Donal's Family Kitchen34 Minutes

Dark Chocolate, Toasted Hazelnut & Sea Salt Cookies

Name: Dark Chocolate, Toasted Hazelnut & Sea Salt Cookies
Total time: 34 min
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 175g unsalted butter; 100g caster sugar; 75g light muscovado sugar; 200g self-raising flour; Pinch of sea salt, plus flaky sea salt to scatter; ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda; 1 large free-range egg, lightly beaten; 80g roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts; 80g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Depending on how gooey and chewy you like your cookies you can cook these a little more or less than the time I've given here. You might need to make a couple of batches to find your perfect number but no one will be complaining as these cookies are gloriously moreish!

Donal SkehanFrom the series · Donal's Family Kitchen

34 min totalServes 12Medium

Time34 min

Serves12

SkillMedium

ShowSuper Food In Minutes

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas 4 and line one large or two smaller baking trays with baking parchment.

Put the butter into a pan and melt over a low heat, then allow to cook until it smells lovely and nutty. Pour into a shallow dish or bowl and chill until set but not hard ( the consistency of softened butter).

Beat the butter with the sugars in a free-standing mixer on a high speed until light and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes.

Stir the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda together in a medium bowl. Add a little of this flour mix to the butter mixture, add the egg and mix to incorporate the egg. Reduce the speed to low and add the rest of the flour mixture along with the hazelnuts and chocolate.

Spoon dollops of the mixture (a small ice-cream scoop works brilliantly here) onto the lined trays, leaving a good amount of space between them as they will spread when they bake. Bake for 12-14 minutes until even and golden. You may need to rotate or turn the trays halfway, depending on your oven.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle some flaky sea salt over the cookies. Leave to cool on the trays for at least 5 minutes before devouring.

Cook's notes

Brown the butter until it smells genuinely nutty, then chill it back to the texture of softened butter before creaming — pour it in warm and the sugar won't fluff up.
Beat the browned butter and sugars a full 5 minutes; that aeration is what gives the cookies their lift and chew.
A small ice-cream scoop portions the dough evenly, and leave plenty of space between the dollops — these spread a lot as they bake.
Pull them at 12–14 minutes when they're golden but still soft in the middle, and scatter the flaky sea salt on straight away so it sticks to the warm surface.
Let them cool on the tray for that extra crunch on the outside — it'll be hard, but it's worth the wait.

Serve with Best slightly warm with a cold glass of milk for the kids, or mid-morning with a strong coffee for the grown-ups.

Make ahead & storage They keep in an airtight tin for up to 4 days, though they're at their best on day one. The unbaked dough balls freeze well — bake them from frozen, adding a couple of extra minutes.

34 Minutes

Recipe by Donal Skehan · From the series Donal's Family Kitchen · Photography © Appetite Media
Published 13 July 2026 · Updated 15 July 2026

Nutrition

Per serving · estimated

303kcal

4gprotein

32gcarbs

19gfat

Approximate — calculated from the ingredient list using USDA food data. A guide, not a medical figure.

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