The Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
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This classic chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe features slightly crisp edges that lead to a soft and chewy interior, and there’s no mixer required! With dozens of 5-star reviews and folks who have adopted this recipe as their standard go-to chocolate chip cookie, you are sure to find something to love about it, too! You can also find this recipe on page 15 of my cookbook.
It’s amazing how much people love a classic chocolate chip cookie, and can you blame them? Sometimes, there’s an itch only a delicious and full-of-chocolate-chips cookie can scratch. And with over 100 cookie recipes on my website, I hope you’ll believe me when I say this recipe will be your new favorite if you give it a shot.
It was one of the first recipes I developed when I was just learning how to bake from scratch, and I did a little happy dance once I took the first bite of what came out of my oven. That can be you, too, if you struggle with getting chocolate chip cookies perfectly baked. We’ll walk through everything together!
Why you’ll love these Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
I love my chocolate chip cookies a little but crunchy on the edges and soft and chewy on the inside.
This stems from my high school days. Our cafeteria served amazing cookies, and every single day after I finished lunch, I would get 2 of them: one soft sugar cookie and one slightly crisp but chewy-on-the-inside chocolate chip.
Chocolate chip cookies have been studied by bakers all over the world for a long time. The science behind what makes them crunchy or chewy or puffy or cakey or however in the world you prefer them to be… Is incredible.
I’ve read up on the science A LOT, and if you care to see the resources that I love and have read multiple times (true story), here is the lengthy version and here is a short one.
I am such a science geek, so I really love the long version. If you’re not as big of a science geek as me or just prefer a concise version, check out the shorter one.
Ingredients for Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
There’s not a whole lot of variety in the actual ingredients involved in chocolate chip cookie recipes. It’s more about the why, which we will talk about in a bit.
For these chocolate chip cookies, you will need:
• all-purpose flour
• baking soda
• cornstarch
• salt
• unsalted butter
• brown sugar
• granulated sugar
• an egg + an egg yolk
• vanilla extract
• chocolate chips (we’ll use both milk and semi-sweet in these cookies)
NESTLé TOLLHOUSE, BUT BETTER
I’ve said before, the Nestlé Tollhouse recipe is a winner. It’s a classic. It’s a go-to. It’s a no-fail. I use it as the base for my chocolate chip cookie dough bites, leaving out the eggs and leavening agents.
But in order to create my absolute favorite texture in my chocolate chip cookies, there are a few things I like to change.
ADD SOME CORNSTARCH
Just the same way I add a little cornstarch to my red velvet donuts to give them a softer, cakey texture, I add some cornstarch to my classic chocolate chip cookies to help increase the chew factor but not so much that we start talking “cakey” cookies.
ADD AN EGG YOLK
What makes a cookie chewy vs soft? A lot of stock lies in eggs. Eggs, as a whole, add structure to baked goods and help them rise. Egg whites bring a large quantity of the moisture to a cookie, and yolks create a source of fat. With fat, we find a great vehicle for flavor and a lot of chew.
For my cookies, I remove one egg white (we’ll add in more moisture in a second) and leave the yolk. Doing so brings a large source of fat to the cookie and helps keep the cookies fudgy (like brownies) and dense (fewer pockets of air).
Denser cookies will cook from the outside faster (think flatter) creating crunchy edges and leaving the inside chewy.
MELT THE BUTTER
Butter, while imperative to the flavor of cookies, can cause cookies to spread a lot in the oven. Furthermore, using softened butter and creaming it with sugar incorporates air into cookie batter, bringing lift to cookies while they bake.
You would do this if you wanted your result to be a puffier cookie.
Classic Nestlé Tollhouse cookies require creaming of butter with the sugars.
I like to melt my butter because it helps keep the cookies chewy and dense, and we will refrigerate the cookie dough once it’s all mixed together to solidify the butter again, preventing greasy cookies.
INCREASE THE BROWN SUGAR
I’ve said it before (and before aaaand before) and I’ll say it again– brown sugar brings super chew to baked goods. Brown sugar is white (granulated) sugar with molasses in it, so it automatically brings moisture with it when it’s added to cookies (remember, we took some moisture out by removing that egg white).
Plus, it caramelizes faster, so the toffee/butterscotch flavors in the cookie are unparalleled vs a cookie made with all or mostly granulated sugar.
CHILL THE DOUGH
There is much debate over this in the chocolate chip cookie world, but I have made a lot of chocolate chip cookies in my life, and I am here to tell you…
Chilled cookie dough > non-chilled cookie dough.
For one, since we are using melted butter in the dough, we need some time for the butter to solidify again so that our cookies don’t end up as cookie puddles (although I’m sure those are delicious).
Secondly, the longer your cookie dough sits, the longer the flour has to absorb moisture from the butter, eggs, and brown sugar which leads to chewiness.
Lastly… Marriage of flavors. You can’t argue with that one.
I love using a mix of standard size milk chocolate chips and mini semi-sweet chocolate chips. You are welcome to use any mix you like or stick to one size. This flavor and size combination is my favorite for variety of texture and intensities of chocolate.
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe substitutions and variations
While I wouldn’t encourage you to stray too far from the original chocolate chip cookie recipe listed here, you can certainly change the chips to be any kind of chips you want. You can even play around with the extracts you use to add fun flavorings. If you are looking for specific variations on a chocolate chip cookie theme, here are all of my chocolate chip cookie recipes.
How to make the Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Because I use melted butter in these cookies, you don’t need your mixer (yay!).
It is as simple as combining the dry ingredients, setting them aside, combining the wet ingredients, then putting it all together. The chocolate chips go in last before you’ll chill the dough.
I like to use a mixture of mini chips and regular chips, and also milk chocolate and semi-sweet chips.
The size and flavor of your chips is totally up to you… This is just the way I prefer mine and I love the variety it brings to each bite.
Once your dough is chilled (at least 2 hours and up to 3 days), you’ll roll it into balls that are 1 ounce in size (about 1 Tablespoon).
How to know when Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies are done
Bake for 10-11 minutes, remove from the oven when they juuuuust start to turn brown, and then allow them to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes.
Leaving them in the oven until they just start to brown will ensure you have a bit of crispiness to your edges. Allowing them to cool on the sheet continues to bake the bottoms and parts of the edges, caramelizing the sugars further and bringing more toffee/butterscotch notes to the overall flavor.
I told you… Chocolate chip cookie science is real.
I know it may seem like a lot to put into just simple chocolate chip cookies, but trust me, the work is worth the result.
And if you need another reason to make these cookies, taste testers have often related them to those cafeteria chocolate chip cookies I spoke about, so if that elicits any kind of nostalgic elementary/middle/high school memories for you and you’d like to recreate them in your own kitchen… This is your chocolate chip cookie recipe, my friend!
Fill them with chocolate chips, mini-m&m’s, butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips… Whatever kind of chips you love!
A classic chocolate chip cookie recipe is something every baker should have in their repertoire.
Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe storage
Store chocolate chip cookies at room temperature in an airtight container up to 1 week.
HOW LONG ARE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES GOOD FOR?
For the most part, chocolate chip cookies are pretty resilient. They will keep their perfect texture pretty well stored properly, but you can add a slice of bread to the container if you think they are losing their soft chew too quickly.
HOW TO FREEZE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
You can freeze baked cookies for up to 3 months. Wrap them tightly and allow to thaw at room temperature before enjoying.
You can also freeze rolled dough for up to 2 months. Bake from frozen and add 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
HOW DO YOU MAKE COOKIES STAY SOFT AND CHEWY?
Proper storage is the key to keeping cookies soft and chewy. Be sure they’re in an airtight container or zip bag and utilize the slice of bread if they’re losing softness as they sit.
So with that, crunchy-edged-soft-centered-cookie lovers unite. I can’t wait for you to fall in love with these cookies!
FAQs for the Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Love chocolate chip cookies in different forms? Check out any of these chocolate chip cookie-based recipes next: chocolate chip cookie dough bites, chocolate chip cookie cake, cookie dough brownies, and chocolate chip cookie dough dip.
Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 and ¼ cups (270g) all-purpose flour be sure to measure properly
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (227g) unsalted butter melted1
- 1 cup (200g) firmly packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk room temperature2
- 1 and ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 and ½ cups (255g) chocolate chips3
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.2 and ¼ cups (270g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon salt
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. When sugar clumps disappear, whisk in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla.1 cup (227g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200g) firmly packed light brown sugar, ½ cup (100g) granulated sugar, 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, 1 and ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spatula. Fold in the chocolate chips and stir until evenly dispersed.1 and ½ cups (255g) chocolate chips3
- Chill the dough: roll the chilled dough into balls4 (I use this #50 cookie scoop for all of my standard size cookies) and place balls of dough onto a large baking sheet, large platter, or something else flat that you can stick in the refrigerator so the dough can chill. You could also chill the whole bowl of dough, but this dough is difficult to scoop once chilled, and chilling is mandatory. Cover the dough balls/bowl of dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
- When you are ready to bake the cookies, move a rack to the middle position in the oven, then preheat it to 350ºF (177ºC). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- Place no more than 8 balls (with a preference of 6) of dough onto each cookie sheet. If you like, you can press a few more chocolate chips on top/sides of the dough balls for aesthetic purposes. Keep dough/dough balls that are waiting to bake chilled.
- Bake the cookies for 10-11 minutes or until edges just start to turn brown. Remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely. You can reshape cookies while they are hot using a round cookie cutter or the rim of a mug or glass if they're more misshapen than you prefer. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature, up to 7 days. Baked cookies may be frozen up to 3 months. You may also freeze rolled cookie dough up to 3 months. Bake frozen for 11-12 minutes.
Video
Notes
- Melted butter: take care to melt the butter just until it’s melted and not foamy. My best tip is to melt it until there is still some stick visible, then stir it to help distribute the heat to melt the rest of the butter. If the butter becomes foamy, you may be losing too much moisture which could drastically affect the success of the cookie.
- Room temperature eggs: these are preferred for even distribution into batter. As a rule of thumb, when a recipe calls for room temperature or melted butter, it’s generally a good idea to use room temperature eggs as well. If you don’t have time to let eggs come to room temperature, place them in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes before using.
- Chocolate chips: I prefer to use a combination of 1 cup milk or semi-sweet standard size chocolate chips and ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips for these cookies.
- Balls of dough: I have made these by just dropping cookie dough right from the scoop onto the baking sheet and also rolling the balls smooth with my hands. Dropping will give your cookies extra texture on the outside while rolling will make the cookies a little more uniform in texture. I do not prefer one way or the other, and the taste is exactly the same.
- Turn these into brown butter chocolate chip cookies: see my brown butter chocolate chip cookies recipe for full details.
- Extra large cookies: you can use a #16 cookie scoop or ice cream scoop with a trigger for larger cookies. Bake 3 cookies at a time for 15-16 minutes.
- Mini cookies: I do not recommend using this recipe to make mini cookies. Use my carefully tested recipe if you are looking for mini chocolate chip cookies.
- If your cookies are spreading: in my decade of experience with folks making my chocolate chip cookies, you can do everything right (weighing flour, chilling dough) and your cookies can still spread. Try reducing your oven temperature to 325ºF (163ºC).
Nutrition Disclosure
All nutritional values are approximate and provided to the reader as a courtesy. Changing ingredients and/or quantities will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
I left them in the fridge for 1 day and they didn’t really melt into that cookie shape, they just stayed as small balls. Any tips? Should I leave outside for a bit?
Hi, Haya– did you measure the flour properly? Too much flour can make cookies not spread enough.
Hi Lynn, Well! thank you so much for the recipe, it is so delicous! I added white/milk chocolate, marshmallow in the middle and graham crackers at the bottom. It came out nice and cakey, spread out perfectly. I will definitely do it again. 🥰
Glad you enjoyed them, Piscilla! 🙂
I tried your recipe today and it came out perfectly. It was chewy, soft and looked so professional. Thank you for sharing 😌
Thank you so much, Swetha!
I finally made these cookies a couple days ago and they are fantastic! I’m literally in process of a second batch right now! Make ‘em!
Thanks so much, Serena! I’m so glad you like them.
I always use salted butter.Is that fine for this recipe As long as I omit the salt.?
Hi, Jessica– it’s fine to use salted butter. Decrease the added salt by 1/4 teaspoon for every 1/2 cup of butter. Enjoy!
Just wondering if you could make a bar cookie with this recipe.
Hi, Kathleen– my cookie cake recipe is exactly that. Enjoy!
The perfect cookie!!! Chewy, dense bite and great buttery aftertaste! Make this one guys! Thank you Lynn!
Thank you, Angel! I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much!
These cookies came together very easily. One of the recommendations was to “brown the butter” which I did. You could tell just mixing the browned butter with the sugars that these were going to be delicious. They did not disappoint! I used half milk chocolate morsels and half semisweet chocolate morsels. The flavor of these cookies is outstanding. Many thanks for sharing your recipe!
Thanks so much, Ken! 🙂
Lady you are my hero…I’ve been making cc cookies forever…I’ve tried 3 or 4 diff recipes in the last 20 years…everybody always loved them but I was never satisfied with the texture…UNTIL NOW!!! This is the perfect cc cookie!!! Soft in the middle with a little chew and the crispness of the outer edge!!! I used dark brown sugar and they came out to die for….I will no longer be searching for a new recipe bc I have long last found it!!! My husband thanks u too❤️
Oh, Vicki! This made my day, truly! I’m so happy you found my recipe. Thanks so much for giving it a try and letting me know 🙂
My dough was still very sticky and wet at 270 gms flour. Is that the right measurement? Google says 2 1-4 c flour is more than 270 gms
Hi, Connie! One cup of all-purpose flour is 120g, so 2 and 1/4 cup is, indeed, 270g. I make these cookies more often than I can keep track of, and you can see lots of people who have had success, too. Did you weigh the flour, too? If you did and your dough was sticky, that sounds like too much moisture. One egg, one egg yolk. Be sure you didn’t use 2 full eggs. Without actually being with you and seeing your dough, it’s impossible to know what went wrong. But yes, 270g is correct.
I weighed each ingredient and the dough was still a bit sticky. I stuck with it and rolled them, just in case this was how it was supposed to be. I refrigerated the dough overnight and just baked a sheet and they really flattened out. Do you think I can combine the balls and add a bit more flour in before baking the rest?
Hey, Jessica– this dough should definitely not be sticky. It’s pretty smooth. Are you sure you added one egg and one yolk, and not two full eggs? A little more flour would help, but I’d be curious about the eggs first. Sounds like there’s too much moisture.
I used one egg and one yolk as stated. Literally followed to the T, including weighing everything. I guess I’ll try adding more flour to see what happens. The flavor was great and they were tasty, but so flat that all the chips stayed in the middle as they spread. Lol
That is wild! Oddly enough, my kitchen assistant has this problem with her oven. We even tested her cookie dough IN MY OVEN and on my baking sheets, and they were fine. We’ve found that rolling the balls tall (so an ovoid as opposed to a sphere) and moving the oven rack down a peg helps! Another thing to make sure is that your oven temp is accurate and not running hot.
Loved your choc chip cookie recipe! My gut can only handle fresh milled whole grain flours so I was apprehensive about using your recipe rather than my go to whole grain cookie recipe BUT they turned out perfectly! I always weigh my flours and so it worked out just right 👏🏻☺️
Thank you so much, Rebecca! 🙂
Just a small typing mistake in your recipe. In the Notes, #3, it should be mix well…
Your recipe is so close to the one I use, I’ll have to try it 🙂
Oops, thanks for catching that! I hope you give my recipe a try!
If Im using the browned butter method do I add the melted brown butter or let it set up a bit? Like do I add to the ingredients hot off the stove or wait?
Hi, Kelli– you can use it right away, just make sure once mixed with the sugars that it isn’t so warm that it will affect the eggs when you add them. I usually let it cool down for about 5 minutes after I add the water. Hope that helps!
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve made! I always used the Nestle recipe and they were good, but these are another whole level. I’m celiac and allergic to dairy so I used all purpose gluten free flour and vegan butter and they still came out wonderful. Even my husband who doesn’t like sweets eats them.
Thanks so much, Jessica!
“This was my first time trying this recipe, and it was incredibly easy to make. I had all the ingredients on hand, which was convenient. The cookies turned out deliciously filling, with a perfect soft chew in every bite. A definite keeper!”
Thank you so much! 🙂
I made these as soon as I got the recipe. I’ve been on the hunt for the best Chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’ve tried countless recipes and man of them have been good, even excellent. This recipe fits in the excellent category for sure. It is important to note that you must use quality ingredients when you bake. It will make a difference in how your recipe tastes. These cookies are the bomb!!
Thank you SO much, Kim! I appreciate you giving my recipe a try 🙂
These classic chocolate chip cookies are 5🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟! So easy to make and truly soft, chewy but with the perfect crisp on the edge! I added a little sea salt to the top after pulling out of the oven. Totally delicious! My daughter asked me to never make them again, haha, as they are too dangerous to have around and not eat them all! Thanks!
Thanks so much, Anne!
I made this recipe twice and while they’re delicious.. they look nothing like the pictures. they’re thin and crispy (delicious) but have no thickness to them.
Hi, Kay– sometimes people report this outcome, and my comments are always the same: make sure you’re weighing your flour, make sure your butter is just melted and not so hot that it’s separating, and make sure your oven is at the right temp. Rolling into tall balls can help keep height! If you did everything right, it could be your pans or oven that are too hot.
If I could leave 15 stars I would. These are absolutely delicious. They truly are exactly as described. I’ve tried other recipes now and then but mostly just bake the Toll House recipe. Still good, yes, but it’s not going to be the default anymore – this is it! And just one note. While I appreciated the guidance about storage, from the looks of how that first batch was received, I don’t think that will ever be needed in our household! Well done freshapriflours – thank you!
Thank you so much, Erika! Best review ever 🙂
Lynn, I weigh everything in all my baking so I’m a little surprised that my mixture is a very loose, nearly pourable consistency. Maybe my butter was too warm? You state to refrigerate AFTER forming into balls but I can’t do that, obviously. Should I just let it sit in the refrigerator a bit before scooping or do you think it would benefit from more flour?
Hey, Robin! Thanks for letting me know you had an issue. To me, it sounds like yes, there’s too much moisture, but without having been there, it’s impossible for me to know what went wrong. I’d say that either your butter was way too warm when it was put in with the rest of the ingredients (though, in my experience, this would also mean your chocolate chips would have started to melt) OR you added two whole eggs instead of one egg and one yolk. Are you using large eggs or extra large eggs? Or liquid egg instead? Those could all be factors.
My guidance would be to yes, refrigerate it, and then bake 1 or 2 of them to see if they will bake into cookies. If not, press them into a 9″ round or square baking pan and make a cookie cake/cookie bars (like this cookie cake) and try again with a fresh batch, making sure you’re not melting the butter so much that it’s spattering in the microwave or is too warm when mixed with everything else.
In theory, you could add flour to the current mixture you have, but that’s such a giant pain to do if it’s been mixed throughly already.
I know that was a lot, but I want you to get these right because they are GOOOOOOD. I hope this helps! Let me know how you make out 🙂
Actually a few minutes rest time in the refrigerator did the trick! There are currently a sheet pan full of perfectly formed balls of dough chilling away in the fridge. Can’t wait to bake them! Thanks for your quick reply 🙂
This is great news! Please let me know how they turned out!
Made these today and they are great! I followed the recipe exactly, they were easy to make and came out perfectly. It’s the new classic! I will
definitely make again.
Thank you so much, Terri!