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This is the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe and the only one you need, seriously. Over a million people have seen this recipe and it has over 500 5-star reviews! One bowl, no mixer, a soft cookie with crisp edges and tons of gooey chocolate chips – this is the recipe YOU need to make.
THIS chocolate chip cookie recipe is the only one that you need. It’s a soft and chewy cookie, full of chocolate, tons of flavor with the best taste, crisp edges and soft, gooey centers. They’re easy to make with no weird ingredients and you can change up the recipe to make any kind of cookie recipe you want.
Important Ingredients
- Butter – I use unsalted butter in all my cookie recipes, unless otherwise specified. I like being able to control the amount of salt added. But you can also use salted butter, just cut down on the added salt. I use MELTED butter in this recipe to create a rich toffee-like flavor, plus you don’t need a mixer!
- Sugar – I use a combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar, but there is more brown than white. The brown sugar and melted butter combine to a toffee-like flavor and keep the cookies soft.
- All Purpose Flour – be sure to measure it correctly. All-purpose flour is important for cookies – it helps create the structure and softness you expect. Too much and the cookie will be dense, to little and they will spread. Type of flour is also important – I don’t recommend substituting other flours in this recipe.
- Chocolate Chips vs Chocolate Chunks – use your favorite milk chocolate chips or semi-sweet chocolate chips – chocolate chunks work too. Or chop up a chocolate bar!
How to make Chocolate Chip Cookies
1. Melt your butter in a large bowl. You don’t even need to use a mixer unless you want to. Measure your sugars correctly and if you remember, allow your eggs to come to room temperature. It’s important to mix the sugars with the butter first, to allow the sugar to start to dissolve to create that toffee-like flavor.
2. Add white sugar and brown sugar to the melted butter and stir until combined. Add a whole egg, baking soda, vanilla, and salt. Stir. Again, you don’t need a mixer unless you want to use one.
3. Combine flour into the wet ingredients. Stir in chocolate.
4. Use a cookie scoop to scoop 1- or 2-tablespoon balls and place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper or a baking mat. Chill the dough at least 30 minutes! Chilling the dough allows the butter to harden so they stay soft in the oven and don’t flatten too much, and it also allows the flavors to come together.
5. Once chilled, space cookies 2-inches apart on baking sheet bake at 350° until they’re just no longer glossy and light golden around the edges.
Freezing Cookie Dough
Scoop the balls of chocolate chip cookie dough onto your cookie sheet, cover with plastic, and freeze the cookie sheet until the dough balls are frozen. Then place them in an airtight container and store in freezer.
How to bake cookies from frozen cookie dough:
- You can bake these directly from frozen as directed. Place them spaced on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat baking mats and bake until they just loose their glossy sheen.
- You can also let them thaw in the refrigerator overnight or on the counter for 30 minutes before baking. They’ll turn out perfect!
Storing & Freezing Baked Cookies
- Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for several days.
- Freeze baked cookies in an airtight container or gallon size bag after they’ve cooled. Thaw on the counter or heat on 50% power in the microwave for a the best chocolate chip cookie anytime you want.
Expert Tips
- You can double this cookie recipe, make the cookies as big or small as you want.
- You can turn them into pan cookies or cookie cakes and add any mix-ins you like. Think of the recipe as a blank canvas.
- Be sure to use the types of chocolate chips you like.
- I also like sprinkling these with sea salt for salted chocolate cookies.
FAQ about Chocolate Chip Cookies
They might be TOO cold! If you’ve chilled them longer than an hour or two, or if you’ve frozen the dough, then they might be so cold the heat of the oven can’t catch up. What to do: press them slightly with the palm of your hand before they go into the oven. This helps start them to spread out – but don’t worry they won’t spread too much!
Do not over bake these – they are done as soon as the edges are light golden and the center is no longer glossy.
BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, melted
- ⅓ cup (66 g) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (104g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups (186g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups (255g) chocolate chips (semi-sweet or milk)
Instructions
- Note: This dough requires chilling.
- Place melted butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or a large bowl if using a hand mixer). Add granulated and brown sugars and mix on low speed until the mixture is smooth. Mix in egg and vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until combined.
- Mix in baking soda and salt, then slowly mix in flour and mix just until the batter is smooth and comes together. Be sure to scrape the sides of the bowl during mixing. Slowly mix in chocolate chips.
- Line a cookie sheet with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Scoop 2 tablespoon balls of dough onto the cookie sheet. Spacing doesn’t matter because you will be chilling the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a second cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Remove the chilled cookie dough balls from the refrigerator and space them 2-inches apart on the cookie sheets. Bake (2 tablespoon sized cookies) for 11-15 minutes, or until the edges are a light golden and the tops are no longer glossy. Let cool on the cookie sheets at least 10 minutes before removing.
Recipe Notes
- Makes 22-24 (2-tablespoon) cookies or about 36 (1-tablespoon) size.
- Double or triple this cookie recipe to make even more cookies.
- How to freeze: Freeze baked cookies in an airtight container for up to two months.
- Freezing cookie dough: Freeze balls of cookie dough in a single layer. Once frozen you can put them in an airtight bag or container. Bake directly from frozen as directed (allow cookies to thaw on cookie sheet while oven preheats).
- If your cookies don’t seem to be flattening, you can press them lightly before or during baking with the palm of your hand to help them along. This happens sometimes when they are very cold, and it can also happen with different brands of ingredients.
- Try using white chocolate chips or a combination of milk, semi-sweet, and white chocolate chips instead of all one flavor. You can even substitute butterscotch or peanut butter chips, or add your favorite nuts. Just keep the amount of add-ins to 1 1/2 cups.
- Bake 1 tablespoon cookie dough balls for 8-12 minutes.
They tasted great, but were too cake like in texture instead of flat. I was lazy and used a Kitchen Aid mixer my wife has. My wife really loved these cookies. We ran out of white sugar, so I used brown sugar for the sweetness.
Thanks for this. I was craving homemade sweets.
Eric- 04/24/2019
This is a great recipe, I just didn’t read the instructions and I just added it in – butter dried! Otherwise, it was really good!
I tried this to bring this to a party, but it failed horribly! It ended up a mess, when I cooked it according to the recipe, I could smell smoke ? I opened the door to check on them, and the cookies were dripping and spreading all over the pan! It ended up looking like a super thin, slushy cookie pizza LOLL- This was most likely my fault since I didn’t chill it as long as directed, but the cookie dough was runny at first anyways ? The reason I gave it 2 stars is because the cookie dough tasted super good, and that it could’ve been my fault! All in all, I’d still recommend trying this recipe, just maybe not for a party until you try it out for yourself first!
Thanks so much for this recipe! I did exactly everything you said, including chilling the cookies in the freezer for 30 min (because I didn’t want to wait 2 hours, lol) and they came out great! I was only able to make 14 cookies this time around, so I’m making more today, because they were definitely a hit for my hubby and kiddos 🙂
I prefer my cookies to be thin and crispy instead of soft and chewy so I adapted this recipe to achieve my perfect cookie. Instead of melting the butter and then chilling the dough (which would simply unmelt the butter) I decided to use softened butter and did not chill the dough before baking. I also switched the measurements for white and brown sugar so get more crisp and less chew. I loved the way they turned out and I got about 16 large cookies from the recipe.
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