Name: Chocolate Cookies
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, softened; 1 ½ cups (330g) packed light brown sugar; ½ cup (95g) granulated sugar; 2 large egg; 2 large egg yolk; 1 tablespoon (15ml) pure vanilla extract; 1 ½ cups (210g) all-purpose flour; 1 cup (110g) Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa powder; 1 teaspoon (5g) salt; 1 teaspoon (4g) baking soda; 1 ½ cups (270g) semi-sweet chocolate chips; Flaky sea salt

These are the ultimate thick and chewy, bakery-style chocolate cookies filled with gooey chocolate chips and topped with flaky sea salt. Make giant fudgy chocolate cookies from scratch in an hour or less!

If you love my giant chocolate chip cookies recipe, prepare to wolf down this quick and easy double chocolate version!

Giant chocolate cookies topped with flaked seas salt on a white plate.

The Ultimate Fudgy Chocolate Cookies

These are giant soft-baked chocolate cookies loaded with gooey chocolate chips and sprinkled with flakey sea salt. They’re ultra-moist and super fudgy, enough to satisfy even the fiercest chocolate cravings!

Break this cookie in half while it’s still slightly warm, and you’re greeted by a dense, brownie-like interior studded with decadent pockets of melted chocolate.

Each bite is an irresistible combination of chocolatey flavor amped up by crunchy bursts of mild sea salt, just like the gourmet double chocolate cookies you’ll find in your local bakery. This recipe is seriously next-level!

Why You’ll Love This Chocolate Cookie Recipe

Giant, thick, and chewy. With this recipe, I’ve super-sized my double chocolate chip cookies and made them even softer and chewier with additional egg yolks and brown sugar.
Fudgy flavor. These chocolate cookies are crisp at the edges with ooey-gooey, soft-baked centers. Every bite is bursting with melted chocolate chips and tons of fudgy flavor, enhanced by flaked sea salt.
Quick to make. There’s no need to chill the dough for this recipe. Enjoy chewy chocolate cookies warm from the oven in under an hour.

A stack of chocolate cookie halves on a piece of parchment paper.

Key Ingredients

I’ve included notes on the key ingredients you’ll need to make these chocolate cookies below. Don’t forget to scroll to the recipe card below the post for the full recipe amounts and details.

Butter – Salted or unsalted, and softened before you start. If you’re using salted butter, I recommend reducing the added salt to 1/2 teaspoon so that your cookies don’t come out too salty (especially since we’ll be sprinkling them with sea salt, too!).
Sugar – This chewy cookie recipe uses mostly brown sugar for moisture, along with white sugar.
Eggs– Two whole eggs and the addition of two egg yolks add richness and extra chewiness to these cookies.
Cocoa Powder – Hershey’s Special Dark cocoa powder is my preferred cocoa powder for this recipe. It gives these cookies a darker, fudgier flavor and produces very consistent results. See below.
Chocolate Chips – Any type of chocolate will work here. I usually use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but dark chocolate, milk chocolate, or even white chocolate chips are also fine.
Flaked Sea Salt – A sprinkle of crunchy flaked sea salt, like Maldon Salt, does something seriously magical to these fudgy chocolate cookies. However, it won’t work with regular table salt or coarse salt.

What’s the Best Cocoa Powder for Cookies?

The best cocoa powder for cookies is unsweetened cocoa powder. I tested my chocolate cookies with Dutch-processed and natural unsweetened cocoa powder and both types worked fine.

I recommend Hershey’s Special Dark for the best color and fudgiest flavor, but you can use whatever you have on hand. For more details on the different kinds of cocoa powder, see my post on natural vs. Dutch-processed cocoa powder.

The Secret to Bakery-Style Chocolate Cookies

I’m always trying to recreate the big, thick, chewy cookies I’ve seen in bakery windows. Before we dive into how to make the best jumbo chocolate cookies EVER, let’s go over what sets these cookies apart:

More brown sugar. I’ve upped the amount of brown sugar in this recipe. It deepens the flavor and the extra moisture yields a much chewier cookie.
Extra egg yolk. The addition of egg yolks adds fat, which helps maintain moisture and adds to the richness and chewiness of these cookies.
Two scoops of cookie dough. Two big scoops of cookie dough stacked on top of one another is key. Double layers of dough mean that the cookies can spread as they bake while still producing an extra-thick cookie with a rich, fudgy center.

When I say that these cookies are giant, I mean giant. They’re the size of my hand, and I’m not mad about it. This recipe is specifically designed to be this way, so baking these cookies with only one scoop of dough will not produce the same results as I described above. Double or nothing!

How to Make Chocolate Cookies

Chocolate lovers, start your engines. Now that you have your ingredients assembled, these wildly fudgy chocolate cookies are easy to make in just a few steps:

Combine the wet ingredients. Cream together your softened butter with both sugars, then incorporate the eggs, egg yolks, and vanilla.

Eggs and vanilla added to creamed butter and sugar in a glass bowl.

Cocoa powder added to cookie batter in a glass bowl.

Add the dry ingredients. I recommend whisking in the cocoa powder first, separate from the other dry ingredients. This ensures that the cocoa is well incorporated without overmixing. Next, whisk the flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl, and add them to the wet ingredients.

Add the chocolate chips. The dough will thicken to a fudgy consistency. As the dough comes together, beat in the chocolate chips.

A hand holding a stand mixer attachment covered with chocolate cookie dough above a mixing bowl.

Close up of double-stacked chocolate cookie dough scoops on a white surface.

Scoop the dough. Using a large cookie scoop, place two scoops of dough onto a lined baking sheet, one on top of the other. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough, leaving about two inches between each stack of dough. Last but not least, sprinkle the tops of your cookies with flaky sea salt.

Bake. Bake your chocolate cookies at 350ºF for about 15 minutes. You want to pull these cookies out while they’re still slightly underbaked in the middle. Afterward, leave the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before moving them to a wire rack.

Overhead view of chocolate cookies topped with flaked sea salt on a wire rack.

Recipe Tips for Perfect Cookies

You don’t need to be a professional baker to make amazing cookies, but a few key things make all the difference for bakery-style homemade cookies. Here are some final tips that I picked up while recipe testing:

Stack the cookie dough. This is the secret to big, thick, bakery-style chocolate cookies (see the section above for details). A single scoop just doesn’t do this recipe justice!
Use a large cookie scoop when scooping the dough. This cookie dough is a bit sticky, and using a scoop helps minimize the mess and maintain the right size. There are 3 tablespoons of dough in a large cookie scoop, so each cookie is approximately 6 tablespoons of dough or 1/3 cup.
Line the cookie sheet. I highly recommend baking your chocolate cookies on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Lining the pan prevents over-spreading and also keeps the bottom of the cookies from burning.
Don’t overbake. This is another “secret” to perfectly soft and chewy cookies. Take your cookies out of the oven when they’re still underbaked in the center (but not shiny or gooey).
Fix cookies that have spread while baking. Right when the cookies come out of the oven, use a knife or spatula to gently press the edges of the cookie back toward the center.
Make picture-perfect cookies. To get that Pinterest-ready look, press additional chocolate chips into the tops of your freshly baked cookies. Don’t forget the sea salt!

My Favorite Cookie Tools

Variation Ideas

These cookies are pretty spectacular as they are, but you can always make them to your liking with different add-ins and flavors. Here are some ideas:

Add frosting. Take your double-chocolate cookies over the top and top them with chocolate fudge frosting. Tangy chocolate cream cheese frosting or peanut butter frosting would also be delicious.
Holiday cookies. For a festive holiday cookie twist, make these chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips and peppermint crunch (like a jumbo-sized variation of double chocolate peppermint cookies!).
Add nuts. Mix in chopped hazelnuts, pecans, walnuts, or peanuts to bring a tasty crunch to these fudgy chocolate cookies.
Flavor extracts. In place of or in addition to vanilla extract, add peppermint, orange, or coffee extract for a different flavor profile.

A giant chocolate cookie sprinkled with flaked sea salt leaning against a glass of milk.

How to Store and Freeze

To Store. Allow the cookies to cool completely and then store them airtight. They’ll keep at room temperature for a few days.
Freezer. Freeze the baked cookies in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 2-3 months. Defrost the frozen chocolate cookies in the microwave for 15-20 seconds, or leave them to thaw at room temperature before serving.
Make-ahead. If you’d like to pre-freeze the chocolate cookie dough, I recommend freezing single scoops of dough. Thaw the dough to room temperature before stacking the dough scoops and baking as directed.

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