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This is the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies! Soft baked, extra sweet with two kinds of chocolate, and nearly impossible to ruin.
Looking for safe-to-eat cookie dough? I’ve got you covered: Edible Cookie Dough
Chocolate Chip Cookies | Ultimate Recipe
I am in love with these cookies. After googling and searching and researching and testing (yum!) I’ve figured out the perfect combination of ingredients and baking methods to get the softest, chewiest, best chocolate chip cookies. I hate making and eating crispy cookies. I think they should be illegal, plus, who wants to eat those? What a waste of calories. So, I’ve formulated this chocolate chip cookie recipe to be the exact opposite. Soft baked and extra sweet!
When I set out to find/make the best chocolate chip cookie recipe, I meant it! I started with some classic recipes, some very highly rated recipes, and other random recipes, like from my brother-in-law, or friend of a friend. It was delicious testing, and a lot of them came out decently well but I wanted ULTIMATE status, so that’s when I started testing and tweaking different recipes to see if I could make them better.
I feel that the most important part of making these cookies is the METHOD. While it’s easy to think all chocolate cookie recipes are basically the same because they all use the same ingredients, it’s simply not true. Method plays a huge part. Don’t believe me? Try this recipe!
Main Ingredients Needed
No special or secret ingredients here! Pretty sure the vast majority of us have these common culprits in our kitchen 24/7 so we can make chocolate chip cookies whenever the craving strikes! Here’s what you’ll need:
- Butter – I melt butter for this recipe, usually salted. I know salted butter is controversial because all the celebrity chefs say you should use unsalted, but I don’t care. I like salted better. But if you have unsalted, use what you have!
- Brown Sugar and Granulated Sugar – obviously you need both to make these sweet. More brown sugar than white to keep these moist!
- Egg + Egg yolk – you need an egg for the protein/structure and an egg yolk for a little extra creaminess.
- Vanilla – if you can find real vanilla extract, use that. But again, if you only have artificial, by all means, use that.
- All-Purpose Flour – of course, cookies need flour. I use unbleached all-purpose flour (but bleached is fine too). Be sure to read my flour section. Flour can make or break your chocolate chip cookie recipe.
- Baking Soda – the leavening for our cookies.
- Salt -to offset all the sweet going on.
- Chocolate Chips – my recipe calls for two kinds of chocolate chips and I highly *highly* recommend using both semi-sweet and milk chocolate. See my chocolate section below for more details and substitutions.
The Importance of Flour
Have you ever made chocolate chip cookies and they don’t spread out after baking? OR have they spread too much and turned into very dark and crispy pancakes? Both problems happen because of the butter to flour ratios. Too much flour will give you baked lumps and not enough will give you a big, melty mess.
How can we all have the same recipe and get such vastly different results? Well, friends, it comes down to how you measure your flour. Here’s how to do it:
- Fluff your flour to get air into it. Take your measuring cup and scoop some flour into it, then dump it out back into the bag. Do this 5-6 times to fluff your flour.
- Spoon your flour into the measuring cup.
- Use the back of the spoon or a butter knife to level the top.
- That’s it! You have now correctly measured flour.
Let’s Talk Chocolate
In this recipe, I suggest using a combination of semi-sweet and milk chocolate chips for maximum impact. The Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chips are my go-to for both kinds. I love the combination of the two flavors and they work really well in these chocolate chip cookies. Can you substitute them with something else? Of course, you can! Chocolate is chocolate and it’s all delicious. Here are some other delicious choices:
- dark chocolate chips
- bittersweet chocolate chips (a great substitute for semi-sweet, Ghirardelli are my favorite)
- white chocolate chips
- chocolate chunks (any kind)
- any good quality bar of chocolate that you can chop up
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
So, if you read the recipe card through (see below), you’ll notice the differences listed above. I suppose there are a lot of similarities too, but the small and minor tweaks are what set this recipe apart! With every chocolate chip cookie recipe available on the internet, they are all basically the same ingredients used in different ways. All the more reason why directions are just as important as the ingredients list!
Step 1: Make the Dough
Stir the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together. Add in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until well mixed. Slowly incorporate the flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir in the milk and semi-sweet chocolate chips by hand.
Let the dough sit 20 minutes to let the flour soak into the rest of the batter. (If your oven tends to run hot (aka flattens cookies) refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes).
Step 2: Bake
Preheat oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and scoop cookie dough onto prepared pans, using a two-tablespoon cookie scoop.
Bake, rotating sheets halfway through baking. When you pull your cookies out of the oven, they will look cooked around the edges and undercooked in the center.
Step 3: Cool and Enjoy!
Leave the cookies on the hot baking pans until you can remove them without falling apart. Place onto cooling racks and cool to room temperature before enjoying or storing in airtight containers.
Storing Chocolate Chip Cookies
Since I love a soft cookie and do everything I can to bake these and keep them soft, I like to store them a certain way to ensure that work doesn’t go to waste. If you have leftover chocolate chip cookies, store the cooled cookies in an airtight container with a slice of plain sandwich bread resting on top. Store-bought white or whole wheat is perfect!
Cookies should stay fresh for 2 days and are passable after 3 days, though, who still has chocolate chip cookies sitting on their counter 3 days after they have made them? They don’t last that long at my house.
Freezing Instructions
You can essentially make and freeze these chocolate chip cookies baked or unbaked. Here are the directions for both.
Baked
If you want to bake these in advance, follow the recipe instructions listed below and cool completely. Then store in an airtight container or zip-top plastic bags and freeze.
As long as they are in an airtight container, the baked cookies should last 1-2 months in the freezer.
To reheat, simply microwave one or two chocolate chip cookies 10-15 seconds each until warmed and melty.
Unbaked
To store unbaked chocolate chip cookie dough, simply scoop into cookies, place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, and freeze.
After 3 hours, the dough should be hard enough to transfer to an airtight container or zip-top plastic bag. This cookie dough will last 1-2 months in the freezer.
To bake, simply remove your dough balls, defrost on the counter for 30 minutes to 1 hour and bake as listed in the recipe card below.
Love Chocolate Chip Cookies? Try these out too!
If you are a cookie lover like me, you’ll know a good cookie recipe when you see it. Check these ones out to see if they are up to the test!
If you love a classic and soft chocolate chip cookie, you MUST give this recipe a try!! It will blow your minds.
The printable recipe card is down below! Have a great day, friends.
Actually Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter melted
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
Instructions
- Stir melted butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until well combined.
- Add in egg, egg yolk and vanilla. Mix until lighter in color.
- Add in the flour, baking soda and salt. Scrape the sides of the bowl and the bottom really well to ensure a smooth, well stirred batter.
- Hand stir the chocolate chips into the batter and let it sit 20 minutes to let the flour soak into the rest of the batter. (If your oven tends to run hot (aka flattens cookies) refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes).
- Preheat oven to 325. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and scoop cookie dough onto prepared pans, using a two tablespoon cookie scoop.
- Bake 8-9 minutes, rotating sheets half way through baking. When you pull your cookies out of the oven, they will looked cooked around the edges and undercooked in the center.
- Leave the cookies on the hot baking pans for 5-7 minutes or until you can remove them without falling apart. Place onto cooling racks and cool to room temperature before storing in air tight containers.
Omg people that is so rude to insinuate that this recipe is “stolen” or “copied”.
News flash: “similar” is completely different than “copied” so what’s the point of even bringing it up? There are only so many ways you can make a classic CCC.
This is a great recipe. Lets give thanks to the people who have the patience in the kitchen to find which works best for those of us who don’t.
Before I give it a go… any changes for bar or iron skillet? I’m so over scooping individual cookies and babysitting them in the oven lol!!
This is THE BEST chocate chip cookie recipe!!! The cookies are tasty and soft. Thanks for this great recipe, it is a family favorite.
This recipe comes out perfect every time. Melted butter saves me from having to think ahead. I mix by hand. Keep some baked cookies wrapped in the freezer and microwave them for a couple seconds when the craving hits.
These were the best I’ve made!!
I thought I had found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe by another popular food blogger (which I have been making for years), but these are now my favorite. I have to cook my cookies for about 4 minutes more due to my oven or maybe the size of my cookies. I definitely don’t get 36 cookies from my batches. Regardless, these are delicious.
If I wanted to add coconut flakes, how much would I add and what adjustments to the recipe would be needed?
No adjustments are really needed for the recipe. Add in the coconut (1/2 cup, maybe?) with the chocolate chips and bake as normal.
loved them! wondering if you would adjust the flour for high altitude. Mine were a little flat.
thanks!
Amazing cookie recipe! I have never made more perfect cookies or struggled so hard not to eat them all. The issue I ran into; however, was that because my family and I loved the recipe so much, I attempted to double the recipe. Fair warning, this recipe does NOT double well. I will just stick to making one batch at a time.
You know you have made this your own. I did this with some differences many years ago. like you the standard recipes I was finding I wasn’t happy with. You are absolutely right on with this one. More brown sugar is the key. You know not trying to be a pain here, but do some of the readers actually read through the whole recipe and your notes. Cause if they were to do that they might actually find the answers. Sorry. Redundancy drives me nuts. Thanks again for the great cookie recipe, have a great day, stay safe.
I followed this recipe exactly and my cookies came out completely flat & unbaked. I have a tendency to over bake my cookies so I was looking forward to trying this recipe. Unfortunately it was a waste of time and resources. Dough was also too sweet for me.
I’ve ruined many (many) chocolate chip cookie recipes in my time, but this is the first one that has come out perfectly!! And I’ve made the recipe more than once! Thank you so much, Lauren!
Instead of fluffing and dumping and fluffing and dumping the flour multiple times, would sifting the flour work okay too? Or do you think it would put too much air into the flour and make it measure wrong?
What a delicious meal we had tonight. I added the broccoli and red pepper flakes,. It was just wonderful and enjoyed by my husband as well. Thanks for sharing such a great recipe!!
Disappointed. I followed the recipe exactly as stated and the cookies are flat and won’t come off of the pan. I was really hoping for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe and I guess this wasn’t it.
How did you measure your flour? You just need to add more flour!
This is the perfect recipe, my go to recipe for ccc’s.
I’m going to try your recipe. It looks extra yummy! For years, I have always mixed semi-sweet chips and butterscotch chips. They make a great tasting cookie!
Made these a couple weeks ago… and making them again tonight/tomorrow. Never had a better homemade chocolate chip cookie! Thank you Lauren! Sending best baking wishes from Boise, ID. ❤️
You are not kidding! These ARE as their name implies…PERFECT! I, too, despise crispy choc chip cookies but these are soft and chewy, almost like eating the cookie dough itself. I thought the Salty Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies were perfect, but look out! And considering I am rationing flour right now due to not being able to restock (thanks COVID-19) it is a big deal that this recipe enticed me enough to try. NOT SORRY I DID!
Followed the recipe to a T! Left them in 2 extra minutes cuz they didn’t look fully cooked waited the 7 minutes to cool and transferred to racks… bit into these raw cookies. Sucked.
These were great but definitely take longer to bake. I increased the temp for the second batch to 350 as the extreme softness of the first batch felt undercooked and too sweet – flavors didn’t seem to be deepening or coming together at only 325. Only used 1/2 c butter as it’s what I had on hand and I don’t think it affected the tastiness or texture.
Oh. Em. Gooooooooood!!!
These are simply amazing! The EXACT perfect cookie!! I used 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup caramel pieces. Holy crud these are to die for! Made my husband another batch with dark chocolate chunks and dried fruits. He’s in love. Seriously perfect!!
I love these cookies! These have been my go-to since the holidays! They are simple and easy instructions to follow for the non-bakers, like myself! I’ve added different things (M&Ms – regular and peanut butter!)
My tip for the perfect cookie? I put the dough in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before baking. By keeping the dough cold, you don’t get that cookie ‘spread’ which produces the crisp cookie.
My family couldn’t quit eating them! Perfect!
I made these last night and boy are they just the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. Thank you so much for sharing. This one is definitely going into the recipe box. Merry Christmas Happy New Year’s to you and yours.
Just made these scrumptious chewy cookies today. They are a hit and will be my go to recipe from now on. Thank you for the tips on leaving the dough to sit before scooping and baking. House smells yummy right now on this Cold Dec day.
My kids loved these!
I saw a picture of these cookies on Instagram and knew
1. They were ACTUALLY perfect chocolate chip cookies
2. I had to make them. Multiple times.
3. I had to follow you on Instagram immediately
Recently, I was asked if I could only eat one food for the rest of my life what it would be and I automatically said “Cookies because I have no willpower to decline a cookie” 😂 This recipe was SO GOOD. In fact, it was perfect! (Also I don’t like my cookies fresh, because then the chocolate is all melty and rich so you can only eat one. When they’re room temperature you can easily eat like 6 😂 and the texture of cooled chocolate is my favorite!!)
This is my most favorite go to chocolate chip cookie recipe!! I share it with everyone I know! I love your instructions that are easy to follow! Yum, yum, yum!!
This is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. The cookies are gone instantly because they are so delicious and everyone loves the combination of chocolate chips.
I’m always looking for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe! I’m going to try this one soon!
I’m always looking for a great chocolate chip recipe, I’m gonna have to try this one!
My daughter was recently married. It was a small outdoor wedding; 50 people. The happy couple did not want cake of any type. So….my son in law made 6 batches of this recipe. He made it a head of time and froze the dough. He defrosted in the refrigerator. By the time I arrived the dough was still a bit stiff which was perfect for rolling into logs for slicing. These cookies were a HUGE HIT and exactly the way described…very soft and just the best chocolate chip cookies I have had in years. This is now my new go to recipe.
My niece and I made these together. She is 7. We followed the recipe exactly and I have to say…these are the most perfect…delicious and easy Chocolate Chip cookies I have ever had or made! Thank you for the tips also. This will be my number one go to cookie recipe!!
I followed the recipe exactly. Cookies turned out way underdone and flat. The dough was way too moist. Not sure what happened. I even left them in a few extra minutes.
How did you measure your flour? Whenever this happens to ANY cookie, add in a little more flour and they should be perfect!
Hi Lauren, I made these cookies for the first time and they’re amazing! Just the right amount of chewiness and chocolate chips-to-batter ratio! But I’ve been trying to cut down on my sugar intake and would like to make these again with 1/3 of the sugar reduced. Have you ever tried this? Besides the flavor, I’m wondering if this would affect the texture of the cookie at all?
I haven’t tried reducing the sugar, but odds are it would change the consistency of the cookie and potentially not bake normally. You should definitely try it out and see if it works!
[…] Actually Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies […]
This is my “go-to” choc chip cookie recipe. I almost had a heart attack when Pinterest was down and I could not access the recipe from there. Thankful when I googled cookies, your website triggered my memory. Thank you for an awesome recipe, one that I’ll use again and again…
Yum! Very delicious, thanks for sharing this recipe.
I’ve made your recipe several times and they are a hit! I was wondering if the dough can be made ahead of time and frozen to be baked later?
Over the last couple of months, I’ve tried soft chocolate chip cookie recipe’s from several other sites and they always came out so dense and dry. I tried each one twice just to make sure I didn’t miss something the first time, but the results were still the same.
I made yours for the first time this weekend and they came out perfect! I even changed the recipe slightly by only using milk chocolate chips and I added some chopped walnuts. They look exactly like the cookies in your pictures.
This will be my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe from now on. Thanks again!
[…] Actually Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies […]
[…] Actually Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies […]
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WOW, these are so good!!! My go to recipe from now on. Thanks for posting this recipe ♥️🍪