Chocolate Chip Cookies are the most popular cookie for a reason! Buttery and soft with the perfect amount of chocolate chips, in 20 minutes!
There’s nothing better than the smell (or taste!) of a freshly baked Cookie Recipe, whether you’re making a classic like this Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe or a holiday favorite like Ginger Cookies.
Table of Contents
- About our Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
- Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
- Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Nutritional Facts
- Baking Tips & Tricks
- How to Store Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Ideas to Serve Chocolate Chip Cookies
- FAQs for Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Recipe Card
- Chocolate Chip Cookies Variations
- Related Recipes
About our Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Chocolate Chip Cookies are an all-time favorite cookie recipe. These are really common ingredients, even for a sometimes-baker. You’re likely to have these ingredients in the pantry, so it’s really easy to make a batch last minute. Plus, do you know anyone who doesn’t like soft, chewy, warm cookies straight out of the oven? Not to mention, a good chocolate chip cookie recipe is the ultimate kid-friendly activity on a rainy day.
Your cookies can turn out differently based on how you like them. If you prefer a chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, that will be easy to achieve. Enjoy a cookie with crisp edges? No problem. If you like different types of chocolate then you can add in your favorite, as well as customize with any other add-ins. Follow the tips in this post to make this the Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe of your dreams!
“Can Chocolate Chip Cookies be made ahead?”
The fresher these cookies are, the better they will taste. However, the taste will not be diminished much if you want to make these Cookies ahead of time. Bake them ahead and store them in an airtight container after they cool completely. If you want to serve them warm to your family and friends, just heat them up in the microwave for 15 seconds. Check the warmth and heat for a few seconds longer if needed. Another idea for make-ahead, is to make the cookie dough and refrigerate it for a day or two. Then bake the cookies fresh before you want to serve them.
Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter: Choosing unsalted butter allows you to control the amount of salt in the cookie recipe. 1 cup will be 2 sticks of butter.
- 1 cup white sugar and 1 cup brown sugar: You’ll use both brown and white granulated sugar in this recipe. Of course, sugar will make the cookies sweet but using brown sugar will add extra flavor and moisture due to the molasses it contains.
- 2 large eggs: Crack each egg into a small container before adding them into the cookie dough. This is helpful in case one of your eggs isn’t any good, then it won’t ruin your whole batch of cookies.
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract: Vanilla will add wonderful sweet and warm flavor and fragrance to your delicious cookies.
- 3 cups flour: This recipe calls for standard, all-purpose flour. If you’re interested in whole wheat flower, take a look at the variations below.
- 1 teaspoon baking soda: Make sure you measure your baking soda carefully, as this is an important ingredient that will help your cookies rise.
- ½ teaspoon salt: You’ll choose standard table salt for your cookie dough. If you’re using salted butter, you can omit the salt.
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips: These are the classic chips people think of when making Chocolate Chip Cookies, however you can use any type of chocolate you have on hand.
Kitchen Tools & Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment: Your stand mixer is the perfect choice for these cookies. It will make forming the dough a breeze. You can also use a handheld electric mixer and a large mixing bowl, or choose to mix the dough by hand.
- Cup and Teaspoon Measures: You will need the cup measure for your flour, sugar, and chocolate chips. You’ll use a set of teaspoon measures for the vanilla, baking soda, and salt.
- Sifter: It is important to sift your dry ingredients so they are fully mixed, and well-distributed in your batter. If you don’t have a sifter, you can add the ingredients to a bowl and use a whisk to blend the ingredients.
- Baking Sheets: Grab a baking sheet or 2 so that you can roll out your balls of dough and bake 2 batches at a time.
- Parchment Paper: Cut a sheet of parchment to fit your cookie sheet. Use it to line the sheet so the cookies won’t stick to the bottom.
- Cookie Scoop: A cookie scoop will allow for all of your cookies to be the same size and shape when baked.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
Time needed: 20 minutes.
- Prep Time
Set the oven temperature to 350 degrees.
- Wet Ingredients
To a stand mixer cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla.
- Dry Ingredients
Sift the flour, baking soda, and salt, then add the flour mixture to the mixer on low speed until just combined.
- Chocolate
Stir in the chocolate chips. You can now choose to refrigerate your chocolate chip cookie dough for a more chewy cookie or cook the dough right away for a crispier cookie.
- Baking Time
Using ¼ cup scoops, form the dough into balls. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and bake until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes.
- Cool
Let them rest for a couple minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Nutritional Facts
Baking Tips & Tricks
Achieve perfectly baked Chocolate Chip Cookies by following these tips.
- Achieve a Fluffy Texture
- Make sure you’re refrigerating your dough before baking. Butter that’s already too warm in the dough will spread faster.
- Measure your ingredients accurately, leveling out the cups and teaspoons with a butterknife. Also make sure you’re using fresh, not expired ingredients.
- Make Chewy Cookies
- Use a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar according to the directions. The brown sugar will bring more moisture to the cookies, resulting in a chewier texture.
- Use real butter, not butter substitutes. Butter has more than just fat, it also has solids and moisture, which make for soft cookies. Other chocolate chip cookie recipes may call for a combo of butter and shortening, which is ok, too.
- Refrigerate your cookie dough before baking, because a warm dough can result in flatter cookies that are more likely to crisp up.
- Watch your cooking time and temperature. Set a timer for a minute or 2 less than you think you’ll need, so you don’t accidentally over-bake your cookies.
- Make Crunchy Cookies
- In order to achieve crispy, crunchy cookies without going out to get different ingredients, start by replacing the brown sugar with more white sugar.
- Form your cookie dough balls without refrigerating the dough. This will allow the cookie to spread and crisp in the oven.
- Bake the cookies for the full cooking time and then check them to look for browned edges. If they aren’t browned yet, give them a minute or 2 more in the oven.
How to Store Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Serve: Save Chocolate Chip Cookies in a ziplock bag or other airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
- Store: Keep your cookies in the fridge in an airtight container and they’ll last for up to a week before getting stale. To get your cookies warm and chewy again, microwave for about 15 seconds.
- Freeze: Freeze prepared cookie dough or baked cookies for up to 2 months in a freezer-safe container. Freeze cookie dough in balls on a baking sheet for about an hour before transferring to a freezer bag to easily bake from frozen dough.
Ideas to Serve Chocolate Chip Cookies
Use this classic Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe any time of year. Make them for a birthday gathering, a potluck, picnic, dinner party, or just to have around the house for snacks, desserts, or lunchbox additions. Add these crowd-pleasers to a Holiday dessert tray or Christmas Cookie platter. Box some up for party favors at your next birthday party. The possibilities are endless.
The very obvious pairing for homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies is a tall, cold glass of milk. However, you can up your game a little bit by serving them with Homemade Chocolate Milk, a homemade Wendy’s Frosty (Chocolate or Vanilla), a refreshing Cold Brew Coffee, Classic Horchata, or comforting Hot Chocolate.
FAQs for Chocolate Chip Cookies
Your chocolate chip cookie recipe may be spreading too much for a few reasons, usually having to do with butter and granulated sugar, or too little all purpose flour. If you ended up with flat, crispy cookies, make sure your ingredients are fresh, measured correctly, and try refrigerating cold dough overnight covered in plastic wrap before baking.
If your chocolate chip cookie recipe consistently come out burnt and crispy on the bottom but perfect and chewy on the top, invest in a good oven-safe thermometer to check if your oven is cooking true to temperature.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar , packed
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- To a stand mixer cream together the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add in the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla.
- Sift the flour and baking soda and add it to the stand mixer along with the salt on low speed until just combined and stir in the chocolate chips.
- Using ¼ cup scoops, bake the cookies 6 to a sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Chocolate Chip Cookies Variations
- Switch up the Chocolate: You can use dark chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, or white chocolate chips for this cookie recipe. Instead of chocolate chips you can also try using butterscotch chips, peanut butter chips, or caramel chips! Better yet, use any delicious combination of chips that sounds tasty to you.
- Chocolate Chunk Cookies: There’s something about looking at a cookie and seeing huge chunks of chocolate all over. You just know it’s going to be extra special. Create that effect at home and buy chocolate chunks instead of chips.
- Add Nuts: Try adding peanuts, chopped almonds, or chopped walnuts to add another flavor and some crunchy texture to the cookies.
- Dried Fruit: Add in raisins, dried cranberries, dried cherries, or dried blueberries for some extra fruit flavor.
- Orange Chocolate Chip Cookies: Add the zest of one medium orange to your cookie dough to bring another element of flavor, or even a holiday twist with this flavor combination.
- Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Cookies: Top your cookies with flaky sea salt for Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies. You’ll love the sweet and salty flavors together and the salt will stick to the cookies if you sprinkle it on right after they come out of the oven.
- Whole Wheat: If you like to bake with whole wheat flour, you can substitute half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat to bring some whole grain goodness to the cookies without changing the texture too much.
Related Recipes
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes
I added 1 cup of chopped pecans and left the dough in an airtight container in the fridge for 1 hour. Used a standard ice cream scoop and slightly flattened them before baking exactly 10 minutes. They are delicious!
These chocolate chip cookies are delicious and they turned out
PERFECTLY ! ?
This was so useful
Wonderful!
My family loves these chocolate chip cookies! Crisp around the edges and chewy in the middle. Just the way we like them!
Great! Nothing like a good Chocolate Chip Cookie!!
Such a delicious cookie! This may be my new go-to, thank you!
You’re welcome!
My kids really enjoyed these! It was a huge hit! A new favorite treat at my house!
Awww, glad the kiddos enjoyed them!
These chocolate chip cookies were irresistible! I brought these to our family picnic last weekend, the kids love them. Such a great treat!
Thank you Sharina
I just loved the chewy texture of these cookies! This is my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Thank you Dana
These cookies were delightful! Can’t get enough of them, they were soft and flavorful. I’ll surely have these again, thanks Sabrina!
Thank you so much!
I make these all the time. My fiance and friends love them!! I use all brown sugar. I just do 2 cups of brown sugar, no white sugar. I also add a bag of Heath bar bits. I use a 1 Tablespoon cookie scoop. I get about 5 dozen cookies out of this recipe using that scoop size. This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe I have used in probably 3 years. Every one LOVES them!! I then freeze them. I think that keeps them fresher longer. I think if you leave them on the counter they tend to dry out faster.
I love baking! My favorite time to bake is when my grandkids come over.They help me bake cookies,cakes and pies.They really get excited,especially when they come out the oven.
Hi Sabrina! This recipe is excellent! I have made it several dozen times over the years, and it always turns out delicious. I’ve even earned the nickname of Cookie with some of my coworkers because of this recipe.
I made the cookies twice and they come out to fluffy and to light in color. Not flat and chewy and I’m wondering can you over mix the butter and sugars or three cups of four is too much.
Yes, mixing the butter for too long incorporates more and more air into your mixture. This will create what you’re discussing. In addition to that if you beat the flour for too long the cookie will not have the same chewy texture.
I followed this to the T. However, my cookie dough came out crumbly. I had to keep patting the dough together.
Please tell me why?
Too much flour was added. Did you dip your scoop into the flour container?
I baked for 12 minutes and middles were raw. Put them back in for another few minutes brown on top. Still raw when I turned them over. Help.
How large were the dough balls? Would love to help.
5 stars just for the simple measurements.
Came out perfect
The best ever
Hey,
Could you use this recipe for a cookie cake ? If so does anything need to be changed.
Thank you 🙂
Perfect flavor, perfect texture. I added (1/2 tsp baking powder).
What does adding baking powder to the recipe do? I’m just curious. I want to try it but not sure what it does to the recipe.
Thanks
Hi I had to look it up because I was curious about adding baking powder too. His is what I found …”In this series of photos, you can see that as we increase the baking powder, the cookies tend to rise a little more, but only to a certain point. Eventually, the reaction is so strong and violent that it will actually cause those air pockets to rupture and collapse, delivering a denser, squatter cookie.”
So I think it will make the cookies a little thinner. Hope that helps! ?
Can I use a hand mixer ? I don’t have a stand mixer 🙁
yes! Enjoy
Thank you for posting this wonderful recipe. Best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever made! Perfect amount of chew if you don’t over bake. Thanks again!!!
Good recipe over all! Mine are nice and fluffy.?
This has been my go to chocolate chip cookie recipe for a while now. I add heath bar pieces and my kids and their friends beg me to make them! This is the perfect recipe!
Hi
If I were to add nuts, how much to add. Also, how long can I refrigerate this dough before baking.
I have been using this recipe for about 3 years now and figured its time I should write a review, since obviously I love it so much ha!
These cookies are fool-proof. Perfect chewy chocolatey goodness!! And such a simple recipe too. They’re perfect.
I refuse to try any other recipe!
Love to hear that Holly!
So can we use a hand mixer or do it by hand?
Either one works 🙂
Snowy Colorado day screams warm chocolate chip cookies. These did not disappoint. Chewy Chocolate goodness. Will be my new go to recipe. Easy and delicious. My kids said a perfect mixture.
Yay!! Thanks for the 5 stars!
I never leave reviews…but felt like I had to on these. I’d give it ten stars if I could. My friends and family love when I make them and if I wanted to only make a few for whatever reason, it’s easy to half. (I usually make a whole batch, because who can go wrong with too many cookies!) Anyways, perfect go-to cookies for the last two years.
Thank you so much, Liz. I’m honored that you love them so much you left a comment.
These turned out so good! Usually when I try to make chocolate chip cookies from scratch I end up with a mess but these are perfect!
I never ever leave comments but I have to for these. I suck at making cookies but with this recipe my cookies turn out amazing!!! I don’t think I will ever switch recipes. This one is amazing! Thank you!!
Yay!! I’m so glad they turned out well for you!
This is the best chocolate chip recipe I have come across. It was an easy recipe to follow. The cookies were crunchy on the outside but still chewy on the inside. This will definitely be my go to Chocolate chip recipe!
The flavor is amazing but mine turned out crumbly and cakes, like there is not enough liquid. Very careful about measuring and sifting. Do you have any suggestions?
Hmm, I’ve used this recipe so many times and have never had that issue. If you notice the dough crumbly next time, even with sifting, you could try and add a teaspoon of water or milt to mix it to help moisten it. Good luck!
I always follow the recipe and my cookies always are like cake! Never flat!! What I’m doing wrong??
Hmm, baking can be tricky and usually people have the opposite issue of them being flat. It’s possible you may need to less the amount of baking soda or the flour might be measured incorrectly (too much). Make sure you’re not scooping it rather, spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off. Hopefully this helps for next time.
Or it could be from overmixing. 🙂 I sadly made that mistake with mine.
Awesome recipe! However, the first try my cookies came out in ball forms and never really got that cookies shape. The second try I reduced the flour by 1 cup and they turned out perfect!
My first time making chocolate chip cookies and these taste fantastic!! How to you get flat cookies? Mine have a roundish top to them
How did you measure your flour? Was it by scooping and leveling or by dunking the cup in the flour? I usually find it has a harder time spreading if too much flour gets into it. Glad you enjoyed the cookies! Happy Thanksgiving!
We have tried five different chocolate chip recipes and so far this is our favorite. We have around 12 people that test our cookies a d they have all voted on this recipe. They have such a good flavor and they are so soft and chewy. Delicious!!
These cookies came out delicious!! As a (very) novice baker, I really appreciate all the tips and explanations. I baked for 15 minutes, but I know that ovens are all different and you’re supposed to “know your oven” which in starting to do. ? Thank you for the great recipe!
You’re welcome, Loraine.
This is the very best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. They are incredible. No other recipes compare.
Thank you for the kind words, Patricia.
I don’t have a stand mixer. Can I use my hand mixer and get the same results?
Yes 🙂
I used my hands:)
While I loved the texture, I found the flavour lacking a bit. Maybe next time I would add a little more sugar and/or salt. They were a bit bland. Also 1/4 cup definitely didn’t make 24 cookies for me and I needed to bake them for a full 15 min.
I have tried numerous of chocolate chip recipes and this one is by far the best one!!!!’
Yay!! Thanks for the 5 star rating, Andrea.
Amazing recipe!… no more prefab cookies for us lol thank you!!!
Hi. I am a lesser experienced baker. I figured I would make some cookies. I’ve been trying different recipes every time for cookies because for some reason I just don’t get satisfied with only 1 recipe. But, this recipe is so good. I love this one a lot. I think I am satisfied using this one more often when I make cookies with my friend. Thank you very much for sharing.
This is the best chocolate chip recipe I’ve ever had. I want to try to make them into mini cookies, how long would you suggest they would need to cook in the oven?
I’d say around 5-6 minutes. You want to make sure not to overtake them. They should take out when they are still soft and slightly underbaked because they’ll continue to cook slightly once removed. Good luck!
Looks yummy! How many cookies does this make?
I was able to make 24 cookies with this recipe. I hope you enjoy them!
These are the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made! From now on this is the only recipe I will use, thank you!
Yay!! Thanks, Christy.
I’ve tried a lot of cookie recipes and this is THE best. Cookies stay soft. They literally come out perfect.
I don’t use salt because I use salted butter. I chill the dough for atleast 30 min… perfection ! I baked them for exactly 12 min
My dough felt very dry. Almost like there was a touch too much flour. Is that normal for this recipe?
Make sure to measure your flour correctly by spooning it into a measuring cup and leveling off vs scooping it.
Same thing happened to ours. Too dry. I even thought, it was too much flour but idk.
Make sure that you sifted the flour very well!
Theses are the best cookies I have ever made! I revived so many nice comments and will definitely be making these again. They are soft in the middle and crispy around the edges.