Gemma’s Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Save RecipeI’ll show you how to make the Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe and why it will give you a perfect chocolate chip cookie every time!
Hi Bold Bakers!
As a pastry chef for years, I know a thing or two about cookies (including 50+ cookie recipes here) so I’m excited to share with you how to make my Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. Move over Toll House and Mrs. Fields, the Bigger Bolder King of all Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes is here, and it is here to stay!
Follow my recipe and my Bold Baking Tips below and I’ll show you how to make chocolate chip cookies as you’ll find in your favorite bakery or restaurant.
Watch my Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe Video!
Why Are These The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies?
What makes this the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, you might ask? First of all this recipe perfectly combines 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.
The brown sugar makes it crispy on the edges with a caramel scent while the white sugar provides that sweet gooey middle. I get asked a lot, “How do you make cookies chewy not cakey?” and this is one of the ways to do it.
Serious Chocolate Chunkage
The next thing that makes this the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe is obviously the chocolate.
Normal cookie recipes are 80% cookie dough to 20% chocolate chips, but my recipe is all about the chocolate chunkage. I like to use bittersweet chocolate with 72% cocoa solids, and I chop it up from a bar of chocolate. These chocolate chunks along with 2 rich eggs, 1 cup of butter, and of course the brown and white sugar, really do take these cookies to the next level.
Now if you don’t eat eggs, you can always use my egg substitute chart and still enjoy my cookies.
[ Vegan? Try my Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! ]
What is ‘aging your dough’?
Aging cookie dough does 2 things, develops more pronounced flavor and gooey-er texture. As the dough chills, it gradually dries out, concentrating the flavors of all the ingredient. Aging also changes the texture. The drier the dough, the more concentrated the sugar. Just cover the dough with cling wrap in your bowl and they’ll keep just fine in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
If you don’t want to age it, you can just chill your dough for a minimum of an hour. Chilling your dough helps keep your cookies from spreading while baking. Also, at this stage, you can freeze your dough in balls or rolled into a log and wrapped in cling wrap. It keeps well in a freezer for up to twelve weeks.
How long does it take to bake a chocolate chip cookie?
Last but not least, my recipe calls for 1/4 cup of dough for each nice and big cookie and they bake for about 12-17 minutes. It really depends on your oven. Just keep a close eye on them after the 12-minute mark. You want to bake cookies less rather than more so the cookies are ooey-gooey on the inside, crisp on the outside.
Honestly, just writing this is making my mouth water. These are the ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies and I cannot wait to hear what you Bold Bakers think! Please leave a review and your comments below. And make sure to submit your own photos on this page for everyone to see!
Flat cookies?! Has this happened to you?? I have the solution — keep reading!
Why Are My Cookies Flat?
Two things:
1) You needed to chill your dough. Chilling cookie dough for just 30 minutes makes a big difference. It solidifies the butter inside, and as the cookies bake, the fat in the chilled cookie dough takes longer to melt than room-temperature fat. And the longer the fat remains solid, the less the cookies spread.
2) Or you flattened the cookie dough out on the cookie sheet. Do not flatten these cookies! They will flatten out themselves in the oven.
5 Pro Chef Secrets to the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies:
- CHILL your cookie dough!!! Chilling dough improves flavor and texture. It also ensures less spread during baking.
- Scoop 1/4 cup cookies as directed in my recipe. The baking time is based on a 1/4 scoop of cookie dough. If you make the scoops smaller then you need to bake them for less. Makes around 14-15 cookies.
- Don’t FLATTEN the cookies! If you flatten the cookie, it will spread. This is the most common mistake! Shape a round ball of dough and place that on the cookie sheet. Then in the oven, it will flatten itself out, giving you a thick cookie with a gooey center. Pop them in the fridge to make sure they are cold before baking.
- Bake cookies from COLD at a high temperature for a short time. This will ensure you have crisp edges and a gooey, doughy center. This is the result you want for the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie.
- Pan Bang!? The easy trick of banging the pan a few times after baking, causing the cookies to “fall,” produces a cookie covered in lovely crinkles on the surface. It also redistributes the melted chocolate. I love a good crinkle!
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Chef-tested and approved, I will show you how to make my Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe and why it will give you perfect chocolate chip cookies!
- 1 cup (8oz/225g) butter
- 1¼ cups (7 1/2oz/212g) light brown sugar
- ¾ cup (6oz/170g) white granulated/caster sugar
- 2½ cups (12 1/2oz/354g) all-purpose flour/plain flour
- 1½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 large eggs*
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract , optional
- 2 cups (12oz/340g) bittersweet chocolate chunks
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Whisk the flour, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.
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In a separate bowl melt the butter. Add in both white and brown sugars and whisk vigorously for about 1 minute.
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Whisk in one egg to the sugar-butter mixture, stirring until it's fully mixed in. Scrape the sides of the bowl with your spatula.
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Whisk in the second egg and the vanilla and then scrape the sides of the bowl again.
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Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir with the spatula to fully combine. Make sure you've scraped the bottom of the bowl and there are no streaks of dry ingredients left. Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough will be soft but DON'T add more flour. It needs to be chilled now to firm up.
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IMPORTANT NOTE: Chill the dough for a minimum of 1 hour. This will make it easier to scoop and you cookies will keep their shape better while baking. (This dough can be made and kept in the fridge for 7 days. The dough also freezes really well)
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Scoop 14-15 balls of cookie dough (1/4 cup/100g each) and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Leave some space between the cookies as they spread out during baking.
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Bake the cookies at 375°F (190°C) for about 12-15 minutes roughly, or until the edges are set and the cookie is beginning to turn golden brown throughout, but still doughie in the middle. It is really important you don't over bake these cookies otherwise they won't be soft in the middle.
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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 3 days.
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Keep in the fridge for up to 7 days (see notes above about 'aging') or freeze pre-scoop balls of dough for up to 8 weeks.
Watch the Recipe Video!
If you want to replace the eggs use any of the replacements for cookies on my egg substitutes chart. Just note your results will not be exactly the same as mine.
If you don't have Brown Sugar you can easily make it at home.
Bittersweet chocolate is about 70% cocoa solids. You will find this information on the label of a good chocolate bar.
*Aging the dough: Make and store the dough in the fridge for up to 7 days. The flavor and texture will just get better over time.
Meet Gemma
Hi Bold Bakers! I’m Gemma Stafford, a professional chef originally from Ireland, and I’m passionate about sharing my years of experience to show you how to make game-changing baking recipes with over-the-top results! Join more than 1 Million other Bold Bakers in the community for new video recipes every week!
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Yes, super delicious!! This is almost the exact recipe I have been making for over thirty years (this one has a bit more sugar and a 1/4 cup more flour, but beyond that, the same). The only things I do different is to add 1 cup of chopped walnuts and 3/4 cup whole oats. The oats add a wonderful flavor and texture and really helps keep your cookies nice and full, not flat and dull. I just love them this way. If adding the oats, reduce the flour in this recipe to 2 1/4 cups. And nuts? Well, you just can’t go wrong with walnuts in this recipe! 🙂
I totally agree on the walnuts. Thank you for sharing and for the positive review.