I have said this before but chocolate chip cookie dough is one of the best things on earth. [Side note: It's possible that I talk about cookie dough a lot. Perhaps too much. Perhaps I should find another hobby.] And while it may taste good from a tube (or bucket or sheet or however they sell it in the refrigerated section of the grocery store) it tastes much better homemade and filled with good chocolate.

Please, don't skimp on the quantity or quality of the chocolate. You don't want this cookie to be like one of those couples who have issues before getting married but think a marriage license will fix it all. Nope, if you wouldn't eat that waxy chocolate before making the cookie, why would ever consider baking with it?

So do yourself a favor, go to a specialty kitchen store (or online) and buy yourself some Valrhona or Mast Brothers or Scharffen Berger or some other chocolate whose name is fun to say out loud.

Salted Chocolate Chunk Cookies
from Smitten Kitchen

Make the cookies: Heat oven to 360°F and line a baking sheet with a silpat. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars together with an electric mixer until very light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add egg and vanilla, beating until incorporated, and scraping down the bowl as needed.

Beat in salt fine sea or table salt and baking soda until combined, then the flour on a low speed until just mixed. Fold/stir in the chocolate chunks.

Scoop cookies into 1 1/2 tablespoon mounds (over-filled size 50 scoop) , spacing them apart on the prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle each with a few flakes of sea salt. Bake for 10 minutes, until just golden on the outside but still soft inside.

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
4 tbsp granulated sugar
3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 tsp baking soda
Heaped 1/4 teaspoon (or, technically, 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon) fine sea or table salt
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 pound bittersweet/dark chocolate, cut into chunks (I used Mast Brothers)
Flaky sea salt, to finish (I use Maldon)