Gemma’s Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

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Hi Bold Bakers!

WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE: This Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe has everything you want in a classic treat—crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, and packed with chocolatey goodness. 

• Perfect Texture: Crispy edges with a soft, chewy center make each bite irresistible.
• Loaded with Chocolate: A 50-50 ratio of dough to chocolate means every cookie is bursting with melted chocolate pools.
• Tried and True: Thousands of rave reviews prove this is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need.

And Bold Bakers’ feedback speaks for itself—whether it’s rave reviews from beginners or seasoned bakers, this recipe always delivers. Just check out the thousands of comments and five-star reviews:

“By far the best cookie recipe I’ve used. They have a lovely flavor, crispy edges, and a soft chewy middle. The pockets of melted chocolate are heaven. I’ll never use another recipe.”–Cherie

“They came out perfectly. I concur 100%, this is the best-ever cookie recipe.” –Beginner Baker

“I’ve tried A LOT of different cookie recipes over the years, but these cookies are just…WOW. World best chocolate chip cookies. ” –Lidi

IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe was updated and improved on 10/11/2024, to include make-ahead and storage instructions, more answers to the most frequently asked questions (GF options/brown butter), and perfected Pro-Chef Tips.  

Table of Contents

• What is a Chocolate Chip Cookie?
• The Secrets to My Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Tools You Need
• Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
• How to Make Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips for the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
• Make Ahead & Storage Instructions
• Why Are My Cookies Too Flat? How to avoid cookies spread?
• Why Are My Cookies Too Puffy? How to make cookies spread out properly?
• FAQs
• All The Ways To Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Don’t Miss More Best-Ever Recipes

What is a Chocolate Chip Cookie?

A Chocolate Chip Cookie is a classic American dessert that features a rich, buttery dough studded with semi-sweet chocolate pieces, originally popularized by Ruth Graves Wakefield in 1939.

• Origin: Created at the Toll House Inn in Massachusetts, it became a staple in homes across the country.
• Texture: The ideal cookie has golden-brown edges, a soft and chewy center, and pools of melted chocolate.
• Specialty: Our Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe features a perfect balance of brown and white sugar for enhanced texture and a generous 50-50 ratio of dough to bittersweet chocolate chunks.
• Preparation Tip: Chilling the dough before baking helps meld the flavors and achieves the perfect cookie consistency.

Tools You Need

• Baking sheet and parchment paper
• Mixing bowls
• Whisk
• Spatula
• Measuring cups
• Wire rack

Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

All-purpose Flour:

• All-purpose flour (AKA plain flour) is the base of these cookies. It has a protein content of around 11%, so the cookies will be soft.

Salt:

• A pinch of salt will enhance your cookies’ flavor by balancing out the sweetness.

Baking Soda:

• It gives you a chewy cookie with a gooey, doughier center (using baking powder would give you a cakey cookie).
  • Baking soda reacts with the small amount of natural acid from eggs to lightly leaven the cookies.
  • Baking soda reacts with hot sugar contributing to the flavor and browning of cookies.
  • Baking soda delays the setting process allowing cookies to spread more properly. Find the science behind these in this article Baking Powder VS. Baking Soda When Baking Cookies.

Both white sugar and brown sugar:

• They sweeten cookies, bind easily with water to lock in moisture moisten cookies and inhibit excess gluten formation and contribute to browning and flavors.
  • Granulated Sugar (AKA: White Sugar/Caster Sugar) is the main sweetener. With less moisture than brown sugar, white sugar caramelizes faster and gives the cookies delicately crispy edges.
  • Comparatively, Brown Sugar adds moisture to give cookies a gooey chewy center and a lovely hint of caramel. I recommend dark brown sugar which has more moisture and a deeper caramel flavor than light brown sugar. Make your own or enrich it using my recipe How to Make Brown Sugar.

Fat

Butter:

• Contains around 80% milk fat which adds richness to cookies. Salted butter adds extra flavor and is what I always use, but unsalted butter works too.

Wet Ingredients

Eggs:

• Eggs always need to be at room temperature in baking unless specified otherwise.
• Eggs enrich flavors.
• The yolks act as an emulsifier to bind all ingredients homogeneously, and the egg whites help make the cookies soft.

Vanilla extract:

• Works as a seasoning to bring out the flavor of the other ingredients and specifically pairs really well with bittersweet chocolate. Make your own using my Homemade Extract recipe.

Add-ins

Bittersweet Chocolate:

• Bittersweet chocolate (63 – 72 % cocoa solids) is darker and more pronounced than semisweet chocolate and has the perfect balance of bitter and sweet. Hence, this is my go-to chocolate.
• Find out more about chocolate here in my Ultimate Guide to the Different Types of Chocolate.

How To Make the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe

Making the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

1. Mix dry ingredients: Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. Mix wet ingredients: In a separate large bowl, combine the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar and whisk by hand vigorously for about 1 minute.
3. Whisk in the eggs one at a time into the sugar mixture and mix until well combined. Lastly, stir in the vanilla.
4. Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with the spatula to fully combine. Stir in the chopped chocolate. The dough will be soft but DON’T add more flour. It needs to be chilled now to firm up.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Chill the dough for a minimum of 1 hour. This will make it easier to scoop and your cookies will keep their shape better while baking. (This dough can be made and kept in the fridge for 3 days. The dough also freezes really well)

Bake

5. Scoop 16-17 balls of cookie dough (¼ cup/100g each) using a cookie scoop or measuring cup and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.

6. Leave some space between the cookies as they spread out during baking.
7. Bake the cookies at 375°F (190°C) for about 14-15 minutes roughly, or until the edges are set and the cookie is beginning to turn golden brown throughout, but still doughy in the middle. It is really important you don’t over-bake these cookies otherwise they won’t be soft in the middle.

Create crinkles

8. Once out of the oven bang the hot pan on the counter a few times to create crinkles on top of the cookie (see tips). Let cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store them at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips for the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

1. Use a chopped-up bar of quality bittersweet chocolate. Chocolate chips contain stabilizers and they won’t melt and pool like chopped-up chocolate. Also, the quality of chocolate in chips is sometimes not as good as what you’ll find in a bar.
2. Remember to chill your cookie dough. Chilling dough not only refines flavor and texture but also ensures less spread during baking.
   • On one hand, chilling the dough for at least one hour will prevent your cookies from over spreading during baking.
   • On the other hand, “aging” your dough overnight or up to seven days gives your dough a more pronounced flavor and gooier texture.
3. Scoop 1/4 cup of dough per cookie as directed in my recipe. The baking time is based on a 1/4 scoop of cookie dough. If you make the scoops are smaller then you need to bake them for less time. Correspondingly, you will get more than the recipe’s yield of 14-15 cookies.
4. Another key point while baking cookies from scratch is to make sure you don’t FLATTEN the cookies. Shape round balls of dough, pop them in the fridge to make sure they are cold before baking, and then place them on the cookie sheet. They will flatten out in the oven, giving you a thick cookie with a gooey center.
5. Bake cookies from COLD at a high temperature for a short time. This will ensure you have crisp edges and a gooey, doughy center.

Troubleshooting

Why Are My Cookies Too Flat? How to avoid cookies spread?

1. Flours don’t absorb liquid equally. Use up to 3/4 in one go and adjust it accordingly to reach the same consistency as the recipe.
2. DO NOT over-mix. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature. Mix ingredients until JUST combined. Over-mixing will separate fat from butter causing the cookie spread out during baking.
3. Chilling cookie dough not only enhances flavors but also stabilizes dough to prevent cookies from spreading too thin.
4. Preheat your oven. The moment you put your cookies in, they start to rise. Imagine melting chocolate on the stovetop on low heat. When you’re baking cookies, you wouldn’t want a situation where low oven heat is causing your cool cookie dough to melt slowly.
5. Another problem could be that you flattened the cookie dough out on the cookie sheet before baking. Do not flatten these cookies! They will flatten out themselves in the oven.

Why Are My Cookies Too Puffy? How to make cookies spread out properly?

1. First, your dough might have been on the dry side. Flour in different places behaves in different ways and absorbs liquid differently. You may need more for yours to get the same consistency as the recipe.
2. Second, you might have overhandled the dough. This strengthens gluten and prevents cookies from spreading. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature and mix until just combined.
3. Third, if your oven runs hot, the outside of the cookies may bake too so they don’t spread as they should.
4. Last but not least, I DO recommend chilling your cookie dough in the fridge or freezer. However, baking from frozen will affect the texture. Let frozen cookie dough sit at room temperature for 10 to 15 minutes while preheating the oven, then bake the cookies until the edges are set and the cookie is beginning to turn darker or golden brown throughout. Be sure it is still doughy and a bit pale in the middle. They will set more while cooling down.

FAQs

How do I know my chocolate chip cookies are properly baked?

Bake the cookies until the edges are set and the cookies begin to turn darker or golden brown throughout, but still doughie and a bit pale in the middle. They may appear raw but will set more while cooling down.

Can I Make the Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies Egg-Free?

Yes. You can always use my egg substitute chart and still enjoy fabulous cookies.

[ Vegan? Try my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! ]

Can I make gluten-free chocolate chip cookies?

Yes, you can use a gluten-free flour blend or our Easy Almond Flour Baking Mix to make this recipe gluten free.

Why did my cookies come out oily?

The secret to getting a cookie that’s crisp on the edges but chewy in the middle is to bake a very cold or frozen dough in a really hot oven. You can form the dough into balls before freezing. Then just place them on a cookie sheet and bake them in a preheated oven. Keep this in mind: cold dough, hot oven. Also do not overmix, as that will separate the butter, giving you a greasy cookie as a result.

Should you use brown butter in cookies?

• Brown butter adds a deeper, nuttier flavor to cookies, such as Butter Pecan Cookies and Best-Ever Oatmeal Cookies. But regular butter works too.
• To brown butter, heat butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat until it turns a nice amber color. Keep an eye on it and it will turn brown fast. Make sure not to let it burn.

All The Ways To Make Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

This recipe is the best of all worlds, but if you’re a fan of chewy chocolate chip cookies, soft chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate chunkage, I have what you’re looking for:

• The Internet’s Best Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• The Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Of Your Dreams
• Bakery-Style Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Thin & Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies
• 5 Star Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don’t Miss More Best-Ever Recipes

• Best Ever Brownies
• Best Ever Banana Bread
• Best Ever Oatmeal Cookies
• Best Ever Peanut Butter Cookies
• Best Ever Sticky Buns

IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe was updated and improved on 10/11/2024, to include make-ahead and storage instructions, more answers to the most frequently asked questions (GF options/brown butter), and perfected Pro-Chef Tips.

Full (and printable) recipe below!

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