These cookies are my most popular recipe ever, and for good reason. But I went ahead and messed with them anyway.
After years of making them, I’ve very slightly tweaked the recipe (to be seriously perfect, because I’m obsessive), but the original recipe will be preserved in the notes section for all who prefer it. I’ve also taken new photos and included a how-to video, so if the page looks different to you, don’t worry, you’re still in the right place. And what a delicious place it is.
My mom has been making the same chocolate chip cookies for over 20 years. They’re a hit around the holidays and they fly off the plate faster than anything else we put out for our Christmas spread. That’s especially impressive if you know how enormous our Christmas spread typically is.
Everyone begs for the recipe (in between shoving them in their mouths, of course). I also gobble them down– in fact, I probably gain 5 lbs every winter from those cookies alone. I can’t stress it enough: I loooove those cookies.
But these are not those cookies.
These chocolate chip cookies made my mom decide that she will be abandoning her recipe that she’s used for over 2 decades. These cookies are so good that I’ve dubbed them “The Best Chewy Café-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies”. These cookies are so soft and chewy that after sitting out on the counter uncovered overnight (woops) they were STILL SOFT AND DELICIOUS IN THE MORNING. In fact, I think they were even softer the second day!
That’s some chocolate chip cookie voodoo right there.
A few years ago, when I first wrote this post, I spent an entire day trying to perfect my chocolate chip cookie recipe– which resulted in a LOT of “close but not quite there” batches. After 11 hours of testing, I finally found it. I posted it here. Countless thousands of people tried it, and hundreds let me know that it was their favorite cookie recipe of all time.
Then I came back to it this year and decided to test it just a little more, to see if I really couldn’t improve upon the already-great cookies at all. So I spent 6 days (YES, SIX) testing batch after batch, literally making myself sick from cookies, obsessing over every teensy tiny ingredient. And honestly, what I found is that my old recipe was almost flawless… but with just a couple of changes, it would truly earn the title of “The Best”.
I call these cookies Café-Style because they’re giant, and they have that bumpy top that you always see on the mouth-watering cookies behind the café counter. It’s quite easy to create, actually– all you have to do is roll your cookie dough into a ball, tear it in half, and smush the two halves together, torn-side up. Voila! Bumpy, lumpy, rustic-looking cookies.
The real magic here isn’t in the bumpy tops, though. It’s the softness and chewiness of the cookies. I found that the softest cookies are created when a) you use corn starch, b) you use melted butter, c) you chill your dough before baking, d) you take the cookies out of the oven early and let them cool on the baking sheet, and e) you adjust your cooking time based on your oven in your kitchen. Those are really the keys! Give it a try and see what a difference it makes.
BY THE WAY. If you love these, you should also check out my recipe for The Best Chewy Café-Style Peanut Butter Cookies!
The Best Chewy Café-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 12 mins
- Total Time: 57 minutes
- Yield: 20 cookies 1x
Description
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon salt*
- 1 ½ sticks (6 oz) butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed*
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips, plus more for topping*
Instructions
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together the cooled melted butter and the sugars with a hand-mixer for about one minute. Then, add in the eggs and vanilla extract. Beat until just combined.
- Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix briefly, just until there are no flour clumps left. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Cover and refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to an hour.
- Remove the dough from the refrigerator and preheat the oven to 350°F, making sure you have the racks in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.*
- Scoop 1/4 cup of cookie dough at a time and roll into balls. Then, tear the balls in half by pulling gently on both sides. Smush the two halves together again, but this time have the lumpy, torn sides face upward. Place on the prepared baking sheet, making sure the cookies have plenty of space to spread. You should be able to fit 6-8 cookies on each tray.
- Bake for about 10-14 minutes, rotating half-way through, or until the cookies have spread out and the edges are golden, but the centers of the cookies still look soft and undercooked. Every oven is different, so I recommend starting with just one or two cookies on the tray to see what baking time works best for you!
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets until the cookies are firm enough to remove, about 15 minutes. As the cookies are cooling, press additional chocolate chips into the tops for a more bakery-style look.
- Repeat with remaining batches, until all cookies are baked. Enjoy with a cold glass of milk!
Notes
Take my advice about the test batch of 1 or 2 cookies. You can have the greatest cookie recipe in the whole world, but the time will vary depending on your oven! The key to perfect cookies is knowing how to adjust for your kitchen, as I mentioned in the post.
* The original version of this recipe called for 1/2 teaspoon of salt rather than 1 teaspoon, light brown sugar rather than dark, and baking at 325°F rather than 350. I’ve found that the results are better and more reliable in the updated version, but feel free to use the old recipe if you prefer.
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Found these through Reddit. Maaaan do they look good. I’m a huge CCC fan, and am so excited to try this recipe!
I have a serious Reddit addiction– are you right there with me? And thanks, I hope you love them =)
Right there with ya, girl. I’ll let you know how they turn out!
I’m looking forward to it!
Made them and they came out perfect!!! Made 2 batches! Now I’m handing them out to neighbors for Christmas! Thanks for the recipe!!! Merry Christmas!
I’ve never left comments before for recipes but this chocolate chip recipe is so good, I just had to comment! I have been looking for the perfect chewy soft cookie recipe for years, through trial and (mostly) error, and for one reason or the other, the cookies often came out flat and got hard after coming out of the oven. This recipe worked perfectly, and (please forgive the hyperbole) I think you have reached a state of cookie nirvana. You are absolutely right about oven temps varying, my old, wonky oven took 17 minutes to get these right. Also, I live in Florida, so am at sea level altitude. As you say, the combination of cornstarch, melted, cooled butter and refrigeration of the dough really make the difference. I think, also, not overbeating the dough when combining the ingredients, and using parchment paper instead of greasing the cookie sheets, (a sin I’ve been guilty of in the past) also contribute to making these cookies come out so soft and chewy. I will be sharing this recipe with everyone I know. Thanks so much for sharing it with us!
Thanks, Susan! I’m so glad to hear that you enjoyed them so much!
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Thank you
Hey Morgan, I just wanna thank you for the best Chocolate Chip recipe ever! Ive done them 3 times now and they got better every time! Because I live in europe I had trouble with the measurements at first (cups,ounces) but then when I got a measuring cups with american units and it worked really well. Mine got really chocolaty because I used different chocolate chips that melted, but they were delicious! Thanks a lot!
For anyone reading this, I always use google to translate measurements
No does anyone know how many cookies one batch makes
Hi I am wondering why my cookies are spreading. Would you have any idea why this is happening?
If they are spreading too much, it might be from the dough not being chilled enough. Are you lining your baking sheet with parchment paper?
I am actually using aluminum foil
my cookie came out soooo flat but the yumminess was there. I didn’t use the parchment paper, was that my downfall?
It may have been, or your baking soda may have been expired.
The aluminum foil will be the reason they are spreading.
Tried these (mmm good ) however flat for about an 1.5 inches in. More flour?
THESE ARE AWESSSSSSOMMMME!! Thanks!
I just made these and they are by far, the best cookies I’ve ever made. Thanks for sharing!
I’m so glad to hear it, Jodi!
Hi! Can I chill it in the fridge until tomorrow evening?
I prefer my cookies with less chilling time than that, but they will still be good 🙂
Hi Morgan.The cookies turned out to be amazing.Was wondering if they would work if I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose .
I haven’t tried it with whole wheat, but if you try it, I’d recommend a 50-50 substitution of white to wheat. Wheat flour, on its own, makes baked goods very dense.
I want to make these, but I see it says 1 1/2 sticks of butter with 6oz. in parentheses. 1 1/2 would be 12 oz. Which is correct?
1 stick of butter is typically 4 oz (in the US), and sold by the pound with 4 sticks in a package. You should use 6 oz of butter, which is 12 tablespoons of butter or 1 1/2 sticks.
Regarding post above about butter quantity.
“You should use 6 oz (not 4 oz), of butter which is 12 Tablespoons or
1 + 1/2 stick.”
I have been using the wrong amount of butter this entire time! Ooops! My one stick is 8oz… so I’ve been using 12oz per batch…. they are still amazing, and the recipe I’ve been using for years! Trying the right way now!
4 oz? I used 6 oz. Am I doing it wrong?
No, Andrea, you were right! I meant to say in that comment that one stick is 4 oz, so 1 1/2 sticks is 6 oz! Sorry for the confusion– and I’ve now fixed the comment 🙂
Hey Morgan,
I made these cookies with your recipe and they’re in the oven as I write this. I followed your recipe to a T! I had them chill in the fridge overnight because they were still too soft to handle after an hour. Even after chilling over night, I found the dough to still be very soft and not very easy to work with. They definitely don’t look like the cookies in the picture, before going in the oven, and also while they’re baking, they have all ran together and it looks like one BIG cookie.
If it was too soft to handle after an hour, the dry ingredients were likely accidentally under-measured or wet ingredients over-measured, or if you’re in an especially humid place that could be the issue– it’s hard to say exactly what the problem was without having been there. Did you try baking 2 cookies to test, or did you bake them all at once? If you still have dough, you will want to incorporate just enough additional flour (it should only take a couple of tablespoons) until the dough can be worked with (but is still soft). Hope that helps, Cassidy!
When you say measure out 1/4 cup for each cookie, roll them and then split them and put them back together… is each cookie and entire 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) or are they split into halves (2 tablespoons each?)
Hi. I made this recipe a few times and they turned great, but they were not very soft like the pics show, mine turned out kinda crunchy but the inside of the cookie was chewey. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong… Do I need to add more butter?
They look amazing in the pics! Mine didn’t exactly turn out like that. Please help!
Thanks:)
Oh sorry one more thing … My cookies came out thicker, kinda poofy. They didn’t spread out much. Do you have any tips to make they look more like your pictures?
Thanks you so much! 🙂
Hi Tonya, I don’t think you have to add more butter. Are you using parchment paper to line your trays? And how long did you bake yours for?
Hey!
Yes I did use parchment paper and I baked them for about 10-11min. At 325
I also don’t know why they are not spreading out very much, and they are not very soft and gooey looking as your pictures.
Your pictures look amazing and so yummy!
Where is your shelf situated in your oven? I would say you likely just have to bake them longer, but since you say they got crisp on the outside, I’m hesitant to think that.
I put them in the middle of the oven. Next time I’ll try using a little less flour because the dough was a little crumbly and maybe a tiny bit of milk to see if that will make a difference.
Thanks for your help
The dough should definitely have been pretty sticky rather than crumbly. Did you accidentally pack down the flour?
No I don’t think I packed the four down I just scooped it and then scraped it off with the back of a butter knife. My dough was not sticky at all it was more on the dryer side then sticky…. I followed the recipe to a tee.
How do I make them more sticky? Im not sure what to do
Forgot to mention that mine weren’t as flat, mine came out more poofy they didn’t spread out that much. What can I do to help my problem??
Thanks:)
thats what happened with mine! Poofy and not gooey like they should be. I read some other posts and I think maybe i over mixed the dry ingredients with the moist ingredients. So the dough had too much air? Maybe thats why they puffed? Help Morgan!!!
Mine did too, but it was because I accidentally grabbed my baking powder instead of soda 🙂
same here. i used baking powder instead of baking soda. I did mine on purpose just for experimentation sake. yep they were poofy alright. they turned out quite crunchy outside and soft inside. still yummy though. Tom, i will try again. 🙂
Question.. are we supposed to measure the butter solid then melt or measure the amount after melted?
I weigh it with a scale before melting.
Why would you give the amounts of dry matter in a recipe by volume instead of weight, then note at the end that, because you’ve given the amounts by volume instead of weight, the recipe may come out wrong? I’m baffled.
My food scale ran out of batteries in the middle of the recipe-tweaking process, so I had to use cups. Next time I make them I’ll add in the weight!
Also, the recipe won’t be bad if the weight of your flour is slightly different, but it may spread just a bit more. I’d rather put in the note for those who might be worried about it than not have the tip there. It should be absolutely fine though without weighing.
I actually appreciate that you gave the recipe the way you did. I don’t use a scale with baking and hate it when the recipes are given that way. Oh and I made these last night and they were soooo good! I used Ghiradelli Semi-Sweet chips but next time I’m going to try milk chocolate since they’re my fave! Thanks for the recipe!
Glad to hear it, Stacy =)
Thank you for the amazing recipe! I don’t weigh anything. I loved your post and thought it was very easy to follow.
I’m happy to hear it, Ayse! Thank you!
Hi! I wonder if you ever got around to doing this recipe by weight. I love baking this way, saves so much on the cleanup! 🙂
@Soleil The weights are mentioned somewhere in the comments now – not in the recipe unfortunately.
@Morgan For a perfectionist, who spent lots of time, money, and effort developing this recipe, I’m surprised that you didn’t give the flour’s weight in grams in the recipe. It’s been a couple years since this post, the recipe could’ve been updated with the helpful info by now. In the comments, there are many people who have issues getting similar looking cookies including myself. The cookies I baked are flatter. If you really wanted your readers to be able to replicate your recipe, you’d give the weights of the main ingredients also. I also love baking & I weigh everything in grams (when larger than a tablespoon) when I can. According to different bakers & flour manufacturers, a cup of AP flour can weigh 120-140+ grams – large room for error.
If you use the same cup each time you won´t have any troubles 🙂 The recipe is great!
I attempted to make these super yummy looking cookies last night and they came out a bit fluffy. We added an additional 1/4 a cup of flour as the dough was very stick and we did test batches to try and determine the route of the problem but to no avail. We also live at 5300 ft so wondered if the altitude might be a factor. Any suggestions on how to make them less fluffy, more golden and the dough less sticky would be very helpful!
Altitude has a big effect on cookies so this may be the case (I live at ~70ft). Unfortunately, I’m not well-versed in changes for altitude, but here is a guide that should help: http://www.wikihow.com/Adjust-a-Cookie-Recipe-for-High-Altitude
I think I figured out the fluffy issue. Maybe just for me I don’t know. I was using 2 different cookie sheets. One dark and one lighter metal sheet. The cookies on the darker sheet turned out fluffy and the cookies on the ones on the lighter cookie sheet turned out chewy and perfect! Hope this helps someone! These cookies were awesome both ways! So delicious!
I had the same issue, they were okay but quite puffy/fluffy, and I’m at a semi-high altitude. If I make them again I will reduce the baking soda, and instead of 2 eggs I will use one egg and one egg yolk (discarding one egg white).
Just made these, and I cannot believe how amazing they are! Hands down the BEST recipe for chocolate chip cookies! I tweaked it a little bit, just added a hint of cinnamon and a tablespoon of cocoa powder. They came out so soft and chewy — just perfect!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Meghanne! I will have to try them with the cinnamon and cocoa next time!
do you really need to tear them? is it okay if you don’t?
I have not tried them without the tearing step but I would think they’d be ok, just probably not look as nice.
I just made this dough. Was looking so forward to an amazing CCC recipe… but my dough seems to be very crumbly.. please help 🙁
Hi Dani,
If your dough is too crumbly, it means you added too much flour. If you add a few teaspoons of milk, it should salvage them!
Not sure what went wrong, but the dough was perfect, but found the “Dark” chocolate chips wouldn’t melt… AT ALL! They didn’t have that ooey gooey like most CCC’s & in fact, came out very hard?? Wondering what was missing
What brand of dark chocolate chips did you use? I’m sure different brands melt differently– I believe I used Ghirardelli and they were very gooey. I’m sorry to hear that yours didn’t melt!
Dark chocolate with a high cocoa percentage (say over 70%) won’t melt very well. Also some chocolate chips specifically for cooking are ‘bake stable’ in that they will retain their shape instead of melting.
Oh my goodness! Those are gorgeous looking chocolate chip cookies! Exactly how I like them.
Thanks Vanessa!
I really wanted to try this recipe but i only have baking powder. What ingredients in this recipe would i have to adjust to produce the aame cookie? I am desperate to make this!
Lindsay, baking powder can be substituted for baking soda, but it won’t be exactly the same. Replace the baking soda with 2x the baking powder (although it won’t be as strong, you don’t want to use more than that as it will give off a bad taste if there’s an excessive amount of baking powder). Let me know how it goes for you!
Can I leave the dough in the fridge for a wee bit longer than an hour? Do you know if it will do anything to the dough or the outcome? I am making the dough right now and then running into town. I plan on making them this afternoon after my appointments.
The dough will be fine, Brenda =)
Awesome! Thanks! Can’t wait to try them. They really do look amazing. Gotta say, I added just a wee but of espresso powder simply because all of my people are coffee lovers. I started adding it in all of my CCCs recipes a while back and have never gone back.
Great idea, I’ll have to try that sometime!
I am making these cookies for the second time. I couldn’t get enough of them! Thank you so much for sharing 🙂
Aw I’m so happy to hear that, Nona! =) Thanks for letting me know!!
are you using unsalted butter being as though there is salt in the recipe?
I have used both salted and unsalted and either way works well. I like salt with dark chocolate, so the balance with the salted was good for me, but if you’re not a huge fan of that combo, go with unsalted. I believe I used unsalted for the batch I photographed for this post.
Did you use salted or unsalted butter?
I believe I used unsalted for this batch that I photographed, but I’ve tried both and either way worked well!
Greetings Morgan! I am excited to try this recipe for my son and daughter in law who just gifted me with my first grand child! After an hour in the fridge, the dough is very gooey…. should I add more flour?
p.s. I used a butter blend… did that ruin it?
Hi Renee,
Do a test of the current dough. Put two cookies in the oven and see how that works. The dough should be somewhat sticky, even after refrigerating, so let’s see how it bakes first. If your two test cookies are too flat, then we can add a tablespoon of flour or so from there. I’ve never used a butter blend, so I couldn’t tell you for sure, but I do not recommend substituting the butter for anything else in baking recipes.
Can you clarify if we are supposed to beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy? I assume we are not . Are we beating until just blended? Also what are your thoughts on substituting bread flour for the all purpose flour? I’ve been using it when I want a chewy consistency in my cookies.
You are supposed to beat the sugar and butter for a minute, at which point it should be pretty light and fluffy and well-combined, but not overly so. I am not sure how bread flour would work in this particular recipe, as the cookie should already be pretty dense and chewy, so I’m apprehensive to recommend it without having tried it myself first. If you do decide to try it with bread flour, I’d recommend doing a 50-50 mix of bread and AP flours at the very least. Please let me know how that goes for you!
Hi, I have a same question. How can you beat butter until light and fluffy when it was melted. Liquid butter will never be fluffy. Should I wait until the butter solidifies again? thanks
You want to let it cool as per the instructions– this will probably take about 5 minutes. You want your butter to be close to room temperature. It won’t entirely solidify again, but it does get a little bit thicker.
I don’t say to beat the butter until light and fluffy in the recipe. The butter WILL get lighter and fluff up a little, because, as I mentioned, it thickens up when you let it cool to room temperature (and it is mixed with the sugars), but the instructions simply say to beat the butter and sugar together for 1 minute =) You’ll be good if you do that!
Hope that helped!
Yep, the cookies turned out great.
Although I had to add about 5 Tablespoons of flour to make the dough thicker.
Are these cookies soft like the subway ones ??
Can you clarify the measurement for the butter? I see 1 1/2 sticks (6oz)…..My sticks of butter are 8oz…So would that be 12 oz if it’s the 1 1/2 sticks? Or just 6oz?…Thank You
Yolanda,
Are you positive that your sticks of butter are 8 oz? The standard stick of butter in the US is 8 tablespoons, or 1/2 cup, or 1/4 lb, or 4 oz. If you’re outside of the US (or have double-sized sticks of butter), make sure to use 6 oz, as weight is the best way to measure for baking!
They are probably misunderstanding 8tbsp for 8oz on the sticks of butter. I’ve never seen double big sticks of butter. Anywhere in the world they wouldn’t be measured in tbsp or ounces. I’d be in grams I would think.
Kerrygold butter comes in 8oz bricks 🙂
These look so yummy, but I’m allergic to corn, so I can’t use corn starch. Any suggestions??? Have you tried making it without corn starch?? Thanks!
I’ve heard that tapioca starch also works well, but I’ve never personally tried it. I haven’t made the recipe omitting the cornstarch, but I imagine that they’d be fine (albeit less chewy) if you replaced the cornstarch with an equal amount of additional AP flour.
I’ve used Bob’s Red Mill Guar gum (1teaspoon instead of 2) which is a natural substitute for cornstarch. I used it with this recipe many times and the cookies are delicious every time!
Hey Morgan, so like you said, weighing ingredients is the best when baking so I was wondering if I can take your flour measurements and convert them to grams. If 1 cup APF = 125 g and 1 cup = 16 tbs then 2 cups + 2 tbs = 250 g + 15.6 g. Can you confirm this? I know you sort of addressed this in an earlier comment and I wanted to ask since perhaps you may have tried the recipe again with weighed amounts. I’d prefer not to have to tweak it after since you’ve already done all that dirty work for us ;P
I haven’t bought new batteries for my food scale yet (I keep forgetting!) but I will let you know as soon as I make the next batch. I am going to pick up batteries today!
Great recipe! I am a sucker for a good CCC recipe and due to the fact that I married a cookie monster and it just happened to be his birthday yesterday, I had to make these. They came out great! So good that my in-laws ate them up and barely saved any for my hubby. At one point I almost had to pry them out of my mom-in-laws hands; but in the end we caved and let her keep the last 3. Guess I’ll be making a double batch at Christmas! Thanks so much for taking the time to perfect this recipe.
Hi! I just made these, and mine spread SO much. They were huge! Maybe I need more flour? Thoughts?
Despite the spreading, they were delicious!
It could be a few things that caused more spreading– using slightly too little flour, having a warmer-running fridge or not chilling them for as long, or not cooling the butter before mixing it into the cookie dough mixture (that I can think of off of the top of my head). Could any of those been the case? I’m glad you liked them despite the spreading, but let’s figure that out!
These look fantastic, can’t wait to dish some out at Christmas presents! A few things, however:
1) How should I store them and how long will they store for?
2) How many did this batch make? (Also, roughly how large were they? Just for wrapping purposes!)
3) Is this with the oven fan on?
Thanks so much, I just hope some manage to make it out the door without me eating them!
Hi Emma!
If you can store them in an airtight container, that’s much preferable, but I’ve left them out overnight and they’ve been still chewy the next day. I don’t know how long they store for because they never last that long! However, either way they will last longer if you refrigerate/freeze them in airtight containers.
I got 20 palm-sized cookies out of this batch. However, I recommend you definitely do a test run to see for yourself before doing your Christmas presents, just because there are a variety of factors that can be slightly different between my kitchen/technique and yours that might give you slightly different results. (I always recommend this for any recipes, but especially baking recipes.)
I don’t even think my oven has a fan, haha. No, no fans were on when I made mine!
I hope you and all of your gift-getters enjoy them, Emma!!! =)
For lack of a better description my cookies puffed up. Was wondering what I can do to get them to settle like yours and have that cafe look. I followed the recipe exact and the cookies are great but I’m looking for presentation like yours.
Hi Corey– a couple of things can cause cookies to poof up, unfortunately I’d have a hard time pin-pointing what the issue was. However, if your cookies tasted good, then we shouldn’t assume that it was an issue with too much flour or other slight differences in ingredient amounts that can often be the case. Instead, I would recommend that if this is an issue for you in the future, you slightly press on the tops of your dough balls before baking them to flatten them out slightly (this is what I do for my Chewy Ginger Cookies, which can be prone to poofing up if they aren’t pressed a bit first) and see if that helps. Sometimes unavoidable differences in ovens or altitude can be the culprit, so that might be useful. Let me know if you wind up trying that method!
Hey!
I’ve never made CCC in my life so I am completely new to this.
This is the first CCC recipe I’ve ever tried and mine came up puffed up as well and had a concentrated egg taste although i used 2 eggs as mentioned in the recipe!! And I have no idea why , help 🙁
Hi Lily! Did you make sure to let the butter cool to room temperature before adding it in? If not, it can cook the eggs and make scrambled egg chunks in your cookies!
That’s a good point
I let it cool down for a while but i am not sure if that was enough. Will be more careful next time.
Thanks !!
Holy cow! I made these and they are soooooooooooooo good! The entire two dozen were gone in about an hour! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Haha I am so glad to hear it!!
do I use self rising flour or all purpose
All purpose
You can use self raising flour instead of all purpose, but then don’t add any baking soda. I did this and my cookies puffed a little but because I took them out part-cooked they sank nicely, or you can whack ’em with a spatula when they come out of the oven 🙂
Hhi
I am trying to make these with your recipe( first time making these) . I left the dough in the fridge over 4 hrs…though got caught up in other work just baked abt6 for sample as you said and they wont spread….they are like mounds rgt now i even went for 15 min at 325F . Can you suggest anything?i have. Abig batch dough sitting in fridge:)
Refrigerating them for 4 hours shouldn’t have a negative impact on the dough (I’ve refrigerated mine overnight), but perhaps your refrigerator is colder than mine? Try taking the dough out of the fridge and letting it sit at room temp for 10 minutes and see if that makes a difference. 8-10 mins at 350 degrees should work fine… Also, make sure your oven is preheated enough. Sometimes it will say it’s preheated to 350 but really the oven is still somewhat cold. If that still doesn’t work, try flattening your dough balls out slightly before you bake them. Let me know how that goes for you– if you still have issues we will figure out what’s causing them so you can get your nice cookies in the end!!!
Thank you for sharing such an awesome recipe… my cookies baked perfectly and my coworkers loved them!!!! I tried two variations of choc. chips as a test (Ghirardelli semi-sweet and Ghirardelli milk choc.) they were both winners!!
What do you mean by rotating the cookies hallway through? Like flip them over?
No, definitely don’t flip them. I mean you should rotate the tray in the oven so that the cookies that were toward the back of the oven are now toward the front, and vice-versa. Sorry for the confusion!
I followed your recipe to the T
My 8yo niece and I love, love, love this version of CCC’s!
I will be sharing this recipe with every one. Just NOT the cookies (;
Thank you for sharing!!!!!
Warmest regards, Madeline and Valarie
Haha, thank you Madeline & Valarie =) I’m so happy to hear that you enjoy them!
Hi, looks amazing but do you have this recipe in weights yet?? I’m in Spain so getting confused as to American cup measures, have looked it up online but it seems to vary depending what you are measuring… so 1 cup flour is 150 grams but 1 cup brown sugar is 175 grams.
I’d love to try it but can’t figure out the conversion. Thanks!
Try using: 265 grams all purpose flour, 210 grams light brown sugar, 100 grams white sugar, and use chocolate chips to your liking, but I recommend about 10 oz. I’m not sure if you need the weights for the ingredients using tablespoons/teaspoons, but if you do, let me know!
thanks for the weights. i’m canadian living in the uk, and i’m finding the weight system so much easier–not to mention fewer dishes to wash. 🙂
but twice i’ve triedmaking this with north american measures with good quality ingredients carefully measured , and both times it has not worked at all.
the cookies taste good, and they are chewy, but they flatten right out–within a couple minutes of hitting the oven. i’ve made ‘bumpy’ cookies before, and the dough has been a lot firmer than this one.
possibly the british flour is different from american, i’m wondering if all of us having problems with this are outside north america? that might explain it?
Thanks so much for sharing!! I want to make these as holiday gifts so I’m planning to make at least a triple batch. I’m so excited! I’m wondering if you think they would be ok if I used a stand mixer, rather than a hand mixer? Do you think there are any adjustments I should be mindful of? I’m not very experienced with the stand mixer, but I know it’s great for big batches, so i’d like to use it if I can. (and between you and me, i just want to learn how to make cookies that don’t come out like rocks when i use it). Thanks so much for your help!
I have not made these with a stand mixer yet, but have my fingers crossed to get one soon! That being said, I do know a lot about them, and I am nearly positive that you will be absolutely fine using the stand mixer instead of a regular hand mixer without making any adjustments. I’d still recommend that you do a mini test batch using the mixer first, though, as you wouldn’t want to make all of the cookies and then realize that there is a slight difference. (Like I said, I doubt this would be the case, but it’s always better safe than sorry!) Let me know how that works out for you, and if you need any help just shoot me a message/comment =)
Thanks for posting the weights. I got used to weighing much easier! If you have nothing better to do with your time I would love the rest of the weights. Thanks and looking forward to making these! 🙂
Morgan the recipe was awesome! You’re so beautiful.
Thanks! 🙂
I’m so glad you liked them, Joshua!
I make ccc all the time, and was so excited to come across a good looking recipe like this! Unfortunately these cookies come out cake-y NOT chewy. I was so disappointed to have waisted all those ingredients. Will not be trying again.
I’m sorry to hear that you had an issue, Tracy! These cookies should not have come out cakey at all. Usually cakey cookies are due to using a heavy hand when scooping flour, or not packing the brown sugar. Could either of those have been the case?
Sooo good!! I read through the comments in hopes it wasn’t a recipe error and I still stand in believing it’s not the recipe it’s the baker LOL sorry but I gotta back up this awesome recipe! Thank you!!
I just made these cookies, and this is by far the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever come across! My cookies are a little cakey, but I see that you suggested that this might be because of a little too much flour or not packing the brown sugar. Next time, I’ll be more careful, and maybe they will look just like the pictures. Nevertheless, these are definitely the best cookies I’ve ever eaten or baked, and this will be my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe from now on! Thanks for being awesome!
I made them again tonight, and I made sure to pack the brown sugar and not use too much flour. I also didn’t refrigerate them for as long as I did last time (I took them out after an hour this time, and last time I kept them in there for almost two hours because I got busy). They were perfect! LOVE this recipe!
Hi! I tried this recipe this week and followed the instructions meticulously but once my cookies were in the oven they did not spread at all. Any ideas as to what might have caused this? Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Gabriela, I’m sorry to hear that. I’m thinking perhaps your dough was too cold? Did you refrigerate it for longer than an hour, leave it uncovered, or have an especially cold-running refrigerator by any chance? I have refrigerated mine for longer than an hour, and they spread slightly less that way (although they should still spread, not spreading at all is a bit strange!) so I’m thinking them being overly cold might be the issue. Another thing that causes cookies to spread too little is having too little sugar– did you make sure to pack your brown sugar? Let me know, we’ll figure it out!
Can you successfully double the recipe as written?
I haven’t tried it myself, Lori, but I would think it would work fine!
These were, hands down, the best cookies I’ve ever made, and I make a lot of cookies! THANK YOU!
Can you freeze the dough?
You can freeze the dough but make sure to thaw well before baking– the colder the dough is, the less the cookies will spread.
Just tried this. One word – divine!
Thank you SO much for sharing 🙂
Look great! Plan on making them for Christmas eve! How far in advance could I make them?
I made a batch last night to save for Christmas Eve! They really stay chewy forever, so make them as early as is convenient for you!
For the chocolate chip cookies, does the 1/4 cup of dough you roll make one cookie or two?
It will make 1 cookie. I just made another batch last night, and I used a bit less dough (I made walnut-sized balls) and got 26 average sized cookies (these are pretty large), so that’s an option too!
I just tried your recipe. The cookies came out fine. I used andes chocolate pieces because I was out of chocolate chips but it came out good. The cookies are rather cakey instead of chewy, which I like just fine. The batter seems to be a little bland in my opinion, but not too sweet like other cookie recipes I’ve tried. Thank you for the recipe, my kids and I will enjoy the results. 😀
I’m glad that you liked them, and andes chocolate pieces sound like a great substitution, Kim! If your cookies come out cakey, it is likely because of too much flour– by any chance did you pack down your flour? Flour should be poured in loosely, and extra flour really would change the texture– is that a possibility?
Best cookies I have ever made. Thank you. These by far, are way better than my blondies, that are my usual go to for any occasion. I added 1/2 a cup of peanut butter chips with 1 cup of chocolate chips and left them in my oven for 1 to 2 mins longer than the recipe called for. I baked the cookies on my silicone baking mat and transferred them to a cooling rack as son as I removed them from the oven. Excellent! The cookies look just like the picture and I no longer have flat unattractive cookies! I feel so proud ha-ha. Thanks again!
I’m so glad to hear that you like them so much! I’ll have to try using peanut butter chips sometime!!
Great cookie. I mean DE-licious. I did a light brush of caramel syrup (the kind you use for coffee, etc.) on top of the cookie right before putting it in the oven (but not too much), and sprinkled with a little sea salt once it came out of the oven. OMG.
REVISION TO ORIGINAL COMMENT: If you brush them with the caramel before putting them into the oven, they seem to spread out more into a thinner cookie (just as chewy, though), they get darker and more caramel-colored, and you need to cook them a few minutes less. You can brush them just lightly with the caramel syrup right out of the oven then sprinkle with the sea salt and they turn out the way the recipe indicates. But this is the best chocolate chip cookie I’ve EVER eaten. I made them as Christmas gifts. I cannot wait to hear the feedback. People are going to freak out over these cookies.
Oh wow, the caramel and sea salt addition sound just fantastic! I will definitely have to try that in the future! I’m so glad you like the cookies =)
Yeah, Morgan, they’re positively sinful they’re so good. I finally got it down perfect after a little experimentation: Bake 6 minutes, rotate them, bake six minutes more, out of the oven for two minutes (to cool them a little so they don’t collapse), THEN brush them with caramel, back into the oven for 1-2 minutes, then just the tiniest pinch of sea salt on top when you take them out. Then cool. They seemed to turn out perfect every time, then. Killer recipe you’ve shared.
This is legitimately the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever tried, and I’ve tried A LOT of recipes. I have an oven from hell (I usually have to cut the suggested baking time down by 15% for every recipe I try), so your tip on baking one or two cookies to test was a godsend – mine were perfect by at least 8 minutes. Any longer than that and they would not have been as chewy and perfect. Props to you, girl. You’re my new favorite person.
That is great to hear, Jules! I feel you on the oven from hell– I had one of those when I was a senior in college. The awful thing about mine was that it just picked and chose what temperature it wanted to be that day. Sometimes 350 degrees F meant 450 degrees F, sometimes it meant, “Meh, I don’t feel like heating up. Ever.” I’m happy that your cookies wound up perfect despite the difficult oven!
I definitely recommend the one-to-two cookie test for every recipe you try in the future– it took me far, far too long to realize that I could prevent a ton of baking disasters that way!
Heyy, I found this cookie recipe and it looked too good not to try, so I had to try them out.
Just a question though… my cookie dough was way too soft and squishy for me to roll any balls of dough (much less break them into half haha). They spread a LOT in the oven and I ended up with one giant cookie haha! So I was wondering if I did something wrong along the way, like refrigerating it for too short a time or something? Thanks very much! xx
Hi Hazel! How long did you refrigerate the dough? The dough should be pretty sticky before refrigerating, but it should stiffen up a lot after 30 mins to an hour. If it was extremely wet/sticky/soft, then the issue may have been too much moisture (perhaps if you used extra large eggs instead of large, or didn’t let your butter cool first before mixing) or not using enough dry ingredients (not packing down the brown sugar, using too little flour). Do you think any of these could have been the case?
Oh goodness I forgot to check back! Thank you for replying, and hope you had a good Christmas!
I refrigerated it for 30 minutes. It felt a lot like cupcake batter before refrigeration, and afterward it was still sticky (albeit a little firmer), and as I rolled the dough into balls it just got softer and softer.
I actually reduced the sugar levels by quite a bit because my family is not a fan of overly sweet cookies! Could this be the case? I normally reduce sugar levels (using 75% instead of the total amount stated) and I don’t make any other changes, but recipes turn out fine. Could this be the issue though? If I want to reduce the sugar, should I add more flour instead?
Thank you very much for all your help! Happy New Year in advance! (:
I would definitely say that the sugar reduction is the issue here, Hazel! These cookies are really tweaked to be very soft and chewy, but because of that, little adjustments in the recipe can make a big difference (for example, using slightly too much flour will make them cakey, using slightly too little sugar will make them sticky and make them poof up more, etc). I’ve heard of people replacing some of the sugar with powdered milk before, and apparently that works well, but I have not tried it myself so I can’t say for sure! If you give it a go, please let me know how that works for you (I’d recommend trying it in a small batch first).
These were delicious and a huge hit in my house! I’m going to make another batch with a different chocolate chip – I used Nestle dark chocolate and they got warm but didn’t melt, and I’m curious to see what chocolate with a higher % of cacao will taste like. Testing really helped – I made my scoops a little on the big side so I had to bake them longer. This recipe is a winner – thank you!!
If I were to use more chocolate chips, say 2 and a half, do I just up the amount of the rest of ingredients? Or would that ruin the recipe?
I haven’t doubled the recipe before, but I think you should be fine if you want to make a double batch! 2.5 cups of chocolate chips should be fine for 2 batches =)
The best CCC I’ve had. I made these cookies on Sunday since I have a lot of baking to do and my mom liked them so well she wanted me to make another batch. The first batch came out perfect especially rolling and splitting them to get the café top but the second batch (that I’m currently in the process of making didn’t come out the same. They are still good but I’m not able to roll them since the dough is too sticky and wouldn’t roll. I’m trying to think of what I did different and the only thing I can think of is that I used unsalted butter the first time. I’m not complaining because they are still wonderful without he café top lol.
I made these last week and they were a hit! Thanks so much for sharing!!
I wanted to get your advice on a couple of possible adjustments:
– do you think I could use this recipe to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? If so, any suggestions on the necessary adjustments?
– would this recipe work if I subbed coconut oil for butter?
Thanks again and Happy Holidays!
Hmmm… I have never tried making Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies as a branch off of this recipe, but I’ll try to figure out how that would work and let you know if I come up with something!
I don’t have experience using coconut oil for baking, but after doing a little research, I think it would work out alright here. If you give it a go, try a half-batch first to test just to make sure. Please let me know how it turns out! =)
found this recipe made the cookies and they are fabulous!!!!
So glad to hear it, Pauline.
I just made these and flavor was good altough they turned out cakey. Perhaps because I cooled the butter in the fridge for too long?
I read I could add 1 or 2 egg yolks and substitute white sugar for brown sugar… I’ll try that next time.
You definitely don’t want to substitute white sugar for the brown sugar. Did you lightly pack down the brown sugar when making these? That may also cause issues with texture.
Also, the butter shouldn’t be cooled in the fridge, just cooled at room temperature for about 5 minutes.
Hey Morgan! I’ve been toiling all day, trying to find a good cookie recipe. I hope this one is the last one I ever have to try! One question, though: self-rising flour or all purpose?
Definitely use all purpose. I should clarify that in the recipe, woops!
LOVED this recipe. Thank you so much! It was one of the easiest recipes I have tried and definitely close to perfection… My favorite technique I learned was the rolling the dough into the ball, tearing in half and smashing together etc… This makes a world of difference in the shape of the cookie. Had no idea! I “dusted off” my hand mixer per your instructions and it was a nice change (vs using my kitchen aid standing mixer-that I use ALL the time)… Also I never saw a recipe that had melted butter and I loved that. There is no nonsense with the butter being too soft/not soft enough…. My ONLY question is do you find these are slightly under-sweet? I used unsalted butter and semi sweet chocolate chips. I am wondering if 3/4 of a cup of both sugars would do the trick to increase the sweetness slightly. Would love to get some thoughts on thar. Thanks again!
I’m so glad that you liked them, Mia! As far as the sweetness goes, these were good to my tastes but everyone has their own preferences, of course. I don’t know if I’d recommend adding much more sugar as it would likely change the texture of your cookies, but if you’d like to try it, I’d say go with just a small amount more to start (perhaps about a tablespoon more of brown sugar). Someone else also commented about brushing their cookies with caramel which would up the sweetness slightly without changing the baking process and add a little something different if you’re up for that! I thought that sounded delicious =)
If anyone else has some sweetening advice for Mia, feel free to share!
Hi Mia! I use milk chocolate chips with this recipe. Otherwise, I follow it exactly. They always taste sweet enough for me. I suggest trying milk chocolate instead of semi-sweet next time, and see what happens. Good luck!
I used milk chocolate baking chips twice but it didn’t melt as much as the semisweet ones. What brand of milk chocolate did you use?
I just made these and holy WOW. These are amazing! Delicious and chewy with a slight crisp on the edges. Heaven! Thanks for the recipe!!
Would it be okay to not use a hand-mixer. Sadly, I do not have one. Novice baker here.
Hi Aimee! You can do it without a hand mixer, because you don’t really have to cream together the butter and sugar for these, although it will be a bit of a pain in the butt (or more realistically, a pain in the hand, arm, and shoulder)! =(
There are some pretty inexpensive hand mixers out there, and while they don’t work quite as well as the higher priced ones, they will get the job done and are decent options for people who are new to baking until they decide to upgrade. Or, if you want a moderately priced one that you can keep forever, I have used this one and it works really, really well. Ultimately, what you purchase depends on how long you’d like to keep it and how much use you think you’ll get out of it, but I definitely recommend keeping an eye out for one either way, because they take SO MUCH stress off of your back/neck/arms while baking!
Have you tried nuts in these? Was thinking they would taste good with walnuts, but as I am not a natural baker (i.e. I have to follow recipes to a T) was wondering if you could just add them or would you cut back chips or adjust anything else? Thanks!
I have not tried nuts in them, but you definitely could add them in! If I was going to add in walnuts, I’d cut back on the amount of chocolate chips slightly, like by using 1 1/4 cup of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup of walnuts.
HEY! Thanks for the recipe. They worked out great, only thing is they didn’t have much taste?
Well I would say that that is not good at all! Let’s figure it out, because that definitely shouldn’t be the case.
The dough is made up of a lot of sugar (sweetness), butter (richness), and vanilla extract, all for the flavors they lend. The remaining ingredients are there for stability and texture rather than flavor. I’d guess that an issue of not having much taste would be from using too little of the flavorful ingredients or too much of the non-flavorful ingredients. If too little sugar or too much flour was used, this would probably cause some differences in texture– were they poofier or cakier than pictured here? If that’s the case, then perhaps you used a heavy hand when pouring your flour, or you didn’t lightly pack your brown sugar. If not, then the vanilla extract may have been an issue– is it old? When extract gets old, it loses a lot of flavor. Could any of these be a possibility? Let me know and we will go from there!
How do you store these overnight?
FINALLY!!!!!! Found a recipe of chewy goodness. Thank u ever so much for sharing this.
Hi, Morgan. I made these cookies and they came out bad. They weren’t as flat as yours and puffed up. After chilling, they turned very hard, as my cookies always have. The only things I changed was:
1. I used 1 stick of butter and 1/4 cup (2 oz) of vegetable shortening
2. I didn’t melt the butter. I just used softened butter
3. I put in the batter in the fridge overnight without saran wrap.
4. Because the dough was very hard in the morning to the point where it’s crumble and not stick together, I added some buttermilk to soften it.
5. After softening, it was too smooth. I couldn’t get those bumpy tops.
6. Once I put the balls into the oven, it did not spread out whatsoever. It puffed up and I had to leave them in for more than 15 minutes and they were still under cooked.
7. Since I used chopped Hershey kisses (my Giant didn’t have any chocolate chips), they didn’t melt and got hard. It wasn’t that sweet either.
I’m thinking that next time, I’ll wait for the eggs to be room temp, use all butter, melt and cool the butter when creaming, pack in the brown sugar, not over mix the batter, wrap them, only leave them in the fridge for 30-45 mins, and roll 1/4 cup into balls at a time. Also, could I leave them out for 5-10 minutes after the fridge so they’re not too cold? They should be chilled, but not too cold or room temp, right? And can I add in some instant vanilla mix? I heard that makes it softer and chewier.
Please help! My cookies always turn out like this, a tough ball of tasteless batter and hard chocolate chips.
Hi Zeze! I think your best bet is to just follow the recipe exactly next time, as everything is put together in the way to get the optimal results. I know that sometimes it is tempting to substitute, but this is usually the cause of not having them turn out the way you’d hope. After trying them exactly the way they were written, you can go from there in the future and see what you’d like to change up!
Hey, Morgan. I made them again and followed the recipe exactly as it said this time, no substitutions or alterations. It was definitely soft for once!
But out of the oven, it was very greasy and didn’t look anything like yours; it was much thicker and less “crumbly cafe-looking” and flatter even though I balled it and tore it in half. 1. Is it normal for cookies to be greasy fresh out of the oven? The greasiness went away at the end of the day, so that’s good. Do you know why it wasn’t crumbly?
But the taste was almost like bread, not that great. I also used the same chocolate chips you did (Ghirardelli). Also, when I was mixing the cooled melted butter and sugars, I didn’t know when to stop. I mixed until it was very off-white and fluffy, but I don’t know if that was too much or not.
When I was mixing the dry ingredients with the wet, it wasn’t sticking together well. It was greasy, very soft, and far from tough or dough. Is that normal? It was a bit more hardened after the fridge, which was good, but when I rolled them into balls and split them, the shape didn’t hold too well (it fell) so I had to press it around to smooth it which might have gotten rid of the crumbly top.
In conclusion, this time my cookies were super soft, which I loved, but greasy fresh out. They didn’t hold shape too when when I rolled them into balls and tore them, and they weren’t crumbly on the top. I wasn’t sure when to stop creaming the melted butter and the eggs. And it didn’t taste amazing. Other than that, they were pretty good cookies!
Could you answer:
1. Is it normal for cookies to be greasy fresh out of the oven? If not, why are mine? (This always happens).
2. How do you know exactly when to stop creaming butter and sugar? Minutes? Color and texture (looks)? If I did it for too long, is that why my dough was so soft and didn’t harden/keep its shape?
How does your cookies harden and keep its shape?
3. How can I make it taste better? Would adding more sugar and salt effect anything but taste?
Okay, I made them one more time, and they were waaay better! As good as they can get! Please just disregard my last comment; I fixed the problems. Thanks so much for the recipe! The only question I still have left is how do you know when to stop creaming the butter and sugars (just combined? lighter in color?)? Anyway, besides that, I finally got it!
I just want to say thank you so much for this recipe! The chocolate chip cookies came out moist, delicious, but most importantly, CHEWY! I love my chocolate chip cookies super chewy and soft in the middle, and slightly crunchy on the edges. They looked, smelled, and tasted absolutely perfect. After preparing the dough and folding in the chocolate chips, I let it rest in my fridge for 24 hours. Once again, thank you for the recipe! This recipe will be my go-to whenever I have a craving for chocolate chip cookies.
Omg the chewy chocolate chip cookies are definitely cookie nirvana. I just made them and they came out perfectly. My older oven also required about 17 minutes bake time. But yummy ! This is now the only ccc recipe I will make. Thank you!
Awesome cookie recipe BUT I had an issue. First I cut the recipe in half. And I didn’t have corn starch and substitute with baking powder. But my cookies flatted out and I don’t know what I did wrong. Please help!
Hi Katie! I have never cut the recipe in half, but it shouldn’t affect the texture of your cookies. Did you make sure to pack the light brown sugar? Do you happen to live at a high altitude? Did you refrigerate them long enough? These could all be issues that would cause them to spread too much. Do you still have the remaining dough? We can fix it if we can nail down where we went wrong!
These cookies were the BOMB! A totally keeper!
Found your recipe on Pinterest and YUUUM! I made it with 1/2 cup mixed mini chocolate & caramel chips, plus crushed pretzels.
Thanks for sharing!
Hello, I made these and they were amazing! I will forever use this recipe. My cookies were not as flat as yours however, much thicker but still soft and yummy. Is this maybe because I used too much dough per ball?
Thanks for the recipe!
I had to slam the cookie sheet on the counter a few times and then they looked the same! Great recipe!
I followed the recipe exactly, and my cookies came out super cakey. They puffed up and taste really bland and inedible. I’m not sure what went wrong. My baking soda is a few years out of date. However I tested it in vinegar like I found online, and it fizzed up, which means its still active and fine to use. I did not pack down my four either, and I did the right amount of sugar. I did cool my butter in the fridge for a minute or two, but I wouldn’t think that would ruin it. Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Awesome cookies!! Thanks so much for sharing your creation with all of us. I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t like CCC and these are top notch!
I do have to say that you have more patience than I do when responding to those that didn’t follow the recipe, your directions or use proper ingredients. Those things drive me crazy!! No wonder the cookies didn’t turn out well.
Thanks so much for the great recipe!! I totally lost the recipe that I previously used and google forgot which site I had been to previously :’-(. Anyhow, I followed exactly, minus converting the larger amounts to grams. I didn’t see grams listed anywhere- so what I used (as converted at Traditionaloven.com) 266 g flour, 200 g brown sugar, and 100 g granulated sugar and those amounts seemed to work really well. I totally thought the dough was too sticky (I didn’t have enough faith ;-)/its been a while since I’ve made cookies) but after 30 min to an hour in the fridge and it was perfect! I also didn’t tear balls apart and invert to get a certain look. I decided it was too much work for something that wouldn’t last long ;-). BUT that is such a great idea, and the next time I have to share my cookies :-(, I’m totally doing that! I’m going to save this recipe in a better place! Now that I have a go-to choc chip recipe again, my hips are going to hate me! 🙁
Hi Morgan! Great recipe!!! Taste so good!!
I just have a question, mine did not spread? 🙁 what did i do wrong?
It might just be that the dough was overly cold. Did they spread slightly more as the batches progressed? Sometimes that can happen due to differences in refrigerator temperatures, temperature outside, or humidity. Is that possible or do you think we’re dealing with a different issue?
I like the cookies, but they were not like yours in presentation. The centers darkened as they cooled. It looked like the grease all pooled there.
These are amazing. We used milk chocolate chips and they turned out awesome the first try. Used 2 different style baking sheets and got 2 completely different results. The thinner, crappier pan actually did the job better. Cookies stayed thick and textured on top. The other pan , supposedly designed for baking cookies, caused the dough to spread while baking. Cookies came out thin and no texture. Still tasty and chewy though!
Do you have any recommendations for a similar style sugar cookie?
I will try this, but I already think that I love you. Every CCC I’ve tried is hard or crumbly and I love chewy cookies.
Made a batch of these today! They are delicious! Mine were a little flatter looking than the picture posted but still yummy! Chewy & moist! Great recipe!
Just pulled these out of the oven ten minutes ago and half of them are gone! Seriously the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever eaten or made myself! Will definitely be making these again soon!
Awesome! I’m so glad to hear it!
I made these cookies last night and followed your recipe exactly. I have to say that these cookies are 100% absolutely the BEST cookies I have ever made! I found the link to your recipe on Pinterest and am SO glad I did! They came out looking like cookies from a bakery or a coffee shop! They are chewy and have a light crisp on the edge and are the most flavorful chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever made! I have experimented with A LOT of cookie recipes. I really appreciate the cleverness behind breaking the cookie in half for the textured appearance. It makes a big difference! Thank you So much! They are for my brother’s Birthday and I know he will LOVE them! They are so perfect, I swear I could sell them! haha I will be back on your blog for sure!
I made these cookies last night and consider my attempt to be a total #pinterestfail! They didn’t spread so they are tiny and fluffy looking. And now this morning they are hard. Help!
I weighed out 6oz of butter before melting it. I dont own a microwave so I melted it in a pot. I let it cool but possibly not long enough? I also used kosher salt and now this morning it seems like I can actually taste the salt on the cookie. I want to try again, any ideas?
Hi Melanie, I’m not sure what the problem could have been here. The butter should not have been an issue according to your explanation. It sounds like perhaps you were heavy-handed with your flour. Also, I don’t generally recommend using kosher salt for baking, as kosher salt is usually quite coarse and does not distribute as well.
When you made your dough, was it sticky or crumbly? The dough should be very sticky before refrigerating, and still pretty sticky afterward.
The dough was pretty sticky when I put it in the fridge. How big should the balls of dough be before I split them half? Also I used the hand mixer when I mixed all the ingredients together. should I have mixed by hand And only used the hand mixer for the sugar and butter?
Thanks for the info on kosher salt. I’m a baking newbie and thought kosher salt was a must!
The balls should be about walnut-sized before splitting them in half, but I’ve made bigger and smaller ones and it hasn’t been an issue. Also, I would definitely recommend mixing by hand when combining all of the ingredients in the future, as you’re likely over-mixing when you use a hand mixer, but I’m still not positive that that was the problem here. Hm. When you were measuring out your flour, do you remember how you did that? Since you say you are a baking newbie, I’m just double-checking to make sure that you know not to pack down the flour at all.
I scooped it out of the bag with the measuring cup. didn’t pack it down. I didn’t pack down the brown sugar either.I wonder if the mixer put too much air in the mixture and caused them to be fluffy.
Hello Morgan,
I was wondering if it would be ok to use sea salt with this recipe.
Thanks!
As long as it is fine sea salt, it will work! Just don’t use too big of chunks of salt as they can result in too-salty areas.
These are the BEST COOKIES I’VE EVER HAD!!!!!!!!!!
I just made this dough and even after chilling in the refrigerator for an hour the dough was still extremely sticky and impossible to roll into a ball. With and eager 5 and 2 year old, I could not put the dough back to chill any longer. I just dropped little piles of the dough onto the cookie sheets & I’ll see how they turn out. Definitely not a dough to use with little kids.
Today we had a bit of snow in Long Island, New York (as you may have heard!) so I decided to give these cookies a try. Of course, I was out of vanilla extract and low on choc chips and couldn’t get to the store, so I used dark brown sugar, 3/4 teaspoon almond extract, and 1 cup choc chips plus half cup chopped walnuts and they were AWESOME! Perfect texture, perfect flavor!
Hello, :))
I would love some help on how to fix this:
My result:
– fluffy, not as brown on the outside but the inside was already good.
– dough is very soft, sticky, but more on the soft side. Definitely can’t roll into a ball.
-I also used dark chocolate chips (I read a previous comment) & mine didn’t melt at all either into the cookies.
I didn’t use all my dough. I only made 12 cookies to test. The rest is in the fridge for overnight. Trying to figure out how to fix it 🙁
Hi Tiffany,
Is your dough still too soft? Is it greasy or just very soft? Do one test batch of two cookies where you bake them longer– I’m thinking that a little more time in the oven might help. As far as the dark chocolate chips go, it depends on what brand you use. However, I’m also thinking that with increased baking time, your dark chocolate should melt. Were there any substitutions made? Unfortunately, it’s really hard for me to give advice as to how to fix the issue without having been there to see what went wrong!
Hey Morgan
I made this recipe 3 times now. The first two times it came out awesome. I originally used a glass measuring cup (liquid kind) and came out great. The last time i used dry measuring cup… but also added white chocolate chips bc i ran out of dark. The cookies were fluffed up and cake like. Im wondering if it were the measurements or the white chocolate chips. any ideas?
Thanks
Hi Jay! It’s hard to say for sure but it might be the measuring cups or perhaps how packed the ingredients get when using one versus the other. I feel like the white chocolate chips should not have had a negative impact.
What kind of measuring cups do you use?
I have used both but either way you are better off pouring your ingredients into the measuring cup rather than scooping using the vessel as that will pack down the flour.
Hi Morgan.
I tried your cookies today and baked them according to all of your instructions but my cookies have spread out too much. They don’t look anything like yours. How long is too long to refrigerate them before baking? I refrigerated them for 45 min. Can you help me??.
Thanks.
Hi Paula! Did you line your tray with parchment paper?
Yes. The dough was sticky which made me think I didn’t refrigerate it long enough.
Just made these a few hours ago. It was a simple recipe and the cookies came out perfect.. Thank you for the recipe 🙂
This is a great recipe! This was the 1st time I EVER made from scratch chocolate chip cookies (no box or refrigerated dough). It was easy and did take 17 minutes but well worth it. Thanks!
These cookies rock – best recipe ever.
Tried making them in a bar cookie (lazy, snowed in…)
EXCEPTIONAL! We can’t stop eating them.
Even worse, we eat half a bar at a time like it’s our last visit to the pan. It never is.
Hi! You are so generous!!! I have been making chocolate chip cookies my entire life (literally since I was big enough to sit on the counter next to the kitchen aid mixer and press the one button–flour flew everywhere so I was moved to the side that decides speed. haha!)
Anyway, I love the recipe! I’m in the works of perfecting my own chocolate chip cookie recipe and checked your out today to see what you had to share 🙂 Thank you!
Ah man, mine didn’t turn out 🙁 I followed your instructions religiously, yet they were HUGE and didn’t spread, almost dry and cakey… I read nearly all your comments and suggestions, and have a few questions for ya before I try these again.
A) to one commenter you said to have the oven at 350, but in the recipe it says 325
B) to one commenter you said to have walnut sized dough-drops, but in the recipe is says 1/4 cup!!! That’s a big walnut
C) my brown sugar was pretty hard, so I think I didn’t get the right amount for the recipe which aligns with your comment that the sugar (and cold dough) is what makes them spread.
Besides the brown sugar and letting my dough warm up (feels like we’re in the arctic with all the snow we have atm) how big should my cookie balls be? And what temp should I be cooking at?
Thanks! Can’t wait to try again, as I’m sure these are the cookies my heart wants 😛
Hi Angela! I’m sorry to hear that yours didn’t turn out.
The recipe is correct, they should be baked at 325– I have to go back through and see where I said 350, it may be a typo or it may be that I was recommending for that specific person to try baking at a higher temp based on an issue they were having. I can imagine saying that if someone had a problem with the dough not spreading, similarly to yours. Sorry for the confusion!
1/4 cup is approximately walnut-sized, but perhaps because walnuts vary slightly in size, golf ball sized might be a better descriptor. I believe there is about a half centimeter difference there on average. You can of course make yours smaller or bigger, but you have to monitor your oven time accordingly.
The sugar can make a huge, huge difference! Try putting a slice of bread in your brown sugar bag and sealing it up for a few days. That should help it soften up again =)
When you get the sugar part sorted out, please remember to do a test batch of two cookies. If you have issues with them not spreading, perhaps your house being cold is affecting the oven temp and you need to actually try setting it a bit higher. Perhaps the dough is too cold. Etc. Unfortunately, with baking, the steps are environment specific. You’re going to wind up needing to make small adjustments if you live at different altitudes, in colder environments, in humid environments, and so on, but if you do a test batch of one or two cookies you should be able to see which tweaks will work for you =)
I wish I could help more! I hope that at least gets you started in the right direction. Please let me know how it turns out next time!
.
I made the dough last night, but could not bake them cookies and left the dough in the fridge overnight, the dough is quite hard, but I am assuming that is due to the cold temperature. How long should I wait until I try to use it for baking?
Also after I made the cookie dough and after I waited 25min, I added more sugar to the dough because I forgot to put in some of the granulated sugar at the beginning. Is there anything I can do at this point to ensure the flavor remains?
Finally, the dough yesterday after an hour following the remixing of the sugar was very soft and tender and was hard to shape because the dough when pulled apart would pull apart in an elongating fashion becoming stringy.
Thank You, the recipe looks good and I will try it again in the future, and also recommend to some friends!
Isn’t this recipe just the time tested Cooks Illustrated chocolate chip cookie recipe with added cornstarch?
When I started trying to make the best CCC recipe, I started with a few different bases that were widely regarded as great Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes. I compared all of them and took aspects from each that I liked in order to combine them and come up with what I thought was the best cookie. What I found was that the Cooks Illustrated recipe made by far the best base, but was majorly improved upon when incorporating cornstarch (which is key in making the cookie chewy), increasing the baking soda (which helps get a decent rise despite being such a rich and chewy cookie and aids in the browning), and using 2 whole eggs rather than 1 whole egg and 1 yolk (which also aids in rising, adds moisture, and gives structure). It seems like small additions, but it actually makes a huge difference in the final product. But yes, this was definitely an adaptation of the Cooks Illustrated version!
This afternoon we came in from a LOOOOONG week. I opened Pinterest and someone had pinned your cookies. I immediately got up and made them… All of your time and effort creating the recipe has been truly appreciate! As soon as we took our first bites, the kids and I were all smiles!!! THANK YOU for sharing your talent and gift!!!
I made these cookies and one word : PERFECTION. Chewy, soft and loaded. Even though I let the dough rest overnight in the fridge and then let the dough soften up a bit for an hour at room temp prior to baking.
I read a few comments where reader’s had their cookies puffed up. The reason for the puffing is that if you skip breaking the rolled dough into half and then smushing it together and just bake as it is, it will puff up.
However, if you roll your dough into 1/4 cup balls then, tear the balls in half and smush the two halves together again, with the lumpy, torn sides faced upwards; the cookie doesn’t puff.
I was lazy for half of the batch and just rolled it into balls, which resulted in puffed up cookies of the same batch!
I do have a query, a few of my friends are vegan, and desperately want to try this cookie. What can I replace the eggs with? I can replace butter with artisan vegan butter and Trader Joe’s vegan chocolate chips, but the eggs? Any ideas?
Thanks!
Wow. Just wow.
I grab a lot of recipes from the internet and have never ever felt compelled to comment until now. I look up chocolate chip cookie recipes from time to time but never make them for fear of getting trapped in the never ending abyss of trying to make the PERFECT chocolate chip cookie. Today the craving hit and no store bought cookie would do. For whatever reason this particular recipe spoke to me and I’m happy to say it was pure PERFECTION!! Thank you so much! This IS the only recipe for me from now on.
Little changes I made: Chocolate chunks instead of chocolate chips and I forgot to buy butter and I only had half a stick so I mixed that with 1/2 cup of butter flavored shortening.
I need help!! I’ve been trying to find a chewy chocolate chip recipe forever and was really excited to try these. But I must be doing something wrong because they turned out like every cookie recipe I make – crunchy and they didn’t flatten down/spread at all, they just stayed the exact shape they started when I put them on the cookie sheet. I read the recipe three times over before starting and did it exactly as instructed… What am I doing wrong!? 🙁 I also tried different test batches and varied cooking times down to 10 minutes. The only thing I noticed was that after cooling the butter (on the counter) it seemed to be slightly solidified. It wasn’t completely liquid/runny. Not sure if that would do it. Any advice?
I should add something… They didn’t turn out crunchy so much as dry and flaky (and puffy). Thanks for any help you can offer!
Hi Nicole! I’m sorry to hear that. Did you use parchment paper? Did you split the dough in half and stick it back together? Are you using the same measuring cup for all of the ingredients? Do you live in high altitude or somewhere that is currently particularly cold/warm/humid? If you have the same issue with a lot of cookie recipes, it may be that your oven temp is off or it has something to do with the climate where you’re at. Let’s narrow down what the problem could be and then test some possible solutions!
Hi Morgan,
Yes, I used the parchment and split the dough…and same measuring cups, etc… I live in northern Ontario, and it’s winter so very cold and dry. Is there any way to figure out how to work with my oven’s intricacies and how it cooks? I was thinking more about what I did and thought of something else with the butter. I didn’t know how much 6 oz was so I looked up a conversion online and it said 3/4 cup. Is that correct? Also, I cut 3/4 cup from a hard stick and melted it, but I just realized maybe I should have checked to make sure I had 3/4 cup melted…is there any volume change? Thanks for the help!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! This is now my new go-to ccc recipe! Made no changes and they are exactly what I was hoping for.
I had a serious craving for chocolate chip cookies and randomly searched for a recipe on Google and thought I’d give yours a try. What a good decision! They are absolutely delicious! I just ate a few too much and will probably have to skip dinner 😉
oh and I substituted the butter with coconut oil 1:1, so my cookies are pretty flat, but they taste amazing.
thanks, I will definitely make those again!
How long do you melt the butter? I seem to be having issues with this. And is it ok to use sea salt?
I usually microwave the butter in a bowl for 30 seconds and then do 10 second intervals after that until it’s fully melted. Sea salt is okay if it is fine sea salt, but if it is very coarse, it won’t distribute well.
Just made a batch of these and followed the recipe exactly. Packed brown sugar, leveled flour, melted cooled butter, 30 min in the fridge. They weren’t too sticky after the chill, nor were they dry. I used an ice cream scoop to portion them. The only thing I didn’t have was any parchment paper… 12 min seemed just right to take them out. The cookies turned out paper thin… Is lack of parchment the reason they are super thin? I feel like that cant be the only reason.. They taste great otherwise. Thanks for sharing.
I believe the parchment paper does make a big difference, as it puts the bottoms of the cookies in contact with more heat and causes them to spread faster. I’m not sure if that is the issue, but it would make sense to me!
Great cookies! My daughter (10 years old) made these with just a bit of direction from me. They turned out great. This recipe is a keeper!
These cookies are delicious and “professional” looking– like something I would buy in a cafe or bakery! Thanks so much for the recipe– these will certainly be my new go-to.
I tryed making these and they didn’t turn out right my fist batch were soggy and greasy total disaster my second batch weren’t much better and they stuck to the parchment paper I was really disappointed I don’t know what went wrong my dough was perfect just like the recipe oh well
Hi Janet– if your cookies were soggy and greasy, you may have slightly undermeasured your flour (a little bit makes a big difference!) I’m sorry to hear that you had that issue. In the future, make sure you tweak after the test batch, if necessary!
I tried making these tonight but they tasted so floury I had to throw them out. What did I do wrong? I followed the recipe to the T except the vanilla extract, bc I didn’t have good vanilla extract. Any ideas how to decrease the flour taste? Thanks!
This likely means that you just were heavy-handed in measuring the flour, unfortunately. This sometimes happens when the flour is packed down or when measuring cups are used to scoop out the flour into another vessel. Was your dough also crumbly/dry?
hey Morgan..these cookies look sooooooooo tempting…i want to know if u spooned the flour in measuring cups or just scooped up with the cups? I’m planning on making them right now
I usually pour my flour directly into my measuring cups. Hope you enjoy!
I’ve now made this recipe about 4 times. The batter is chilling in the fridge as I type now! This is by far my favorite recipe , The cookies always stay soft! My one tweak that I do with cookies, is take about a quarter of the chocolate and chop it up real small so you get smaller chunks and shaved pieces that spread throughout the batter.
Thanks for the recipe!
I am not typically a big fan of chocolate chip cookies, but I made these with my two little boys today (since they love them) and they are SERIOUSLY THE BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES I HAVE EVER HAD! I gave one to my husband when he got home and he totally agreed. I had to adjust the baking time (16 min in my oven), but they turned out great. I also made sure to keep the dough in the fridge between each pan I put in and only rolled them out when I was ready to put the pan in. I didn’t do that with the second pan (the rolled dough balls sat on the counter for about 10 minutes) and they turned out less chewy and more crispy.
Hi there, I loved these cookies so much. I made cookie dough for christmas cookie exchanges. I remembered how great how they were and whipped up a batch today for the hosts of our around the block party. I linked your recipe in my blog http://www.marylandfamilyadventures.com (no judging, I am new to the blogging thing :-). Hopefully more people can enjoy them!
How long should i let the melted butter cool?
You want it to sit at room temperature until it is no longer hot to the touch so that it doesn’t cook your eggs as you mix it in =)
I just made these with the 6 little ones i look after,ours didn’t go as flat as the ones in your pictures,but they just tasted them and you got 6 thumbs up!! They are delicious will definately be making these again!! Thank you for the awesome recipe!!
hey can u make this without the cornstarch or do they need it to turn out properly plezz let me know
The cornstarch is largely what gives them their chewy consistency. I would definitely recommend getting some to use for the recipe rather than leaving it out, if possible.
they are amazing ur right thnx ur wicked baker wish i had more of ur recipes
Hello Morgan! I’ve test tried your recipe and it’s amazing!
Unfortunately my chocolate chip doesnt melt like the ones in your pictures.
Is there a specific type of chocolate chip that we should use ?
I’ve tried 4 times and the chips still wouldnt melt. 🙁
THANK YOU !
If you are having issues with your dark chocolate chips melting, it is likely the brand. I have used Ghirardelli and Hershey’s Special Dark and they have melted fine, but if you’ve had issues with them, then I would suggest switching to semi-sweet chocolate chips instead. They typically melt faster than dark chocolate chips. I hope that helps, Hellena!
Hey, I’m just actually making these, so I’m kinda doubting using granulated sugar.
But don’t worry! I’ll be sure to leave a comment later!!
What do you typically use in your cookies instead of granulated sugar?
can you replace butter with oil?
I don’t recommend replacing butter with oil for this recipe as the butter gives a lot of flavor to the cookies that you’d be missing out on with oil.
We were snowed in so I made these today. Wow are they good!!!!!! Thanks for sharing the recipe!
The batter turned out to be a tad liquidy for me. I halved the recipe, but otherwise didn’t change anything.
That’s strange– I don’t think halving should have made a difference. Did you wind up baking them as they were?
Not a native English speaker here and I need some clarification on this step:
“Scoop ¼ cup of cookie dough at a time and roll into balls. Then, tear the balls in half by pulling gently on both sides. Smush the two halves together again, but this time have the lumpy, torn sides face upward.”
Does it mean I have to combine them together again by crushing them together (would that make the dough flat)? Or should I just combine them and make sure that the top has the lumps and the bottom doesnt?
Thank you in advance!
The top should have lumps and the bottom shouldn’t. You don’t want to squish them together enough to flatten them, just to make them stick together again.
To sum it up: this recipe is life changing and I will never use another one for chocolate chip cookies again. I’ve made my fair share of CCC over the years , but these are by far the softest, chewiest, and most delicious cookies I have ever made. I gave one to a friend and she swore it was store bought! I’ve kept them in tupperware for three days and they still taste very fresh. Thank you so much for sharing — you’ve changed my baking game.
hi ! I’m wondering if I double the amount to make 2 batches of these cookies would it affect the outcome of the cookies?
Doubling works fine, Hanna!
Making these right now. I’ll let you know how they turn out shortly. Rissa
I was wondering if this recipe would come out just as good if I did a 1:1 substitute coconut oil for butter. Has anyone tried it with coconut oil?
These are the most delicious cookies. My family loves them. I have altered the recipe with adding chopped up Mini Reese’s peanut butter cups in place of chocolate chips. It was a happy accident. I was out of chocolate chips and used Reese’s instead. They were wonderful!!! I used about 20 individual peanut butter cups and chopped them into small chunks. If you like peanut butter… it’s worth a try. Thanks for sharing your wonderful cookies 🙂
i made these. sadly i was not happy with them at all im not 100% sure where i went wrong, mine came out very pale looking and very fat not flat and round like the images you posted.
Hi Morgan I tried this recipe today, it turned out great and was so yummy. But seems like i could not make my cookies look like yours. Can u give me more instructions on how to do it? thank you. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Tonight I made my first ever from scratch cookie. You seemed so confidant and your instructions were so clear that I had to try. And oh boy, did it pay off! Great recipe. I love your style of writing and photography. I even love how you so patiently answer everyone’s question. Even if it the questions are addressed in an earlier post. My first test cookies came out a little fluffy and some of the bites were a little more salty than others. I think next time I’ll blend the dry ingredients more thoroughly and try unsalted butter. But before I make that change, I’ll take it in to some of my coworkers and see if I’m being too critical of what may be the best CCC ever made! Bru ha ha ha! (Over-Confidant Self-satisfied villain laugh)
Forgive me my hubris and thank you so much for sharing this simple and perfect recipe!
Aw thank you for the nice comment, Darcy. I’m so glad that you like the cookies and the blog! =)
Those look amazing! They look like the perfect chocolate chip cookies to me! 🙂
Wow, these are sooo good. Thanks for the recipe! It will definitely become my go to! So you have a suggestion on storing them? Not that they would survive that long in my house but might be helpful in case I can’t eat the whole batch. 🙂
These cookies are awesome. This has become my new go to chocolate chip cookie recipe.
These taste great, but mine spread out all over the pan, and I followed the recipe exactly. I added another 1/4 flour to the remaining dough, still a bit too loose. What could have gone wrong?
Did you line your tray with parchment paper and make sure to chill the dough? If the measurements were right, those are the main things that jump out to me, but if you did both let me know and we’ll try to figure it out from there!
yes, I did both, thanks
I see the problem, the error I made. The butter! It looks like 1 1/2 sticks of butter, so that’s what I used, lol
It is one and a half sticks of butter, so that shouldn’t be the issue. What was the consistency of the dough like before baking? It should be sticky but definitely moldable.
Hi! I tried these, and although they taste great, they seem to have cooked unevenly. I took mine out after the edges were golden brown, about 12 minutes, but the centers looked under-done. They had that murky/translucent look in the centers. They also did not get as flat as yours. I got 18 cookies out of that batch. Do you think maybe mine were too big?
That may have been the issue, or perhaps your oven temp is a bit off. Did you use parchment paper? You likely have to cook them longer or make them smaller if your cookies weren’t browned at 12 mins, but you want to make sure the edges don’t burn!
I use these cookies as bribes at work! Although I won’t lie, me and my boyfriend eat most of them so they have become more like a rare gift if the make it to work haha.
Hi! I am from singapore and i would really love to try your recipe however i only have cornflour no cornstarch.
If I’m not mistaken, in Singapore, cornstarch and cornflour are the same thing =) So that will work fine!
Morgan, we love these cookies at home. Mostly my 4 year old daughter…she absolutely loves them. Just one question from a mom who wants her child to eat healthy….how can I make these cookies….oatmeal chocolate chip cookies? Can I substitute a part of the all purpose flour with oats? Any suggestions?
These look great and I’m eager to try them. I’m at altitude (5200 ft). Would you make any adjustments? Thanks!!
Hi Morgan,
I will definitely try this recipe. Pictures look great. Thank you so much for sharing your recipe. I was just curious. Why didn’t your Mom just give you the recipe???? Why did she abandon her chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe?? Why didn’t she just pass it on to you??
Haha she did give me her recipe. She likes these better, as does the rest of the family. It’s a new favorite that makes the old recipe unnecessary =)
LOL well, thank you so much for sharing your recipe!! I will DEFINITELY try this recipe out =) I had to stop looking at your photos…they were making me hungry =)
Step 2: Beat until just combined. Are the sugars suppose to be completely dissolved?
I noticed there were still fine sugar crystals when I was adding the dry ingredients. My dough is currently in the fridge. Do you think the cookies will turn out fine? Thanks!
No, they do not completely dissolve. As long as there are no big sugar clumps, they will be fine!
Thanks for this! This is my exact recipe, sans the corn starch. I can’t wait to add it in and see what it does to my recipe. The ratio of butter and sugars is the best and actually less than most traditional recipes. I can now feel confident I found “THE ONE”. 🙂
These cookies are delicious! Thank you for sharing your recipe. I have been using the same chocolate chip cookie recipe for years and years but decided to give this recipe a try tonight. I think I have a new favorite 🙂
Hi! I love this recipe! The cookies always taste amazing! The only thing is that I can’t seem to get that beautiful textured top to my cookies. I pull them apart and have the ripped part on top, but they always flatten out. They spread out a normal amount, and the dough wasn’t runny or anything. I’ve tried this recipe several times, with the cooled melted butter and with just sticks of softened butter. But I don’t know how I’m not getting that lovely texture.
Hi there,
These cookies look amazing but can I be a huge pain and ask for the flour measurements in grams/ounces? I am a ‘by weight’ baker and always fail miserably when I try to measure by cups. If you could I would soooooo appreciate it because these honestly look like what I’ve been dreaming of making for a good decade now.
Thank you sooo much in advance!
Best,
Tonia
i’m from ireland and i made these. whilst they did taste amazing, they weren’t like cookies. more like mini cakes. i followed the recipe exactly and repeated for five different batches. Every time i got the same result. oven was fine, one the middle shelf and used baking parchment. i’ve come to the conclusion after loads of googleing that american and irish flours can absorb liquid differently. so they wern’t chewy for me but still very tasty. wouldn’t recommend any europeans making this if a chewy cookie was wanted but tasty enough for to make up for that 🙂
One AND a half sticks of butter or just 1/2??? My dough seems really thin??? Help!!!
One and one half sticks (or six ounces)
These cookies are delicious!!! This is by far the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. Thanks for sharing.
Hi, I would like to know if I can replace the butter with room temperature cold pressed coconut oil
Many thanks!
Coconut oil should work fine!
Thanks for coconut oil answer. Unfortunately only have mini semi-sweet choc. chips and heard that mini chips do not cook as well in choc. chip cookies; is there a difference? I do happen to have white and coffee flavoured chips on hand, have you tried with different flavours?
While I don’t prefer mini chocolate chips, they work fine in my opinion. You could always mix together all three types of chips– whatever flavors you like when you eat them alone will also taste good in your cookies. I sometimes even put pretzel pieces and peanut butter chips in mine. They’re very versatile =)
Tonight was my second attempt at making these cookies, and although they tasted good, the cookies came out pretty thick with a cake-like textur. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I also had to keep them in the oven for almost 20 minutes to brown. The taste is still really good, however I can’t seem to get the flatter, chewy cookies like the ones in your image . Thanks for the recipe though!
Seriously awesome cookies!! I altered for altitude, and they still turned out amazing. Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
Could I use self rising flour instead of all purpose?
You don’t want to do that, as self-rising flour has added baking soda and therefore will make your cookies fluffy!
hi there!
the cookies turned out amazing! the best i have ever made. i have leftover dough though, can i freeze it or refrigerate it?
thanks for the wonderful recipe!
You can freeze it as you thaw before using!
thanks so much! can’t wait to make them for my siblings this upcoming weekend 🙂
These pictures remind me of when I was a little kid; the spilled milk, the gooey chocolate chip cookies. Yes, it looks like childhood and if I bake them, I’m sure it’ll smell and taste like it too. Thanks for the awesome chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Hi I´m from Argentina and I want to ask something about the recipe I have a doubt it say 2 teaspoons cornstarch.
Hi Marcela! The recipe uses 2 teaspoons cornstarch, there was an accidental space added after the “c” that I’m fixing right now. I hope that answers your question!
yum, these are so good.. I had to use mini chips, cuz that’s what I had! I bet these cookies are gone in a flash.
Honesty, I was very disappointed with these cookies.
Sorry to hear that, Mary. Could you please let me know what you had issues with? Hopefully we can figure out what the problem was and prevent it from happening in the future!
Hey huge fan of your cookies! I’m a young baker and my cookies never seem to flatten out right so that they are still chewy in the middle. Any suggestions or tips? I tried various things like melting my butter, not cooling the cookies, and not over measuring my dry ingredients! Thanks any tips are helpful! And what’s your favorite cookie recipe?
Will omitting the cornstarch affect the recipe?
Yes, the cornstarch helps the cookies stay chewy and moist. However if you need to omit it for dietary reasons, they will still be ok.
what type of butter do you have to use? salted or unsalted? I used margarine and they don’t look the same as the pictures?! also the dough was really sticky did I not leave it in the refrigerator for long enough?
I’ve tried soo many chocolate chip recipes and This is my favorite recipe that I found.This recipe is The BEST chocolate chip recipe EVER.Thank you for posting this recipe :).
325 degrees celsius or faranheit? 🙂
thank you so much for the great recipe 😀
I use fahrenheit for my recipes, you can do 160-165 degrees C.
My grampa adores cookies and chocolate chips are by far his favorite. I combed Pintrest looking for the perfect recipe and these are certainly it! He, and my boyfriend for that matter, ADORED them! The were great fresh from the oven and they were great a few hours old with a fresh cuppa coffee. This is for sure my go to recipe now!
That’s awesome, Victoria! I’m so glad to hear it =)
I just made these and the batter seems really sticky even after refrigerating it. What did i do wrong?
There could be a variety of issues ranging from too humid to not enough time in the fridge to slightly under or over-measuring, unfortunately I can’t really guess. BUT do a quick test run of two cookies. If they don’t turn out right, try mixing in just a bit more flour (seriously, do not add too much!) and try again. Better to test and tweak that way when something seems off.
Let me know if you have any issues from there.
Thank you for the quick response! I do live in California and just barely moved here so still adjusting from Colorado cooking. I added flour so fingers crossed. Thank you for the recipe tho! The dough is yummy 🙂
How can i make the dough not stick to my hand when i roll them?
For years I have had “find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe in the world” on my bucket list. Not any more.
Hi, i am trying out this recipe right now and I wondered if you could do a step-by-step with pictures. The dough tastes delicious and I can’t wait for the cookies to be finished !
I am currently baking these cookies. I made the dough exactly as per instructions, including the refrigeration time, baking temp, rack position, etc. However, I have been baking the cookies for around 35 mins now, and they still appear raw…what is happening?!?! this has never happened before.
Hi Kathy, that is strange! They might actually be done and just need to cool, but I can’t be sure. Also, do you live somewhere at a high altitude of with high humidity? Those factors can affect baking time, temp, etc.
I love the recipe and how chewy the cookies are and I’ve tried the recipe twice but mine are turning out too flat. I tried weighing the ingredients this time, thinking maybe the 2 cups, 2 T. flour was not enough but the weight was 279 g instead of 265 g. so it was even more than what you had used. I hesitate to add more flour but I think that’s what I need to do. I have baked professionally so I’m baffled by the problem. Any suggestions?
I currently have this dough in the fridge but I’m worried because its pretty loose…. not like normal cookie dough. Should I add more flour? I just don’t want them to spread.
Test 2 cookies after the dough chills, making sure to bake them on parchment paper. If they spread too much for your liking, you may want to add just a bit more flour. However, the dough is usually pretty loose before refrigerating, so it’s most likely right as is!
I went through three or four other cookie recipes, but your recipe was lovely! My mom told me to save it, haha. I’m bringing some of the cookies to school on Monday ^_^ Thanks!
I baked your recipe today. The cookies turned out flatter and more brown colored than I would have liked. they are still soft though. could have mixed the dough too much? what are your thoughts?
My cookies came out so different to this 🙁 The mixture was nothing like in your before-cooking cookie ball picture – yours looks like you could handle it…mine was a sticky soup! Much more like a cake mix than cookie dough. Could it be down to me not waiting for the melted butter to be cold? Mine was lukewarm, and if that was the sole reason for the difference it made a huge impact! Any ideas? Thanks 🙂
It shouldn’t have been similar to cake mix if the only issue was the butter. It sounds as though an ingredient may have been forgotten or a measurement might have been misread– is that possible?
Okay, so I don’t usually comment on blogs but as my son said tonight “Everyone should have these, even people we don’t know!”… I made these cookies last week and I think I accidentally used 1/2 cup lightly pack brown sugar, they were still good but it was missing that umm factor. So yesterday I took 2 sticks of salted butter out, I didn’t get around to making the cookies until today… I had my daughter make them as I read off the ingredients to her (we used 1 cup of packed brown sugar). It wasn’t until she combined everything (except the chocolate chips) that I gasped for air (scaring her), realizing that she used the entire 2 sticks of butter. Not knowing exactly what should be done, I added 1/2 cup of flour. We folded in the 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips plus some extra for good measure (wink) and OMG ‘The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies I Ever Made’ 🙂
So with all that I would like to thank you Morgan, for this recipe. I guess really good things do come by accidents… well at least in this case it does.
I just wanted to add that I let them set in the fridge for a couple of hours, they were a little tough to scoop which was okay. I squeezed them together instead of rolling to form some what of a ball and did the tear apart… I also baked mine at 350 for 8 min then turned the pan and baked for 1 min more. My ice cream scooper is a little bigger than 1/4 cup so they came out perfect to me, but when my daughter scooped them she made them huge so they needed to cook a little longer. I like mine a tiny bit gooey in the middle so I guess the total 9-11 min (depending on size) plus the time they spend cooling on the sheet pan is what did the trick. Also I didn’t use parchment paper… I guess I forgot. I’m at an elevation of 2,650 feet.
Reading other comments helps me so I hopefully someone else out there will find this useful.
Hi Morgan I wonder how long these cookies will keep? and I noticed that I stack them in the cookie jar but it ended up they stick to each other, do you have a suggestion to prevent this from happening? I have done these cookies 5 times now and I love them every time, but I never achieved the cafe style look when I try to follow your instructions it never came out to be bumpy on top, it became my frustration hehehe. Would you consider doing a video on the method? Cheers Morgan 🙂
You can pretty much freeze any cookie dough and they still bake perfect – just add 2-3 minutes onto the recommended cooking time. This is a great way to get storage without spoilage. Then when we want something sweet we can just pop a few in the oven from frozen…Helps with the portion control as long as i can resist eating the frozen balls of dough lol
Ok, I made these and they truly are the greatest cookies ever! I used margarine because I didn’t have butter (although I am going to make another batch to see the difference). I have a gas oven….I had to do one minute longer. I used a light cookie sheet with no parchment. I melted the margarine and then cooled to room temperature. There was no fluffiness to the batter prior to adding the dry ingredients. I left the dough in the fridge for about 2 hours uncovered. Worked like a dream! THank you so much!!!
idk what I did wrong but they spreaded out a lot. So much that they all was stuck together. Chilled the dough for an hour. First time I made this recipe, it was a fine. Idk what I did wrong today.. Any suggestions?
hey im in the mood for some good good chocolate chip cookies only thing is i dont have cornstarch
Would you have by any chance an alternative
Thanks in advance
OK I have made this recipe TWICE now, made sure I used unsalted butter, and made the cookies EXACTLY as your instructions are written. Cookies look amazing, smell fantastic. But both times the recipe turned out super SALTY! What am I doing wrong??? Anyone else experience this??
Hm, that’s strange. What kind of salt are you using?
Thank you SO much for sharing the recipe. It is the one I’ve been looking for months. They look great and test heavenly. Thanks again 🙂 🙂
These were awesome! I ate most of them myself so now I’m making another double batch! Mine spread out more than yours did, even after using extra flour, but still good. Next time I’ll add even more flour and see what happens. But they’re awesome! Thanks! 🙂
Delicious. However, I had similar issues with my cookies going flat. They looked magnificent during the cooking time and as they cooled they flattened. I used a mashed potato scoop (approx. ½ cup.) and tore in half. It appeared too big if I put back together so I cooked as is. They turned out beautiful but a little big for my taste. So I used a smaller size 40 scoop and just scooped and placed on the parchment paper. The taste is perfect the only issue I couldn’t figure out was why it flattened. I’m thinking the butter wasn’t cool enough. I’m impatient!!! I made them this afternoon and ½ of them are gone and I have a belly ache! I will definitely try the recipe again as taste is great I just need to fiddle with the process and see what works best for me! Helpful advice for the next person: follow the recipe EXACTLY as stated! I like to take shortcuts and this probably led to my cookies not turning out perfectly. (The taste was perfect though!!)
These were by far the best cookies I have ever had! 6 out of 5 stars! They were crisp on the outside but so moist and chewy on the inside. Totally amazing!
Hi ! My cookies tasted really awesome! However i could get my cookie to look like yours , the cookie looked really dark brown after i took out from the oven, just like peanut butter. Also, the cookie was rather flat and easily bent even after cooled for a long time.
Oh and also, the chocolate chip cookies became soft after awhile
I made these yesterday and they are yummy! Def saving this one. I was confused on the serving portion, it said measure out 1/4 cup roll into ball tear in half then push them back together with bumpy side out….it just seemed like it would of made a massive cookie so I tore in half then put each half onto the baking sheet with bumpy side up so I guess each one was 1/8cup serving size. They came out the perfect size!
Hi Morgan. These cookies look delicious. Do you have a video on how to make these cookies? Thank you.
Isabella
I tried this recipe as a surprise for my fiance. I’m usually a cooking beast but haven’t been able to in a while for medical reasons. I haven’t baked them yet they’re chilling in the fridge, but I found my batter was way too runny. I added additional flour so hopefully they’ll still turn out good!
Hi,
I have extra large eggs. Should I use two or just one?
I made these a few nights ago. I had to add extra time because my oven apparently suuuuuuuuuucks, but HOLY MOLY these are the perfect chocolate chip cookies! Thank you!
I make these all the time and they are such a hit that people beg me to make more ! I send them to your page so they can make them, too (: I do have one question: how long does the dough last in the fridge? I want to be able to make these only a few cookies at a time,, but don’t know if I can freeze/ refiridgerate them.
Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe! No exaggeration- when I make these, I send some to my husband’s work and they always ask my husband when I’m going to make cookies again. Some people at my husband’s old job still message him for the recipe!
Thanks!!
Sarah
These cookies came out great, thanks for the recipe!
Cookies were great, but they came out flat? I pulled apart like u said for one tray, 2nd I used melon ball scooper, a little better. I have made before using melted butter and cornstarch, and they came out great, looked just like yours. This time, I’m not sure what went wrong. I went thru several comments also. Any other ideas?
Tonight was the second time that I’ve made these cookies and yet again they are phenomenal. Thank you for sharing your recipe! Btw I followed your recipe and everything turned out perfect. My house seriously smells like a bakery right now.
these are beyond amazing. I have tries hundreds of chocolate chip recipes, but these outweigh every single one of them. I accidentally doubled the recipe, and ate all of them in one day. Don’t judge me. This will probably also happen to you too.
Yep, this is it! This recipe is as good as they come. Follow the recipe exactly and your cookies will be everything you dreamed of and more!
Hi Morgan, this recipe looks amazing! I can’t wait to try them. I have a question: can I reduce the amount of sugar to get the same consistency of the cookie? Can I just use 3/4 cup of brown sugar?
Or how much sugar can I reduce to get the same chewy texture of the cookie?
Greatly reducing the sugar will make the cookie consistency turn out differently. I’d suggest just slightly reducing it (or replacing a third with baking no-calorie sweetener) if possible.
Thank you so much, Morgan! I’m gonna try this recipe today!!!
Have just made these for the second time because they are just SO good. I have had the same problem both times though… the dough is soooo sticky it was impossible to roll them into balls (had to use my ice cream scoop) nevermind tear them to get that beautiful effect. They also spread quite a bit. I only refrigerated for 30 mins the first time so did 45 this time thinking that would help. It didn’t :(. I have a sneaking suspicion my fridge is not as cold as it should be. Is there something else I could be missing?
Re: The Best Chewy Café-Style Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe:
I’m trying to wrap my head around item 6 under the Directions: Tear the balls in half and then smush the halves together again. Does this mean you have TWO cookies separate from each other with the lumpy, torn sides facing upward? Or does it mean you put the to halves together again, in which case you would only have one cookie with the torn sides up and the other half just “smushed” under the one on top? (Sorry to be so dense.)
Eh, I couldn’t make this recipe work. Too much flour, not enough butter nor granulated sugar. Also, the oven temp seemed to be too low. My cookies were dry and tasted too much like flour. A fixed I used was approx a third more butter and a third more sugar.
I just made these for Christmas, i used 2 sticks of butter instead of 1 1/2 by accident, however my cookies came out almost cake like, very fluffy and airy rather than the picture shows. Im not sure what I did wrong… :\
Hello, I was really excited to try these cookies and I’ve made them twice so far and neither batch has come out right; not even resembling the picture. They come out almost with a chewy-ish fluffy texture. Honestly to me if I had to describe what they taste like, it would be chocolate chip pancakes.
I’m really upset that this is happening and I just want to know what could of went wrong.
It’s really hard to say without being there what could have gone wrong, unfortuantely. Can you describe the texture of your dough to me? It sounds like you might be using too much flour. Are you packing down the flour/scooping it, or pouring it into your measuring cup? If you’re packing it down, you will have too much flour which will make them fluffy. Let me know if you think that might be the issue! If not, we’ll continue to try to figure it out.
Hi, Morgan! So, I made these delicious cookies substituting maple syrup for vanilla and mixing granulated sugar with maple syrup. I added more maple syrup to make it browner. Anyway, I did a test cookie and it was delicious! However, halfway through I felt like I had a cavity. Is there any way I can fix this? Thanks!
I meant cut through the sweetness.
I have been searching for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe because they are my favorite along with snickerdoodle. I have to to say that I am thrilled by how well these turned out. I used milk chocolate chips though. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe. I would post a pic but can’t figure out how to
I doubled the recipe and (like some others mentioned) my cookies came out flat. I chilled for almost 2 hours so could be the baking soda or else because I just greased my cookie sheets with some shortening instead of using parchment. So after the first 2 dozen came out flat I put them back in the fridge to chill more and I’ll use parchment paper for the rest. Still taste great, just flat.
I don’t care for chocolate chip cookies usually. My daughter wanted to make some so I used your recipe. OMG! They didn’t last a day in my house. The best chocolate chip cookies!!! No joke!!! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
I got around to trying these tonight. I made them last night and then chilled the dough overnight. They don’t look like the picture but they aren’t bad either. I’ll probably try some other recipes before going back to this one. Overall not a bad cookie recipe, just not my favorite. Thanks!
Hi Morgan!! These are delicious!! I just have a quick question!! My cookies turned out pretty flat. My butter was slightly warmer than room temperature when I started mixing. AND, I only let them sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Did my dough need to be colder, or my butter cooler? I want to make these again, because the flavor is amazing!! Any wisdom would be appreciated!
Is it 6 oz of butter total or 1 stick plus 6 ozs,o r a 6 oz stick, plus half of that?
It’s 1 1/2 sticks of butter, which is the same as 6 oz of butter.
Wow, reading through the comments, I can’t help but laugh. I have made these several times now and they always come out perfect. I am surprised by how many people can’t figure out how to make chocolate chip cookies. Or the people that change everything in the recipe and can’t figure out what went wrong. Or the ones who use 7 year old baking soda, use aluminum foil, substitute whatever they have for the cornstarch or use Hershey’s kisses instead of chocolate chips. I think people should read the comments so you don’t have to answer the same questions over and over. I make these a lot and I thank you so much for the recipe!
Salted or unsalted butter?
your method sounds really interesting. Im on a quest to found MY favorite chocolate chip cookie, so this is going on top of my list for recipe testing 🙂 Thanks.
LOVED THESE COOKIES!!! I made them exactly like the recipe stated. The hardest part was waiting the full hour for the cookies to rest in the fridge!! They are luscious, moist, and heavenly!! They are my go to recipe!!!
These were a hit in my house!!! My sister came by and had one on her way out. She said to me with extreme seriousness, “Save that recipe.” So chewy and soft, the perfect cookie.
My family and friends love this recipe. I receive compliments every time I bake these. Thank you! Best chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve tried!
I’ve felt like making chocolate chip cookies for ages now, and so i scrummaged through tens of recipes to settle on this one… and OHMYGOD it is the most perfect cookie I’ve ever tasted – my new golden recipe for SURE. It looks gorgeous, spreads out beautifully, and has a crispy outer edge and soft and chewy middle… literally BETTER than any café. I never have ever commented before on a recipe, but this one I just had to. They’re like tollhouse on STEROIDS (good steroids, if there’s such a thing ahaha) thanks a bunch!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. They are, as we say in England, the absolute dogs’ bollocks. A somewhat coarse description but the best way to describe them.
Thank you
Thank you for sharing this recipe! Wanted to rediscover the joys of baking and I followed your recipe to a tee with heavenly results! The whole process of creating this was definitely food for my soul and eventually tummy, ha ha! My family absolutely loved them! I didn’t use parchment paper, I used nonstick cookie pans and used chocolate chunks instead of chips and the results were amazing! Your recipe rocks!
THESE WERE DELICIOUS! I tried to make mint dark chocolate chip cookies yesterday and they were so fluffy and not edible at all. So, that night I was searching for basic recipes to make chocolate chip cookies and I came across this on Pinterest!!! This recipe is not just a basic recipe, it is THE recipe. I followed all of your steps and the cookies had everything you could ever want. They were soft, decadent, chewy, and had a little crunch on the outside rim. I definitely recommend to take them out early and let them cool for 2-3 minutes, then transfer them to cool 3 more minutes on cooling racks. My family is going to love this! Thank you so much for sharing and I I’ll definitely recommend this to my loved ones and anyone who is hesitant to try.
Made these today for National Chocolate Chip cookie day tomorrow! They are fantastic although I’m having trouble getting that bumpy look on top, mine get flat on top :-(. But none the less, the flavor is there! Thank you so much for sharing!
I discovered this recipe about two years ago, and to this very day, this is still my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I just want to say THANK YOU to Morgan for spending endless amounts of hours, flour, and chocolate chips to perfect the recipe. These cookies make my family and I very happy. Can’t wait to share these cookies with my coworkers tomorrow!
For those who are still looking for a recipe for perfect chocolate chip cookies, stop searching and just make these ones. You will not regret it!
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
Hi Morgan, thank you for answering my first question, I really appreciate it, it worked out great. I have another question if you don’t mind, if I want to add a half cup of cocoa powder to this recipe to make it chocolate chocolate chip cookies, do I have to decrease the amount of flour, or plus or minus any of the other ingredients?
I think a half cup of cocoa powder would be more than necessary, unless you want it to be super duper chocolatey like in this recipe: https://hostthetoast.com/death-by-chocolate-chunk-cookies/
If you want the recipe to be closer to the original, but chocolatey, I’d say go with 1/4 cup of cocoa powder and reduce the flour by 1/4 cup. You might have to tweak a bit for the right consistency and sweetness, so just taste your dough beforehand (and do a couple of test cookies for sure) to make sure you don’t need more moisture, sugar, or of course, cocoa powder. Or you can just go all out and make the death by chocolate chunk cookies I linked above =)
Thanks Morgan once again, I did exactly what you said and it turned out great, and I didn’t need to tweak any of the other ingredients, it was very simple, just replace 1/4 cup of flour with 1/4 cup cocoa exactly like you said, thank you
P.s. your very beautiful
Do you bake them right after chilling or wait till room temperature ?
I don’t know what prompted me to try a new recipe out. Instead of my usual Alton Brown The Chewy, I looked for a recipe using two full eggs rather than an egg+yolk, as the remaining white usually goes to waste — the curse of tiny containers and poor memory. Your recipe is incredible and these are exactly like the wonderful cafe cookies of my memories. I’ll use dark brown sugar next time for the extra molasses flavor.
Thank you!
Thank you for the recipe! I didn’t melt the butter. I had it sit out for 2 hours and just creamed it with the sugar for a few minutes. I added chocolate chips and orange M&M’s for Halloween. This was probably the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever baked!
Made these today, Oh My❣️❣️❣️
They are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️
This is THE best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I’ve come across. I’m amazed at how chewy they remain the next day after baking.
I use a silicone baking mat and measure about a tablespoon of dough per cookie. My oven must be whack because it was close to 15 minutes before the cookies looked baked enough to remove.
Does the hand vs the stand mixer make a huge difference?
Is a 1/4 cup of dough a lot for one cookie? I’m planning on baking these tomorrow…
They came out like big round balls! And completely undercooked…
can i use white sugar instead of brown sugar and milk choco chips instead if dark?unk
You can use milk chocolate instead of dark, but I wouldn’t recommend using only white sugar. Try to use both brown and white sugar, if possible.
I imade them and it turned out great .It became a little bit hard the next day probably because I forgot and mixed the sugar with the dry ingrdients.
how many grams is 11/2 sticks of butter?
Just about 170 grams =)
What’s the difference if I’d use a stand mixer instead of a hand mixer? I don’t own a hand mixer
A stand mixer will work fine =)
Thank you so much for this recipe! I have always been a cook but never a baker. I finally found a chocolate chip cookie that everyone loves! I even made these with gluten-free free flour and everyone still was wowed by them! Best cookie ever, don’t think I will ever make any other. much appreciated, Molly
can i keep them in the fridge overnight and bake them the next day?
That should be fine
I’ve been making these cookies for over two years (I started with my mom when I was 6) and every time they turn out perfectly.Thank you so much for sharing these!
these look PERFECT i can’t wait to try them. chocolate chip cookies are my weakness! (well…on second thought…maybe that is a strength??) – can’t go wrong with a warm giant chocolate chip cookie with vanilla ice cream!!!
This is the best cc cookie recipe I have found! Thank you!!
Hello I made these yesterday followed the directions to the t except for the butter i used margarine. The didn’t spread well and came out puffy or fluffy. Either way they are the best cookies i have had in forever great recipe. Thank you for sharing it.
★★★★★
Hi Morgan,
I followed your recipe to a T and my cookies look very pretty, but I don’t know why they have a weird aftertaste. They kind of taste of the baking soda and Cornstarch ( which were added as per the recipe instructions).What am I doing wrong?
Hi Morgan,
My cookies look really pretty, but they have a bitter aftertaste. what do I do?
I was a huge fan of my last “best ccc ever” recipe, but yours puts it to shame!! They have the exact same ingredients , but the melted butter puts it over the top. I have officially been converted!
★★★★★
Best cookies ever! I’ve been searching for a recipe that makes a cookie with crispy edges and chewy, soft middle. Highly recommend!
The best I’ve made in years!!!!
★★★★★
I have been on a search for the best CCC recipe and this is it. I have never considered adding cornstarch but it seems to have worked. This will be my go to recipe for life! Thank you for sharing it!
Unfortunately, my dough was too sticky before and after refrigerator. It came out too flat and too oily.
I can’t rate this recipe because mine didn’t workout as I expected but I have a feeling this recipe is good. If only the measurements was in grams. That would make the process easier cause I have the feeling maybe I need more flour although I have follwed the recipe to a T.
Thanks!
These look delicious! I can’t wait to try them, but is it possible to refrigerate the dough for over an hour? Could I leave them overnight? Thanks so much!
Why do you have a Pinterest button if you don’t allow people to save your page to Pinterest? /r/mildlyinfuriating
Oh no! It’s an issue from upgrading the server capacity (because I got reddit hug of death’d the other day and the site was down for like 4 hours!) that I totally was unaware of. Thank you for letting me know! I’m going to try to get it fixed now!!
Sounds delicious!
i forgot to refrigerate… they still taste awesome but have a more cakey texture. 🙂 . thank you for the recipe. 😀
★★★★★
Thank you for this recipe! Will it still work if I skip the vanilla essence (it’s hard to find where I live) or would that change the dough too much?
That would be fine!
Tried this recipe today. My cookies were way to „fluffy“ and didn’t look anything like yours… I’m frustrated cause I don’t know why. I cooked them exactly like your recipe says, but even my butter/sugar mix looked different than in the video (very liquid). 🙁
I know this is very late, but I only recently found this recipe. I made sure I followed it to a tee, but no matter how much extra flour I added, the dough was too sticky, and “oily/shiny” to work with. The only differences I know of is that my butter was 53% vegetable oil spread, and it was not cooled 100%. Would this cause my issue?
I want to make these cookies and send them to someone by post in another country. Do you have any idea if they will be fine after 7 days if packed in an air-tight container?
★★★★★
Looking for the perfect ccc for a long time, tried several recipes, but none where perfect… Today I tried yours… They all turned out to be very fluffy and cakey, with a lot of air inside. I followed the recipe to the T… 🙁
★★★
Hey! I wanna try recipe but I don’t have any corn starch! What would you say to do? Without ruining them. They look so yummy. Would I use more flour?
Thank you
I followed the recipe EXACTLY, and found that the cookied didn’t spread out very well – they were much thicker than the photo.
★★★★
Just baked these with Namaste gluten free flour…they turned out delicious!
I made these… SO amazing!! The only change I made was subbing the 1 tsp salt for 1/2 tsp kosher salt. I like that sweet/salty bite. Yum!! This is my new go to recipe, thank you!!
I followed this recipe except for the dark chocolate chips. I used semi-sweet. Next time I’ll use dark chocolate chips. I made these to take to a birthday celebration at work. I actually made a batch and a half (30 cookies). I came back home with four chocolate chips. Not cookies. CHIPS. They must have fallen off. Were they a hit? I just finished making my second batch in two days. My husband wants some to take on his trip out of town. Please check your oven temperatures. I just bought a thermometer to hang in my oven and learned my oven setting of 350F was actually 325F. I was able to correct it and at 350F, my cookies took 11 minutes. Baking a minute longer, or 12 minutes makes a difference. Thank you for this amazing and now GO TO cookie recipe.
These cookies are AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I made them for a Christmas party and I’ve had family and friends begging me to make them since. My husband is addicted to them haha. This recipe will definitely be a staple in my family for years to come!
★★★★★
Hi I was just wondering how long these cookies will stay good for? I made them and they are sooooo good!
After failing numerous times to find a good enough chocolate chip cookie recipe, here I am. this is the best recipe ever and the cookies are flawless. Seriously so good and perfect. Thank you!!!
★★★★★
Seriously best cookies ever. My coworkers won’t let me bring anything else because they love them so much!
These cookies are amazing and I hadn’t made them in a while. I do prefer to bake them at 325, so I’m sticking with that temp. Always a favorite. I grind a little sea salt on top before I put them in the oven. Perfection!
★★★★★
Finally, A Great cookie Recipe!
I just bought Dark Brown Sugar at the store last night BEFORE i saw your recipe.
After hunting for awhile online I found yours and this is the best one I have ever tried. And I have tried and failed at a lot of chocolate cookie recipes. I used white chocolate chips instead…and they are so wonderful and chewy!!
Thanks!!!
Hands down the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! I’ve been following this recipe for years and everyone loves them so much! Thank you!
★★★★★
Have you used cane sugar?
The best chewy chocolate cookie recipe I’ve found! Made these at least 15times and they are always a crowd pleaser! Thank you!!!
★★★★★
These cookies look so good, and I can not wait to try them! When making them, should I use salted or unsalted butter?
Use unsalted butter 🙂
Great recipe, my family begs for it every year but its my holiday secret haha
Just wish the print button formatted the printout properly the way it looks this webpage.
★★★★★
Would it be possible to get the ingredients in grams? I know I could just convert it, but I’d rather be sure 😉
★★★★★
I absolutely love this recipe I actually followed your directions verbatim and my family and my picky kids and husband actually loved it I’ve not ever make cookies on point..it was always missing something.It just tastes better than any cookie I have ever made! I give you 5 Stars up if I can give you 10 I would..lol.. thank you so much Morgan you rock!
★★★★★
Yummy cookies. Very easy to make. LorrIf you press them down before baking then they aren’t puffy.
Followed the recipe exactly, my baking time was 12 minutes. They were PERFECT.
Made these and they turned out like chewy crepes!! Competely deflated!! Do you know what I might have done wrong?
These are the best cookies. The batter stays soft so that you can scoop whenever you want one. I use a small cookie scoop to make them and they are like what Friehoffer cookies used to be like. I highly recommend.
★★★★★
I have made hundreds of chocolate chip cookies trying to find my all time favorite! I have found my favorite recipe with this one!!! These are so tasty! Easy to make! Chewy and soft and not cakey. It is not flat and have beautiful volume! Yummmmmmyyyyyy!!!!
★★★★★
These are delicious!! This will be the recipe I use from now on! Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi! Any tips for making this recipe as a cookie cake? Thanks!
Can this be made as a cookie cake in a springform pan?
I absolutely love this recipe! I made these a year or two ago for Christmas and took them into work and people have been asking me to make them ever since!
★★★★★
I really love how they turned out <3 chewy n dense n yum 🙂 Tanxxx for the recipe
★★★★★
Cookies were good and everyone liked them, but it sits at merely being good and definitely not a great cookie with anyone in my crowd.
The texture was definitely the high point, but the overall taste just didn’t wow anyone…it was just a decent tasting chocolate chip cookie. I have had other people (with closely guarded recipes, darn them!) who have blown my socks off with both flavor and texture.
This is a good cookie, but not a great one as there was nothing in the flavor profile that was amazing at all…..sorry 🙁
★★★
This recipe is amazing, thank you Morgan. I halved it, made a batch and noticed that my cookies came out a little on the flat side (not too flat) and slightly greasy (but not too greasy). Everything else was perfect. Would the solution here be to add another 15g or so of flour?
★★★★★
cookies looked amazing, however I did not enjoy the cookie. The flavor fell flat. I am doing a CCC Challenge and this was week 8 and the first week we did not love the reecipe
★★★
Any chance at getting weighed amounts? 🙂 I did a half batch today to test, double checked everything, didn’t overpack any dry ingredients, and they had way too much flour — probably down to the discrepancy in measuring cups. I’m scaling the flour back for next time but weights would be even better! Thanks!
Hi, I’ve never used dark chocolate chips, usually semi sweet. But it says dark chocolate. Just making sure that’s right! Does it make a big difference?
Thanks! Can’t wait to make them!
Delicious!! Thank you so much for this recipe!
★★★★★
My new go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe! I’ve been making the original Cook’s Illustrated recipe for years, and these small tweaks make so much difference! My biggest issue was that while the cookies started out nice and chewy, they didn’t stay that way (I always double or triple the recipe, so we had LOTS of cookies on hand). This recipe though? I left one cookie out on the counter, uncovered, for two days and it was still just as soft and chewy. THANK YOU!
★★★★★
These are the best cookies I’ve ever made. I’ve been experimenting with all types of chocolate chip cookies over the past few weeks, and some have been pretty good, but none compare to this. I think chilling the dough as well as using parchment paper is what makes all the difference. I am obsessed. This is the only recipe I will use from now on. Thank you for sharing!
This recipe looks amazing! My girlfriend and I have been making cookies for months now and we’ve found some amazing recipes on Pinterest! We will have to try this one for sure!!
★★★★★
Hi Morgan!
I found this recipe through Reddit years ago and bookmarked it. Today I finally tried it, and the cookies were amazing! I am just a college student who occasionally bakes so I’m not the best at it, but these cookies may have been the best thing I’ve ever made 🙂 thank you so much!
★★★★★
I made the recipe as stated, the cookies were amazing!!! Thanks for sharing. I’ll definitely be making them again and again:)
★★★★★
I having been baking CCCs for over 30 years and these were the best cookies I ever made! Found this recipe on a whim and decided to give it a try. Followed the recipe exactly – chilled the dough for just over 30 minutes. The cookies were PERFECT! Rich taste, chewy texture with slightly crisp edges. Thank you so much for all of the testing that went into creating this absolutely perfect cookie recipe!!
★★★★★
That’s so great to hear, Brigid! I’m so glad that you enjoyed the cookies!
This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. I like baking yet am not a sweets fan. But i have to say, this recipe will convert anyone into a fan. I make it all the time so it’s past time for this review! Thank you so much for posting and perfecting this recipe. it’s also SO easy. I don’t have to wait for butter to soften because the butter is melted then cooled. And because of that, I don’t use room temp eggs either (like you would for other cookie recipes) which helps keep the batter from getting too soft. I can whip it up any time my kids have a craving. I do stick it in the fridge for at least an hour before baking which helps it slowly spread to the perfect size when baking. And because I do about 2.5 TBSP scoops, mine cook for 18 min. Thanks again!
★★★★★
These cookies are extraordinary. Thank you for this service to humanity.
★★★★★
I only had light brown sugar on hand, but followed the rest of the recipe. I’ve noticed melted-butter CCC make these beautiful “rings” of toffee brown-ness on the edges. I’m from the creaming-sugars-and-softened-butter school of thought, so I was excited to try these. While baking, they didn’t spread out much, so they didn’t turn out thin/flat and crunchy (I really dislike those kind!). They were SUPER-DUPER chewy and stayed soft the next day. I love the note of adding chips after baking to make them picture-perfect.
Can I use the recipe to make a cookie cake?
I was wondering if you have this recipe with weights included?
Many thanks!
PJW
I want to be honest. I followed everything. Texture within cookie perimeter is nice but the middle is too soft. And my gosh! You well get diabetes with just one bite. Okay it’s a figure of speech. But it’s so sweet. Eew. Feels like a pack of sugar with sprinkle of cookie. I’m sorry just being honest.
★★★
Hi! Reading this in 2020. Lol i’d like to ask how many cookies does it make for the x1? Thanks
Are these okay to freeze before baking
★★★★★
Yes! 🙂 I do it often
Morgan, I have to tell you that these are the BEST chocolate chip cookies I have made!!! I’ve tried so many chocolate chip cookie recipes that have been revered by many people, and they have all fall flat for what I’ve been looking for in the taste of my kind of cookie. This is exactly what I’ve been dreaming off….a nutty, chewy yet browned, glorious disc of chocolate and cookie! Not only that, but they are super, super easy and fast to put together. Thank you for the blood, sweat, and tears that went into testing for the perfect cookie.
:^)
I want to make these asap for a friend who has helped me through thick and thin.
Will you please let me know what adjustments to make for 5280′ altitude?
Thanks so much.
That is so sweet of you. I haven’t baked these at high altitudes, but maybe this chart might help you make the proper adjustments– http://www.bettycrocker.com/how-to/tipslibrary/baking-tips/baking-cooking-high-altitudes =)
Thank you for the amazing recipe!! This worked so well because the recipes I used before either left me with really cakey ones or ones that are too dry and biscuit like. But this recipe really gave the cookies I baked the crispy on the sides and the chewy in the middle consistency that I look for in every cookie! Boy am I glad that I found a reliable chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’ll be using this to bake my cookies from now on! Again, thank you for the amazing recipe!