Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
These Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies use one special ingredient and a few easy tweaks make these the softest chocolate chip cookies you’ll ever eat! If soft and chewy is your jam, look no further for a fabulous cookie recipe!
Oh chocolate chip cookies. Truly the one and only cookie for me. When I see cookie trays or dessert tables, rarely does anything else tempt me the way a chocolate chip cookie does. Well, that’s a partial lie… I am equally drawn to peanut butter cookies of all shapes and sizes, but since they are currently off limits here because of Joseph’s allergies, it’s me and chocolate chip cookies for life.
My friend Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction has a new cookbook coming out next Tuesday, Sally’s Cookie Addiction, and it’s ALL cookies! I was able to get my hands on an advanced copy and I was going crazy with the doggy ears… there are SO MANY fantastic cookie recipes in this book. But the one I really couldn’t wait to try was a new-to-me soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe with one little secret ingredient (spoiler alert: it’s cornstarch!), and they were absolutely, positively as good as advertised.
It seems that every few years I find a new best chocolate chip cookie recipe… first it was the thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies (still a household favorite!), then it was the NY Times chocolate chip cookie (good but too big for everyday consumption), then I made my own favorite version from the NY Times recipe (but my husband didn’t love them), and now here we are at Sally’s soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies.
I had read about adding cornstarch to cookie dough before, but had never experimented with it myself.
All of the other tricks in this recipe to keep the cookies soft and chewy were old hat to me – melted butter, more brown sugar than white sugar, and adding an extra egg yolk.
But that cornstarch was new! I was interested to see what type of affect it would have on the cookies.
The result? Supremely soft cookies that are a dream. Even my favorite soft, thick and chewy cookies have some crisp edges, but not these… they are soft through and through, even after being stored for over three days, which typically never happens with my other recipes – they’ll start to harden a bit unless I wrap them individually in plastic wrap from the get-go.
The only place that I veered from the recipe was in the chocolate chip department. My favorite “store-bought” chocolate chip cookies come from a small bakery near my in-laws’ house – they are large-ish, super thick and very chewy. They use mini chocolate chips instead of regular size ones and I had an epiphany the first time I had one of their cookies; so many more chocolate chips in every bite that way! Genius! I had been meaning to try it the next time I made chocolate chip cookies, and this was my test batch. Absolutely perfect. Of course, you can totally use regular chocolate chips, but if you have minis on hand, give them a try!
These soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies were a rousing success at our house and at Sunday dinner, and are definitely going on my list of top 3 chocolate chip cookies. I love, love, love Sally’s new book, and if you love cookies, you will too. You can pre-order it on Amazon, and it will be for sale a week from today. I absolutely, positively cannot wait to make the Rainbow Kiss Cookies for Christmas this year!
If you have a favorite chocolate chip cookie, I would love to know how you make them!
One year ago: Rest Easy, Sweet Boy
Four years ago: Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake
Five years ago: Baklava
Soft & Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups (281.25 g) all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons) cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- ¾ cup (170.25 g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- ¾ cup (165 g) packed light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1â…“ cups (240 g) miniature semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until combined and no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the egg and egg yolk, then whisk in the vanilla extract until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until the cookie dough comes together. Stir in the chocolate chips. The dough will be very soft and even a little wet. Cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours (and up to 4 days). If chilling for longer than 3 hours, allow it to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes before rolling and baking the dough will be quite hard.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Roll balls of dough, 2 scant tablespoons of dough per cookie, and place 3 inches (7.5 cm) apart on the baking sheets. Bake for 12 to 13 minutes, or until lightly browned on the sides. The center will look soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies will stay fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- The original recipe called for regular semisweet chocolate chips, but I substituted mini chocolate chips. Either would be delicious!
- I used a medium cookie scoop for portioning out the dough, which is approximately 2 tablespoons, so these might be just a teeny tiny smidge larger than the scant 2 tablespoons called for in the recipe.
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
I made this cookie recipe for several times now and my kids keep asking for more! They love it! Thank you browneyedbaker.com for sharing your delicious recipes! I have tried a lot of them and my family love them all! Â I have been a follower since 2016 and because of you I learned how to bake. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.Â
I made this cookie recipe today and found it to be disastrous . The chocolate chips (regular sized) would not incorporate into the dough. There was definitely not enough liquid in the dough. Did I miss something? I tried adding an extra egg to half the dough and it became workable. I added about a Tbsp of milk to the other half of the dough, fearing another egg would a leavening problem. Â Both batches became workable . The cookies took much longer to cook than the 12-14 minutes recommended. And deciding if they were done was a problem. Is something missing from your internet recipe?
I made it and i Love it!
 I made this recipe a couple of days ago. Took it out tonight to make.  The cookie dough was a little dry. Made the cookie balls , and they did not spread out that well.  Do not know what I did wrong followed the recipe exactly .
THIS RECIPE IS THE BEST COOKIE RECIPE EVER! Thank you so much for posting it :)
These cookies are AMAZING!!! I’ve made them time and time again and they never fail to be soft, chewy, and delicious! This recipe is absolutely perfect! I love them!
Do you know of a soft chewy recipe that uses oil instead of cornstarch and can I have it?
Hi Sean, Hmmm good question, I’ve never made a cookie recipe that uses oil.
This is my new favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe hands down texture is perfect!
Hi, Michelle,
I made these yesterday for my husband, who adores all things chocolate. He loved them! Thanks for the recipe. I’ve made so many of your recipes, and they’ve been wonderful.
I think there is a typo in your granulated sugar amount. If the 50 grams is correct, I’m pretty sure it should be 1/4 cup (instead of 1/2 cup) in the volume measurement. I usually try to bake with weight measurements, made it with the 50 grams, and it was spot on for us.
Thanks again!
Diane
I agree, 50g is about 1/4 cup, not 1/2.Â
Best ever
Thank you!! These cookies are fabulous! Followed your recipe to the letter – outstanding!
Tried making the cookies and everyone loved them! Mine turned out quite dark might be the brown sugar that I used. Â It they taste great. Thanks.Â
I have made several soft chewy chocolate chip cookie recipes. This is by far the top of the line! The one ingredient I find is different from the rest of the recipes is the corn starch. What is the science behind the corn starch ? Amazingly goodness! My daughter is a sweet baby and she is my tester. She said mommie these are the best of all because they are soft the next day! Thanks for sharing! I will be using this recipes forever for chocolate chip cookies.
Gina-Montclair, Virginia
Hi Regina, I’m so thrilled that you and your daughter are enjoying the cookies! Cornstarch helps to soften the protein in flour, which creates a more tender cookie.
I tried  the recipe and the cookies were very good the second time I made them. However you might want  to change the cooking time at the top of the recipe because wehnelt I first tried I was misguided and let them in the oven  for to long (35 minutes )  which resulted  in hard brown cookies (still good but not as delicious as chewy ones).
Hi Elvire, Sorry for the confusion, but the information at the top is the cumulative amount of time you’ll spend baking the cookies (multiple sheets); always follow the times listed per batch in the recipe.
These cookies are so ridiculously good!! They are puffy, soft and have a tiny bit of crunch on the edges. CCC perfection! I froze mine and bake them off 2 at a time during the week for a quick and delicious sweet treat – YUM!
Made this morning with my Daughter and they were AMAZING!!!
Do you think you could shape the dough into balls and then freeze them? Would love to be able to do that and pull them out whenever the craving hits.
Hi Sandy, Yes, definitely!
These look PERFECT. And I’ll tell ya, a perfect chocolate chip cookie isn’t an easy thing to come by. 100% saving this recipe!
How can you lengthen the shelve life of the COOKIES?
I will wrap them individually in plastic wrap and then place in a ziploc bag and store at room temperature. That by far keeps them the freshest longest (and if you don’t think you’ll eat them all while they’re still fresh, pop that bag in the freezer for up to 2 months!), but you shouldn’t expect homemade cookies to have the same shelf life as store-bought; no preservatives!
Going to pin this one. Think I might one saved but having test tomorrow to see what shape my kidneys are in.
Very very thank you. This recipe is incredible. I’ve read a lot of your articles. Thank you.
I totally pre-ordered as soon as I could because she is emailing 5 bonus recipes if you do! I love her SO much (PS cannot wait until she’s a mommy in a couple of weeks!!) She and you are my top 2 inspirations to get into the kitchen and kill it. I made your Levain bakery cookies last month and to be honest I do not know if they can be topped– I received SO many compliments on them!! But I’m always up for a new recipe!
I had just read your email and then discovered that this book is listed in the new book giveaways today on goodreads.com ! (I have entered.)