Everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, and this is mine. They stay soft in the middle and get slightly crispy on the edges. They stay solid enough to dip into a glass of milk. And they’re somewhat healthy? Not really, but I like to think that.

Here are the basics:

1/2 whole wheat flour

70% cacao chocolate chips

a generous amount of sea salt on top

The most important step is to refrigerate the dough. This helps the texture to be just right. Don’t worry about the refrigeration time, it happens to be the perfect amount of time to preheat your oven and (of course) have a nice taste of the dough.

The second-most important step is using room temperature butter. Not slightly-chilled, not melted, actual room temperature. It is possible to get your straight-from-the-refrigerator to a perfect room temp by microwaving in very, very small increments, and turning it in your microwave.

Chocolate chip cookies are incredible straight from the oven, but one of the markers for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe for me is that they taste (almost) just as good when they’ve cooled. It’s so disappointing when your cookies are great straight from the oven, but turn into rocks an hour later! The cornstarch and refrigerating the dough will keep that disaster from happening.

Also, I’m guilty of eating at least 1/4 of the dough raw. Oops.

The surprise factor in these cookies is the pop of salt on top. I use this sea salt my sister brought back from Spain, but I recommend using any flaked sea salt. You don’t want giant crystals that you would put in a grinder, and you don’t want kosher salt that would just disappear into the cookie. Flaked sea salt is the perfect compromise.