Fudgy Salted Brownie Cookies with Sea Salt

Salted Brownie Cookies combine two desserts into one chocolatey bite! Their shiny, crackly tops are finished with semi-sweet chocolate chips and sea salt flakes, and the centers are decadent and fudgy, so every chocolate lover will be happy.

Ingredients for Chocolate Brownie Cookies

Here's everything you'll need to make these rich, fudgy salted brownie cookies!

• All-Purpose Flour. Use whichever brand you normally buy. I haven't tried any other type of flour here.
• Baking Powder and Salt. The usual suspects for this kind of cookie.
• Eggs. You'll need 2 large eggs and 1 large egg yolk, ideally at room temperature. Save the leftover whites from the 3rd egg and scramble them for breakfast the next morning.
• Sugar. Plain old granulated sugar is what you need.
• Vegetable Oil. Only a tablespoon is needed. I haven't tried canola or coconut oil, but I'd expect either to work just as well.
• Vanilla Extract. I prefer pure vanilla over imitation, but use whatever you have on hand!
• Unsalted Butter. It gets melted right into the chocolate chips, so it doesn't need to be at room temperature.
• Chocolate Chips. Semi-sweet works best, and any brand you like is fine. You'll need 1 cup, plus a few extra if you'd like to add more on top of the cookies.
• Cocoa Powder. Make sure it's unsweetened. I did not test this recipe with dark, black, or Dutch-process cocoa.
• Espresso Powder. Completely optional, but it gives the chocolate a really nice flavor boost.
• Sea Salt Flakes. A lovely topping that adds a little salty contrast to all that chocolate. It's optional, so skip it if you'd rather not use it or don't have any on hand.

Tips for the Best Salted Brownie Crinkle Cookies

Get all of your ingredients ready. If you remember just one of my tips, please make it this one! Measure everything first, then start the batter. Once it's mixed, scoop it onto the baking sheet and get it in the oven right away.

That includes lining the baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats and preheating the oven! Take care of it all before you begin.

Melt the chocolate. Building on the tip above, I keep the chocolate chips and butter in a saucepan on the stove, ready to go. While I mix the wet ingredients in my stand mixer, I melt the chocolate and butter together until smooth. This only takes 2-3 minutes over medium heat.

One more helpful tip: set your unsweetened cocoa powder and espresso powder beside the stove. Then you can stir them into the melted chocolate and butter as soon as it comes off the heat.

Add the melted chocolate. It can go straight into the wet ingredients. There's no need to let it cool first.

Mix until just combined. If you've been around here for a while, you've probably heard me say this more than once! It really does matter.

Once the whisked dry ingredients go into the brownie cookie batter, mix only until just combined, meaning until no flour streaks remain.

You can mix in the dry ingredients with a hand or stand mixer, or fold them in with a spatula. The spatula is gentler and can help keep you from overmixing.

Work quickly. In short, the faster you can make these salted brownie cookies and get them into the oven, the better they'll turn out.

Use a cookie scoop. 2 spoons work too, but a cookie scoop is quicker (IMHO) and keeps every cookie about the same shape and size. I used a 1 1/2 tablespoon cookie scoop, which made 24 cookies.

Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350ºF. My brownie crinkle cookies were perfect at the 8-minute mark. The tops should look somewhat shiny and crackly, with a fudgy center.

Add some extra chocolate chips. For a bit more chocolate, because who doesn’t want that, press in a few (I mean 3-4) chocolate chips right after the cookies come out of the oven, almost immediately.

How Do You Get Perfectly Round Cookies?

The best tip for uniform, round cookies comes from the brilliant Stella Parks of Brave Tart. You can get there in 3 easy steps:

1. As soon as the brownie cookies come out, leave them on the hot baking sheet.
2. Grab a round cookie cutter that's a little larger than the cookie and set it around the cookie. A mug or small bowl works too, as long as it's wider than the cookie. The only downside to a mug or bowl is that you can't see the cookie through it.
3. Move the cutter around the cookie in a circular motion until it forms a neat circle. This usually takes me about 5-8 seconds.

Another helpful tip: hold the baking sheet with an oven mitt on the hand you aren't using for the cutter. The sheet just came out of the oven, so it's going to be H-O-T, HOT!

If you make these Salted Brownie Cookies or anything else from my website, please give them a star rating and tell me how they turned out in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by!