookie
You might recognize the base dough recipe because it’s been a go-to chocolate cookie dough for years. My entire team and I (and many, many readers!) love this chocolate dough because the results are always fantastic! The only change in today’s variation is that we use 2 cocoa powders for a darker, deeper flavor. This is a very sticky cookie dough, so have a paper towel or kitchen towel nearby for your hands as you roll the dough. You could also use a cookie scoop.
Here are more cookie recipes using this base dough:
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Inside Out Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Salted Caramel Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Chocolate Crinkle Cookies
- Peppermint Mocha Cookies
- Double Chocolate Chip Swirl Cookies
Note: The chocolate crinkle cookies and peppermint mocha cookies can over-spread as a result of the sugar coating and peppermint extract (respectively), so I leave out the milk in those versions.
Best Ingredients to Use for Dark Chocolate Cookies
The full detailed recipe is written below, but let’s review the ingredients because each serves an important purpose.
- Flour: All-purpose flour is the base of these cookies. We don’t use as much as in non-chocolate cookie recipes because the cocoa powder also provides structure.
- Cocoa Powder: For intense dark chocolate flavor, use 2 types of cocoa powders—natural cocoa powder and Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder. Have you ever used Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder before? It’s deep, dark, and bold. This is actually a cocoa powder that’s a blend of natural cocoa and dutched cocoa (and here is even more information about Dutch-process vs. natural cocoa powder). It really heightens the chocolate flavor in these cookies!
- Baking Soda: Baking soda helps the cookies rise.
- Salt & Vanilla Extract: Both add flavor. Try using homemade vanilla extract.
- Butter: Butter adds delicious flavor and texture.
- Sugar: We use a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar for sweetness and softness.
- Egg: 1 egg helps bind everything together.
- Milk: Milk smooths out the cookie dough.
- Chocolate Chips & Chunks: Use a handful of chocolate chips and pure chocolate chopped into chunks—the pure chocolate chunks melt down since they do not contain any stabilizers (unlike chocolate chips) and create pools of chocolate inside and outside of the cookies. Those chocolate pools from the pure baking chocolate are precisely what readers love the most about these dark chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies, too. You could even use a combination of your favorite chocolate chips, like we do for triple chocolate chip cookies. Just keep the total amount of add-ins to about 1 cup.
- Sprinkle of Sea Salt: The sea salt offsets the sweetness and brings out even more chocolate flavor. We add a touch to these salty sweet chocolate covered pretzel cookies, too.
Today’s dark chocolate cookies would be fantastic for making cookie ice cream sandwiches using your favorite ice cream flavor!
More Cookie Recipes with Chocolate
- Chocolate Sugar Cookies (a spin on my favorite Sugar Cookies!)
- Mint Chocolate Checkerboard Cookies
- Chocolate Turtle Cookies
- No Bake Cookies
- Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
Salted Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 20-22 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Made with 2 types of cocoa powder for an intensely deep chocolate flavor, these salted dark chocolate cookies feature crisp edges and soft chewy centers just like chewy fudgy frosted brownies. A sprinkle of sea salt is the perfect finishing touch on each fudge-like cookie.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/3 cup (27g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder*
- 1/3 cup (27g) Hershey’s special dark cocoa powder*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
- 1 cup (180g) semi-sweet or dark chocolate chunks and/or chips, plus a few more for topping*
- sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preliminary note: This cookie dough requires at least 3 hours of chilling, but I prefer to chill the dough overnight. The colder the dough, the thicker the cookies.
- In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium high speed until fluffy and light in color, about 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla extract, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, both cocoa powders, baking soda and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour into the wet ingredients. Beat on low until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick. Switch to high speed and beat in the milk, then the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky and tacky. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Scoop and roll dough, a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons of dough each, into balls (I like to use this medium cookie scoop). To ensure a thicker cookie, make the balls taller than they are wide (almost like a cylinder or column). Arrange 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheets. Sprinkle each with sea salt. The cookie dough is certainly sticky, so wipe your hands clean after every few balls of dough you shape.
- Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies or sprinkle with more sea salt. (This is optional.) Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week. You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 2-3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here is how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Larger Batch: The recipe is easy to double in 1 mixing bowl without overwhelming your mixer. Simply double all of the cookie dough ingredients. Dough chill time remains the same.
- Cocoa Powder: If you can’t get your hands on Hershey’s special dark cocoa, you can use 2/3 cup of natural unsweetened cocoa powder instead. Do not use purely dutched cocoa in this recipe because you need the acid in natural cocoa. However, I’ve gotten some questions from non-USA readers who cannot get their hands on natural cocoa powder. Easy fix! Just bake death by chocolate peanut butter chip cookies instead. You can used dutched cocoa! And add sea salt on top.
- Chocolate Chips & Chunks: I used a mix of chocolate chips and chocolate chunks. You can use all chocolate chips, all chocolate chunks, or a mix of both.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Can I substitute black cocoa for the dark cocoa?
Hi Lisa, We haven’t tested it but it should work to replace the 1/3 cup of special dark cocoa powder. Let us know if you try it!
It worked as written, the black cocoa gave them a rich, complex flavour. I loved that these cookies are not overly sweet. I used smoked Maldon salt as a topping, which worked really well.
Hello.. is it possible to replace milk with soy milk?
That should be fine, Sherlyn!
Not sure if I misread that if I don’t have Hershey’s special dark cocoa, I need to replace it with natural unsweetened cocoa powder by 1/3 cup dark cocoa = 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder so I ended up with 1 full cup of unsweetened cocoa powder in total! However, thankfully my cookie turned out ok!! :)) Though it didn’t spread probably because too much dry ingredients content.. not sure if I understood it correctly.
Hi Daisy, You want 2/3 of a cup total of cocoa powder. So either 1/3 cup of each – or simply use 2/3 cup of natural cocoa powder. We are so glad you still enjoyed them, and if you decide to try them again they should be even softer with this correction!
This recipe is my new favorite!
These are outta bounds incredible. as a dark chocolate nut – a DREAM. Up the anty – make them ice cream sandwhiches (using Peanut Butter ice cream). Mom had to send Hersheys special dark in a care package (current situation wiped the NYC stores of baking supplies). Easy to make in a small NYC apartment and easy to freeze for just one!
Thanks!
Thoughts on adding espresso powder to these? How much?
You can definitely add espresso powder. I recommend 2 teaspoons to really have that flavor stand out.
How easily could I get them to stay the shape of a cookie mold? Thoughts? I’ll trying to make an awesome dark chocolate cookie to look like a penguin. I was gonna drizzle w white chocolate for the belly after.
Hi Rachelle, this cookie isn’t idea for molding/shaping. You can try my chocolate sugar cookies instead.
JUST finished making these, they came out fantastic. So glad I found your blog!
These were easily some of the best cookies I have ever made. I was blown away by the rich chocolate flavor! Instead of chocolate chips I used the new Nestle espresso chips, which I HIGHLY recommend doing. Thank you Sally– I love your blog!!
These worked great! I haven’t tried one yet but everyone loved them and came back for seconds I only chilled them for an hour and then stuck them in the freezer for 30 minutes and they spread perfectly! I also didn’t have a mixer (haha) so I just used a wooden spoon and it worked fine I used half dark chocolate chips and half semi sweet chunks and they are melty and wonderful!
OUTSTANDING!!! Sally, these cookies are absolutely fantastic! Wow!!! I followed your recipe exactly, read all your “tips” on cooking making…amazing results!! Everyone RAVED. I’m 51 years old and have been making cookies my entire life and I think this is the best batch I ever made. What a thrill to find your site. I could not be more appreciative for all your hard work and dedication. Just excellent in every regard. Thank you so much. Can’t wait to keep learning from you and keep trying your recipes.
Hello! Do you think I’d have a problem trippling this recipe? Or honestly, is it ok to triple any of your cookie recipes? I need to make large quantities for a grad party. Thanks!
Hi Andrea! For best taste and texture, especially if you’re serving for an event, I strongly recommend making separate batches of the cookies.
I can only find Hershey’s 100% cacao not cocoa (I found the Special Dark no problem). Can I substitute the cacao for the unsweetened cocoa powder without making any adjustments to the liquid measurements?
Hi Kelly, using 100% cacao shouldn’t be a problem. Make sure you chill the cookie dough. The cookies will have a wonderfully dark flavor.
I made these yesterday, chilled the dough overnight and baked them today. They were one of the best cookies I’ve ever had!! But, they didn’t spread much. I rolled them into balls, but didn’t spread like yours.
Hi, these cookies were so delicious! I experimented two other substitutes for the chocolate chips. Hershey’s salted caramel chips in one batch and heath bar toffee peices in another. The toffee ones were soooooo delicious, but turned out really shiny. Any idea how I could fix this? The salted caramel chips looked exactly as oictured and texture wise were perfect. Thanks!
Hi Sally,
Just made these and they taste amazing. Mine however turned out very thin and flat. Wondering if you know why. The only change I had to make was that instead of the Hershey’s special dark cocoa I could only find “black cocoa.” I read your post on the differences between natural and dutched cocoas and used 1.5 cups natural cocoa and 0.5 cups of the black instead of 1 and 1, since you had said the special dark is half of each. Would this be why they became so thin? Thanks very much.
That may have something to due with the excess spread, but maybe the dough could’ve used more time in the refrigerator chilling. I like to chill my dough overnight! That’s a great way to save time later. Also, how about that butter– was it melted at all? Make sure it’s soft, but still quite solid.
Just made these and they are fantastic!! The sea salt pushes them over the edge into glorious chocolate delirium. Question… what is the reason for chilling the dough? I did not pre-read the recipe and had planned to make them to take to an event, so I was dismayed when I got to that step because I definitely did not have time to chill them. I just decided I had no other choice, so I put them straight in the oven after making the dough and I thought they turned out absolutely perfect! So what did I miss with the chilling?
Sally, I’ve read your blog enough to absorb the principles of baking enough to whip up a delicious batch of chocolate cookies in no time without a recipe, like my “emergency cookies” I baked last night. Like little oatmeal brownies. They just disappeared. Can’t thank you enough.
This cookie recipe is excellent. I used 1 cup of Guittard mint chips, chilled the batter overnight, and baked the next morning. When they came out of the oven, I pressed a few extra chips on top. I omitted the sea salt sprinkling, too. Result: dark chocolate, minty heaven!
Tried these tonight-mmm. They’re like a deep, dark, melting chocolate massage for your taste buds. I only had Special Dark cocoa, so I used about 1/2 cup and adjusted to only 1 tablespoon of milk so the dough wouldn’t be too wet. I made smaller, tablespoon-sized cookies; baked them for 8 minutes with 5 minutes cooling on sheet. LOVED them!
These were fabulous, and I think that they are my new chocolate cookie favorite!
These are so yummy! I made them last week and they were soft and not super sweet. I added peanut butter flavored chips instead chocolate because I adore that combo. Just pure dark chocolate peanut buttery goodness! I am making them again today as a matter of fact. Thanks once again Sally!
Wow, these are good! I left off the extra salt (sorry). They are so soft! I microwave them 5 seconds to melt the chocolate inside or 10 seconds to achieve fall apart softness and melty goodness. I made them small and have been eating 3 a day! Worth indulging as I bake whole grain low sugar 75% of the time. These will be my go to chocolate cookie recipe for years to come.
These cookies are HEAVENLY Sally!! I didn’t change a thing. Thank you for another amazing recipe! 🙂
Sally… Sally… Sally. I made these yesterday afternoon, and they are just… [deep breath]… loss for words wonderful. Haha! I actually used all Dutched cocoa in place of the special dark (risky I know, but I had to try!!!) and I didn’t experience any issues! Yay! Also mixed some white chocolate chips in with the semi-sweet, and they are absolutely heavenly! I may have eaten four for breakfast this morning… maybe… (Sooooo good with coffee, lol!) Thank you as always!!! <3
Sally, thanks for another great recipe. I am making the dough now so I can bake them in the morning. These will be a great way to start the day. They look amazing.