Salted Date and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Dang, two new recipes in a month?? Who even am I?
ICYMI, I’m finally back after a bit of a sabbatical from the blog. Last month I posted a delish new cake, and this month I’m back with what I think may be my best cookie yet. Say hello to Salted Date and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies!
Dates and Dark Chocolate…a Match Made in the Cupboard
So when I want a little sweet treat that’s a smidge healthier and quick to make, I pop a chunk of dark chocolate into a pitted Medjool date, and sprinkle it with a little flaky sea salt. (Sometimes I add walnuts too…yum.) It’s so freaking delicious.
One day, as I was savoring one of these little bundles of deliciousness, I thought, “Hey, I should put these things in cookies!” And so, this cookie was born.
The caramelly, vanilla-y flavor of dates goes so beautifully with bittersweet dark chocolate. Plus, they add a little extra moisture for a super-soft cookie. Add a little sprinkle of flaky sea salt, and O…M…G.
Brown Butter Makes Everything Better
Brown butter, in case you’re not familiar, is made by heating butter in a saucepan until the butter solids brown, giving it a deliciously complex, nutty flavor. It adds a little more time to your prep, but boy is it worth it. This liquid gold makes everything taste amazing—roasted veggies, seafood, and, of course, cookies!
I have a whole post on how to make brown butter: Check it out here!
A lot of bakers will tell you to never use salted butter for brown butter, but I disagree. Salted butter gets even saltier when you brown it, and that blends perfectly with the sweetness of the chocolate and dates in these cookies. (But feel free to use unsalted if you prefer.)
If you fall in love with brown butter like I have, try it in these recipes:
- Salted Brown Butter Rice Krispie Bars
- Brown Butter Bourbon & Rye Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Brown Butter Oatmeal Scotchies
- Comfort Cookies (Dark Chocolate, Toffee, & Sea Salt)
- Cherry and Toffee Oatmeal Cookies
- Northern Ginger Cookies
- Espresso White Chocolate Chip Cookies
Tips for Making Your Best Salted Date and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
This isn’t a difficult recipe. In fact, aside from browning the butter, it’s a pretty basic method of making cookies. Nevertheless, here are a few tips to make your cookies the best they can be.
Brown the butter until it’s a nice dark amber color. Also, make sure that when you pour the brown butter out of the pan, you get all those delicious brown bits at the bottom—that’s where all the flavor is!
Let your butter chill until it’s cooled completely, about 20 minutes. It should be room temperature but still liquid.
Use good quality dark chocolate. It doesn’t have to be expensive, it just has to taste good! You could use chocolate chips for this recipe, but I prefer to chop up chocolate bars. It gives you variety in the size of the pieces, and melts into delicious little chocolaty puddles. I buy the pound-plus bittersweet chocolate bars from Trader Joe’s (we don’t have one here in Duluth, so I stock up when I’m in the Twin Cities). But ultimately, any dark chocolate you like the taste of will be great in these cookies.
Use dates that are nice and soft. I prefer Medjool dates, but any variety should work as long as they’re nice and soft. If you have some that have dried out, don’t fret—you can still use them! Just pop them in a bowl, cover them in hot water, and let them sit for a while until they soften up. Then drain the water, pit them, and chop ’em up!
Top with flaky sea salt. My fave is Maldon (I just bought a huge bucket of it at Costco—it was an amazing deal!), but I’ve also used Jacobson Salt Co and it’s equally delicious. Don’t have flaky salt? No problem. You could try using a very small sprinkle of regular salt, or even Kosher salt.
Chill. Your. Dough. I know, I know, this part is annoying. But it really does make a huge difference. Chilling your dough for a couple of hours (or, preferably, overnight) helps the dry ingredients fully hydrate for better texture and a thicker cookie. If you skip the chill, you’ll get flatter, sadder cookies. In this case, the chill time also seems to allow the dates to sort of melt into the dough, so when you bake the cookies they’re SO SOFT.
Okay friends, those are my best pieces of advice for these cookies. I hope you love them as much as I do! Happy baking!
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Salted Date and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
- 2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 c brown sugar, packed
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp molasses
- 1 T milk or nondairy milk
- 1/2 c granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 c chopped dark chocolate
- 1/2 c chopped Medjool dates
- coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Instructions
- Brown HALF of the butter (leave the other half at room temp to soften). See my post on Brown Butter for instructions. Pour brown butter into a bowl or other container to cool for 20 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
- Beat the other half of the butter with the brown sugar until smooth, about 2-3 minutes on medium speed.
- Add vanilla, molasses, and milk and mix until combined.
- Add the COOLED brown butter and the granulated sugar. Beat until fluffy, about 2 minutes on medium speed.
- Add egg and yolk. Beat until well combined, about 1 minute.
- Add flour mixture and mix on low just until combined. You should still have some bits of unmixed flour throughout the dough. Fold in chocolate chunks and dates.
- Refrigerate dough for a couple of hours or overnight (or at least 30 minutes if you can't wait that long:)). This step is CRUCIAL – don't skip chilling your dough!
- When you're ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F and set the dough out at room temperature for 10-15 minutes to soften up a bit (it will make scooping easier).
- Using a medium cookie scoop or your hands, form dough into about 2T balls and place 2" apart on a cookie sheet.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until beginning to brown around the edges. They'll be a tad doughy in the middle, but will continue to cook as they cool on the cookie sheet.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool on cookie sheet for a bit (about 10 minutes), then move cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
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If you made this recipe and loved it (or didn’t love it), please consider leaving a review and a comment below! Reviews help these recipes show up more prominently in online searches, and feedback in the comments (good or bad…but please be kind:)) helps me know what turns out well for you and what could use some work.
Thanks for being here and baking my recipes!
2 Comments
Kimberley Hathaway
I just discovered medjool dates and my gosh, these cookies are so good. I didn’t have dark chocolate but semi sweet chocolate chips worked just fine and I didn’t sprinkle the flakey salt, I need to buys some. 10/10 recommend making these.
Jamie
I’m so glad you enjoyed them and that the chocolate substitution worked so well. Thanks for the sharing!