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The ultimate Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies are giant bakery-style cookies with crisp edges and a perfectly chewy center, filled with chocolate chips and sprinkled with flaked sea salt. This is a cookie you absolutely must taste to believe.
Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to eat a Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookie from La Grande Orange Cafe, you might possibly appreciate my enthusiasm over these cookies.
I tasted their salted chocolate chip cookie a few weeks ago while at brunch with a friend. I was blown away. I make dang good cookies, but that cookie was something else.
I may have become a wee bit obsessed with recreating this Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie at home, but it paid off in an amazing new cookie recipe. I absolutely LOVE these cookies.
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
I’ve made these cookies multiple times in less than two weeks (both gluten-free and traditional recipes have been tested repeatedly) and the reviews have been fantastic from everyone who has tasted them.
This is currently my favorite cookie of all time. Exaggerate much? Maybe, but I’d still take one of these over any other cookie out there.
The size of the cookie will determine the texture. If you want a giant bakery-style cookie with crisp edges and a perfectly chewy center, follow the recipe exactly and make the cookies huge. (Just three to a baking sheet, seriously!)
There is no way to get that perfect texture without the giant cookie. Trust me on that, okay? I made some of the cookies smaller and they were really good, but the giant ones were so much better!
Kitchen Tip: I use this scoop, this baking sheet, and these cooling racks to make this recipe.
Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
You’ll need the following ingredients to make this recipe:
- light brown sugar
- butter
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- all-purpose flour
- old fashioned rolled oats
- baking soda
- kosher salt
- semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Maldon flaked sea salt or coarse sea salt
Side note – don’t let the oatmeal in this recipe deter you from trying them. There is barely a hint of oatmeal flavor, but it provides a perfectly chewy texture that can’t be beat.
Salt On Chocolate Chip Cookies
The finishing salt is really important here. There aren’t a lot of fancy spices and ingredients in my kitchen, but Maldon flaked sea salt is a key ingredient in these cookies.
You can buy it in some grocery stores, but I found the best prices by far on Amazon. (I promise that if you buy it, you’ll use it for more than just these cookies!) However, if you don’t want to buy a fancy salt, coarse sea salt or even kosher salt will work.
Just be extra careful when sprinkling the salt on the cookies, as the smaller grains of salt can quickly make them “salty” instead of giving just a hint of salt with the sweet cookie.
If you don’t happen to be a chocolate lover, I recommend checking out the Coconut Lover’s Oatmeal Cookies and the Almond Shortbread Thumbprint Cookies.
And for a few more chocolate free cookie options, try these Iced Caramel Toffee Oatmeal Cookies or Double Vanilla Delight Sugar Cookies. Both of those cookies are pinned to my Can’t Wait To Eat This board on Pinterest!
Check out all of the Gluten Free Dessert Recipes on this website!
Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups light brown sugar
- 1 cup butter melted
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 2 cups all-purpose flour*
- 1 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Maldon flaked sea salt or coarse sea salt
*Gluten-Free Alternative
- 1¾ cups brown rice flour
- ½ cup tapioca starch
- ¼ cup potato starch
- 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
Instructions
- Place the sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the hot melted butter and beat until smooth. Let cool for a few minutes before adding the eggs and vanilla and beating once more.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients and slowly add them to the wet ingredients. Stir to combine. Add the chocolate chips and stir well to make sure they are evenly distributed. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour, or until thoroughly chilled.
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Scoop the dough into golf ball sized balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (Remember, just three cookies to a baking sheet!)
- Bake for 16 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with Maldon salt. Let cool for 1-2 minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
{originally published 5/8/15 – recipe notes and photos updated 10/21/24}
Hmm trying to figure out what i did wrong. Tjey are delicous but i put a golf ball size ball on the pan and it only speread out to the diameter of a chips ahoy. I tried again and flatened it a bit but they came out a bit dry. Guess ill just eat all the cookies til li get it right! And this maldon salt is the best!
Mine ended up very fluffy and hardly flattened at all. What did I do wrong?
Without being in your kitchen with you, it’s hard to guess. Typically, too much flour, leavener, or an oven temp that isn’t accurate might be the culprit.
LGO cookies aera a daily dessert for us when we are in AZ during the winter. I’m looking forward to making these myself when we are back in CO. How would you adjust this recipe for high altitude?
I don’t typically adjust cookies for higher altitude. This recipe should work fine.
Best chocolate chip cookies ever! Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I’m so very happy you like the cookies, Tami!
Would like to know if caramel can be substituted for the chocolate in this recipe. There is a salted caramel cookie out there that I absolutely love, its by a company Sweet Street and I want to replicate it if possible.
I bet that will be delicious, Darcus!
Can I use dark
Brown sugar??
That will work, John. The flavor will just be a little richer.
Hi! Do you use unsalted or salted butter? I’ve read different schools of thought on that and was wondering how you do it.
I use salted butter in all of my recipes, Megan.
Where’s the GF recipe?
Or do you just swap out the gluten flour for Almond flour?
This recipe will not work as written with almond flour. The gluten-free ingredient alternative is written underneath the traditional ingredients in the recipe card.
Can you make this with gluten free flour as the flour substitute?
Callie – I have not specifically tried it with this recipe, but it should work fine.
The absolute best cookies. Turn out perfectly every time.
I am so glad you love them, Erin!
My friends and family love this cookie recipe! Love the combinations of sweet and salty; crispy and chewy.
I had a question about the GF version. Can something be substituted for the Potato Starch for those of us who need to stay away from night shades? Maybe arrowroot or more tapioca?
Hi, Mary! You’ll get a slightly different texture, but you can use more tapioca as a substitute. Enjoy the cookies!
Your reply that I can sub the Potato Starch with more Tapioca but that it will change the texture of these cookies slightly, also apply if I do the same thing with your other cookie recipes, but in particular to your cobbler recipes? I will be trying one of those soon also.
Also, is using Arrowroot for the sub the same issue?
Hi, Mary! I’m not sure how arrowroot would turn out in the recipes, but you should also be able to substitute the tapioca in my cobbler recipes, too. I hope everything turns out well for you; happy baking!
Just wanted to tell you I’m obsessed with LGO chocolate chip cookies and sought out to find a similar recipe after a trip one time . I’m made them numerous time since and this is my all time favorite chocolate chip recipe . I’ve still yet to find a better one and this will be a continued staple . I made them for my office and a doctor came up to me specifically to say those were the most gourmet cookies he’d had. Thank you so much .
You are welcome, Lexie! These cookies usually make an appearance in our house every Christmas. Happy baking!
What brand of chocolate chips do you use?
I’m not fussy about chocolate chips most of the time. For extra dark chocolate, I like both Ghiradelli and Trader Joe’s dark chocolate chips.
My new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I’ve tried a BUNCH. I keep coming back to this one. I think it’s the melted butter and sugar combined with size. The oatmeal seems to disappear and you don’t even know it’s there!
This is my favorite too, Jenn! I’m thrilled you love it too.
This recipe is pretty much the only cookie requested and loved by my family. My grandson hides them from his dad so he won’t eat all of them. Super easy dough to make and bake and I poke in extra chips when they are hot out of the oven and I use coarse sea salt which takes them over the top.
They turn out perfect every time after refrigerating the cookie dough for a couple of hours or several days even.
I’m glad you like the cookies so much, Rita!
No granulated (white) sugar? That’s very interesting!! I’m definitely going to give this a try!
I made these today and my wife said they are the best cookies ever.
I’m thrilled that you like them so much!