![Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies on a baking tray, covered with crinkles on the surface and loaded with pools of melted chocolate in the center, to go perfectly with a glass of milk in the up left corner of the tray.](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 2048 1365"></svg>)
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Hi Bold Bakers!
I’ve been a pastry chef for years, so I know a thing or two about cookies (just look at the 100+ cookie recipes here) That’s why I’m so excited to share with you how to make my Best-Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies. Move over Toll House and Mrs. Fields, the Bigger Bolder King of all Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes is here, and it’s the only recipe you’ll ever need! 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.” –Lidi
Follow my tried and true recipe and my Bold Baking Tips below, and I’ll show you how to make buttery chocolate chip cookies even better than the ones you love from your favorite bakery or restaurant.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe was updated and improved on 4/25/2023, to include additional step-by-step photography, science behind ingredients and the process, answers to the most frequently asked questions (why flat/why puffy/why oily), and perfected Pro-Chef Tips (chocolate types, baking from cold, “pan bang magic”, etc.).
Table of Contents
What is a Chocolate Chip Cookie?
The original recipe, called the Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie, was invented in 1939 by chefs Ruth Graves Wakefield and Sue Brides. Wakefield owned the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts, and used Nestlé semi-sweet chocolate for the historic recipe.
The Secrets to My Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
This Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe has the magic ratio of brown to white sugar. While this seems like a small detail it makes a huge difference in the texture of the cookie. Read below about how brown sugar and white sugar combine to make the ideal combination of crisp and chewy.
I don’t believe in skimping on key ingredients, so the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie has serious chocolate chunkage. Normal cookie recipes are 80% cookie dough to 20% chocolate chips, comparatively, the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie has a 50-50 ratio. I like to use bittersweet chocolate with 72% cocoa solids, and I use a chopped-up bar of quality chocolate.
The Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie dough is chilled before baking in order to give the dough a better texture and to meld the flavors.
Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
![Ingredients for the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 1365 2048"></svg> "What you need for the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies.")
Dry Ingredients
- 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 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 sweeten cookies, bind easily with water to lock in moisture moistening cookies and inhibiting 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.
Wet Ingredients
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 Chocolate Chip Cookies
![Step-by-step instructions on how to make the perfect cookie dough. Mix dry ingredients first, then whip up wet ingredients separately before combining the two mixtures together. At last, fold in chopped bittersweet chocolate bars.](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 2048 2048"></svg> "Making the cookie dough.")
Making the Dough
- MyBold Baking Basic of whisking dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately first before combining is the key to the success of this recipe and many others!
- Separate mixings incorporate extra air to lighten cookie dough compared to whisking everything together all at once.
- Whisking dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately not only evenly disperses ingredients without toughening gluten but also helps to prevent dense rubbery cookies.
- Use melted butter instead of softened butter. Softened butter retains much more air than melted butter which will make cookies rise like cakes. We’re looking for a gorgeous chewy, gooey cookie here, not a cake-like cookie.
- Add the eggs one at a time.
- Introducing eggs slowly will allow emulsifiers from egg yolks adequate time to bring all ingredients together homogeneously and eliminate lumps without over mixing.
- Adding one egg each time also cools down the very warm butter and sugar mixture to prevent eggs from getting cooked too early.
Chilling the Dough
- CHILL COOKIE DOUGH! I can’t stress enough how important and how beneficial it is to chill the cookie dough.
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- Chilling cookie dough allows time for wet ingredients to hydrate dry ingredients, concentrating and enhancing flavor.
- Chilling cookie dough prevents overspreading. On one hand, the cooled solidified fat takes a longer time to melt and make the cookies spread. On the other hand, sugar has time to absorb more excess moisture from the dough to stop the cookies from overspreading.
- Additionally, chilling cookie dough slightly dries out the dough making sugar caramelize more easily, leading to a crispy-on-the-outside and chewy-on-the-inside texture.
Baking
- Take care NOT to overbake the cookies. Bake cookies JUST until the edges are set and the cookies begin to turn darker or golden brown but are still doughy and a bit pale in the middle. They may appear raw but will set more while cooling.
Why Are My Cookies Too Flat? How to avoid cookies spread?
- First, 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.
- Second, 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.
- Third, Chilling cookie dough not only enhances flavors but also stabilizes dough to prevent cookies from spreading too thin.
- Fourth, 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.
- At last, 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?
- 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.
- Second, you might have over handled the dough. This strengthens gluten and prevents cookies from spreading. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature and mix until just combined.
- Third, if your oven runs hot, the outside of the cookies may bake too so they don’t spread as they should.
- 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.
![Two chocolate chip cookies, one had been flattened while the other did not.](data:image/svg+xml,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 809 1214"></svg> "Perfected Chef Secrets for the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies")
FAQs
Can I Make Chocolate Chip Cookies in Advance?
Yes. You can make chocolate chip cookies in advance. As long as you cover the bowl of dough with cling wrap, and it will keep just fine in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. You can also freeze pre-scooped balls of dough for up to 8 weeks.
How to Store the Cookies
You can store the cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Can I Make the Best Ever 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! ]
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.
Gemma’s Pro Chef Tips for the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Another key point 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.
- Bake cookies from COLD at a high temperature for a short time. This will ensure you have crisp edges and a gooey, doughy center.
- Last, bang the pan! The easy trick of banging the pan a few times after baking, causes the cookies to “fall,” and produces a cookie covered in lovely crinkles on the surface and pools of melted chocolate.
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:
My new cookbook, Bigger Bolder Baking Every Day, is available now!
IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe was updated and improved on 4/25/2023, to include additional step-by-step photography, science behind ingredients and the process, answers to the most frequently asked questions (why flat/why puffy/why oily), and perfected Pro-Chef Tips (chocolate types, baking from cold, “pan bang magic”, etc.).
Full (and printable) recipe below!