I come from a long line of incredible home bakers. For generations, the women in my family have been baking cakes, cookies, and delicious sweet treats for special family events. Or simply just because. My childhood was filled with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies coming out of the oven and eating cookie dough on the counter. My mom still bakes up a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies whenever the house needs a little pick-me-up or we simply need to cure a chocolate craving.
Because of this, chocolate chip cookies hold a special place in my heart. I can’t resist them. Sometimes, at a local coffee shop in town, there are freshly baked salted chocolate chip cookies. It doesn’t matter that it’s early in the morning, I have to order one. Sometimes even two. The ooey gooey melted dark chocolate in the middle pairs divinely with a sprinkle of chunky sea salt.
My fiance craves these cookies now too. I can’t blame him. There’s something addictive of each salty-sweet bite. I can’t help but eat every last crumb. Especially when hot out of the oven.
While safely inside our homes, we can’t just hop up to the local coffee shop and grab a cookie or two. So instead of longing for them, I decided to make our own version of salted ooey gooey chocolate chip cookies. I started with my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. It’s the recipe I grew up with. But now I use Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels as my chocolate chips and added dark chocolate discs in the center to give that extra ooey gooey effect.
The first batch I made was sunken in due to the weight of the salt. But the second batch, I par-baked, adding the liberal amount of sea salt halfway through baking. It seemed to be the magic touch. The cookies didn’t sink in, keeping their classic cookie shape.
Next was the ooey gooey test. After allowing the cookies to cool slightly, but just slightly, I took a big first bite. It was ooey gooey! The discs positioned in the middle and towards the top of the cookie melted the best. The dark chocolate disc melted with perfection.
These salted ooey gooey chocolate chip cookies has become a favorite and new regular bake in our house. Some would even say they’re great alongside a fresh cup of hot coffee or a scoop of ice cream on top. No matter how you eat it though, the ooey gooey chocolate has you coming back for more.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 2 large eggs
- 2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup of Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels
- 15 dark chocolate discs
- sea salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 370 degrees.
Beat together softened unsalted butter (I soften mine on the counter for half an hour before I’m ready to make cookies), sugars, and vanilla using a hand mixer until smooth.
Add eggs, one at a time, and beat together until fully combined.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour and baking soda.
Slowly add the flour mixture into the other. I prefer to hand mix my cookies from here, but you can still use the hand mixer to incorporate the flour and baking soda.
Pour in the Enjoy Life Dark Chocolate Morsels and mix by hand until morsels are evenly distributed.
Using a large ice cream scooper, scoop cookie dough batter into individual portions and set aside.
Take each cookie dough batter portion, one at a time, and push the dark chocolate disc in the middle. Make sure to cover the disc and shape back into a ball.
Place the six large cookie dough scoops onto a stoneware bakeware sheet and place in the oven.
Bake cookies for roughly 8 minutes then sprinkle each cookie with a liberal amount of salt.
Put the cookies back in the oven and bake an additional 3-4 minutes, until fully cooked.
Remove cookies from the oven and immediately place them on a baking wire to cool.
Enjoy!
