Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
These large, bakery-style thick and chewy chocolate chip cookies stay soft for days and are a huge family favorite. Made with melted butter, a high brown sugar to white sugar ratio, and an extra egg yolk to ensure super soft cookies, they require NO chilling time and are the perfect after-school snack.
These cookies have been around for a LONG time! I first made them nearly 12 years ago when I fell in love with America’s Test Kitchen and my new Baking Illustrated cookbook. I had long been on the hunt for a fabulous thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie and I had finally hit pay dirt! This was my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe for years upon years, until I stumbled upon The New York Times chocolate chip cookie, which I modified a bit to become my NEW favorite thick and chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe.
However, these cookies made a resurgence in my kitchen last weekend and were due for a revival here on the site, especially since they’re one of my all-time most popular recipes!
How to Make Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Start with Butter: We use melted butter to keep the cookies super soft and moist.
- High Brown Sugar to Granulated Sugar Ratio: Brown sugar ensures soft cookies and the white sugar helps the cookies spread out. For cookies that are chewier and have a more robust flavor, we use double the amount of brown sugar to white sugar.
- Egg & Vanilla Extract: Eggs provide structure and an extra egg yolk gives the cookies a boost of softness. Vanilla is our flavor enhancer!
- Dry Ingredients: You’ll need all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt for structure, rise and flavor balance.
- Chocolate Chips: Of course! One and a half cups give you chocolate in every single bite without being overwhelming.
Ahhhh that dough!
There’s a little shaping technique that makes these cookies have that gorgeous bumpy texture on top that looks like they came straight out of the bakery.
All of that combined to make these my oldest, most favorite chocolate chip cookie that needs absolutely no chill time whatsoever.
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While the NY Times cookies that I love require some refrigeration before they’re baked, these can be mixed up and baked right away, so you’ll have warm cookies fresh from the oven and ready to devour in about 45 minutes. Can’t beat it!
What’s your favorite type of chocolate chip cookie?
Watch the Recipe Video Below:
One year ago: The Best Chocolate Frosting
Five years ago: Overnight Chilled Plum-Oatmeal Pudding
Seven years ago: Peach Coffee Cake
Thick and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 g) + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1 cup (220 g) light or dark brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1½ cups (270 g) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Adjust the oven racks to the upper- and lower-middle positions and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugars until thoroughly blended, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low, add the dry ingredients and beat until just combined. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chips.
- Roll a scant ¼ cup of the dough into a ball. Hold the dough ball with the fingertips of both hands and pull into 2 equal halves. Rotate the halves 90 degrees and, with jagged surfaces facing up, join the halves together at their base, again forming a single ball, being careful not to smooth the dough’s uneven surface. Place the formed dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, jagged surface up, spacing them 2½ inches apart.
- Bake until the cookies are light golden brown and the outer edges start to set, yet the centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes, rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets. Once cool, store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days. These can also be wrapped in plastic wrap, placed in a freezer bag and frozen for up to 2 months.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
This recipe was originally published on June 21, 2008, updated in July 2016 with new photos, and then refreshed in August 2019 with updated photos and more recipe tips.
[photos by Ari of Well Seasoned]
lovely cookies! :) however the mix turned out more like cake mix, but that was easily compromised!
These are lovely! I’ve made these several times and everyone iI’ve given them to before always asks for them.
O.EM.GEE! These have answered my chocolate chip cookie prayers! I have searched for YEARS for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe…I didn’t think I was ever going to find it. Until now! Thank you SO much! :)
I’m baking these right now….had my two littles helping me, so it was more hectic than if I were baking by myself, (but more fun), and dangit…I didn’t melt the butter. I just softened it. Hope the end result is still good. :)
I love your recipes!
These cookies are A-MAZING! Very thick and oh so chewy!! I have made so many different recipes for chocolate chip cookies but this one is my new favorite. I made them twice, the first time they were flat but I discovered it was because I beat/mixed my batter too much! I also used a scale to weigh my ingredients the second time and that also made a huge difference! I made sure my butter was close to room temp before adding to the sugar and then creamed together on a medium/low speed (level 3 on my KitchenAid mixer) for about 2 minutes, just until smooth. I whisked the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla together in a separate cup and then slowly incorporated with my mixer on low until mixed, about 30 seconds. Then I added the flour mixture a little at a time on low just until incorporated and lastly, hand mixed the chocolate chips into the batter. 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips were the perfect amount for my taste! I put the dough in the freezer for 30 minutes, scooped out 2.1oz size balls and cooked for 15 minutes on parchment paper. However I only baked 1 sheet at a time in the center rack, 6 cookies per sheet. I did not rotate while cooking….they still came out perfectly. THANK YOU for this great recipe!! :)
They are the best cookies ever!! Turned out perfect the first time. I can’t wait to make them again!! Really simple and easy to follow instructions.
These cookies tured out perfect! My husband, the Cookie Monster said these are his favourites. They turned out fluffy, soft and chewy. Bravo for this recipe.
After hours of searching on the internet for the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, I stumbled across this one that was actually from a link placed on another website that asked how to make The Perfect Cookie. I Made this Recipe exactly as it says without any tweaks or substitutes. They came out PERFECT! THEY WERE THE BEST COOKIES I’ve EVER MADE! Noone at work believed me that I actually made them from scratch. They truely are as good if not better than the cookies you buy at one of those gourmet bakeries. THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS RECIPE! ♡
I saw a comment by a Bekah if I believe and she kind of outlined what she did in this recipe and how she made it work for her and I thought it was a good idea! So I will do the same :D.
I have baked these cookies a handful of times and (not counting the first time) they have ALWAYS turned out great :D. Yesterday when I made them I discovered I didn’t have any salt (who runs out of salt!?) and I crossed my fingers hoping it would turn out okay but it did :D. So for anyone out there who for whatever reason doesn’t have any salt, the world is NOT going to end ~.~.
I do pretty much exactly what the recipe tells me to do. Initially I add in the whole egg with an additional egg yolk. But I am super anal about over beating or mixing so after that step I take out my hand mixer and carefully whisk in the flour mixture. Oh and also, when you melt the butter, be sure that you sit in the fridge for a good minute. You don’t want to add in the chocolate chips in when the dough is really hot from the melted butter because then the chips melt lol. This hasn’t happened to me, but my dad was making a healthier version of cookies and he didn’t cool the coconut oil before adding everything else in and that happened to him. I should add that the recipe he made still turned out great! (except for some reason the next day the natural sweetener he used was completely over bearing to taste). This is just a cautionary statement :).
I believe when I made these cookies the first time I just added the the egg plus one yolk. But for some reason those cookies….were a bit off. When I tasted the dough before putting them in the oven it tasted really grainy to me. My mother reported the same thing to me. They were still thick and chewy and tasted amazing but there was that minimal difference. So what I do to prevent that from happening is that after I whisk in the dry ingredients if I taste it and its a liiiiiiiitle too grainy for me I add in a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit more egg white. Just a tad! And for some reason, wallah, the dough is just perfect for me lol. I then with my freshly washed hands (don’t forget underneath the nails!) work the chocolate chips in with my hand. Using the whisk for that is just annoying to me because the chips get stuck in between the wires. But that’s my preference.
Recently I have had the amazingly bright idea to sit my dough in the freezer so it can harden. I have found that after all of the ingredients are blended in if I put them in the oven they will flatten out very easy. Still good! But flat. So I roll the dough in some plastic wrap and throw it in the freezer. Then I just take out fairly big chunks with a tablespoon. I tried the method outlined in that picture once but I find that my rough chunks that I spoon out give me the same results :). I don’t really want to roll the dough balls because I don’t want them to be perfect looking.
Finally, I take them out and set them on a wire rack once I see the BOTTOM of the outer edges are brown and crispy but the sides of the edges aren’t brown but to the touch they are firm and puffy at the same time. They aren’t hard. I feel it is important to let them cool down on the wire rack because as the pan cools over time it is continuing the slow process of baking the cookies even further in the middle just enough so they are really thick and chewy and just….just…just heavenly.
These cookies generally don’t last a day. I eat a few straight out of the oven because they are amazing that way. But you can store them in a container or do like I do and put them all on one plate and wrap it in plastic wrap lol. I put them in the fridge because my parents just…always seem to put them in the fridge but I just pop them in the microwave for 10 to 15 seconds so they get all gooey and warm again. Tastes amazing. Thank you Michelle for giving us this recipe! Sorry this was a long post but I figured someone could benefit from what I did :).
Happy Baking! <3
Lol, I made these but forgot the half cup of white sugar! I didn’t realize it until I reread the recipe after they were baked. No wonder hubby wasn’t so trilled about them. I thought I had over baked them because they were browner than usual. Since they have less sugar, I decided to try half a cookie. They taste okay and are a little cake like. Ah well. The batter was amazing though, lol. I will have to try the recipe correctly another day. Thanks for sharing!
I just made these cookies tonight and they are freaking amazing. By far the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made. I have no idea why so many people had problems with this recipe. I followed the instructions pretty much to a T and they turned out perfect. Thank you!
I had stopped making chocolate chip cookies altogether because all my attempts resulted in flat, ugly looking cookies. I tried your recipe reluctantly…and was so pleasantly surprised!! These cookies were absolutely perfect-they looked like the pictures of cookies that I see in cookbooks but could never make myself. And they taste delicious! This will now be my go-to recipe for chocolate chip cookies! Thanks for sharing!
I made this recipe twice in about one week and they were amazing! The first time, I waited too long to remove them from the oven and they spread a bit, but were still tasty. But the second time, I removed them sooner and made sure my butter had cooled entirely and they were so delicious. They looked and tasted just like a bakery cookie. I got a lot of compliments. I will definitely make them again, but when I have time I’m trying the infamous NY Times recipe.
These cookies are simply the best.
I’ve now made them twice now. As a matter of fact, my second batch is in the oven right this moment. Every lady should have a perfect cookie recipe to make for her little ones someday, and I’ve just found mine!
These cookies are everything your recipe promises– they are soft, chewy, delicious, and a visual delight!
You, my dear lady, are a wonder. I’ve already passed this recipe on twice.
Well done!
Well….
Tried this recipe today. I reduced the butter by 1/4. Then used 2 tbsp shortening along with the remainder of the (unsalted) butter.
Convection oven at 325 degrees.
Cookies were sensational! Fine easy recipe! Thanks!
These were fantastic! However, when i followed the recipe exactly, they were super flat. I had to add more flour to turn the batter into a thicker batter. You know you have added enough flour if you can pick up a chunk of cookie dough with two fingers and not have the batter slide back into the bowl from your fingers. These cookies were probably the chewiest I have ever had and were as thick as the picture! I omitted step 4 because 1/4 cup of cookie dough per cookie would make a small dinner plate sized cookie. I just did about 1 1/2 tablespoon of batter per cookie and they were a little larger than the palm of my hand. I also didn’t understand half of step 4. haha I also did not worry about moving the cookie sheets around in the oven. I just let them be on a middle rack. I hope this helps!
I made these cookies a few weeks ago and they were delicious! I followed the directions “to a T” but found that while my cookies were chewy (I like them that way…) they were not “thick”. My cookies did spread a bit.
Any helpful hints? What did I do wrong?
Thank you, Brown-eyed Baker… you are a cookie angel!
Hi Lisa, Make sure you allow the butter to cool down to room temperature before using it. Also, I recommend parchment or a silicone baking mat versus greasing the pan. Good luck!
I measured flour in cups and when the dough was ready I saw that I have to add more flour otherwise they would become thin. next time I will weight the flour. The only thing I did differently I used 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar. In my oven I had to bake them for 25 minute and they still stayed very light in color almost pale. May be it because I use less sugar, but usually I cut sugar in American recipes for cookie in half and they are sweet enough. I shaped them with ice cream scoop, received 20 big cookies.
Thank you for the recipe!
I guess my search for the best chocolate cookie recipe stops here at your blog. Thank you so much for sharing especially on how to shape the cookies and produce the jagged edges.. Love it and it is a Must! :)
I really like how the people who comment here acknowledge that they may have done something wrong during the baking process when their cookies turn out bad or environmental factors may have played a part, and they are going to try again. I was searching for chocolate chip cookie recipes on Allrecipes and some of the comments on the recipes said how the cookies were disgusting, awful, was nothing like what the author stated, they were never going to make them again, etc. They’re saying it’s the recipes’ fault for their bad cookies when they may have done something wrong. As stated here in the comments, there are a number of factors that could cause bad cookies: faulty oven temperature, not using baking paper, not cooling the butter enough, over mixing the dough, etc.
Can I use Cake Flour instead?
Hi Clarina, I would not recommend it, as the texture of the cookies will be significantly different.
thanks so much for this recipe. the cookies came out perfectly, thick and chewy. my family gives it a “double thumbs up”! Normally my cookies are hard and crispy, which every one in my family does NOT enjoy. You made me a winner this batch! YAY!!
I used this cookie recipe and put oreos in the center and they are AMAZING! Best chocolate chip cookie recipe I ever made! :D Thanks!
I love love love this recipe!! People rave for these cookies, though I do make some modifications. I only use brown sugar anywhere from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup, and that’s it.. no more sugar. Also I use whole wheat flour and only 2 cups, without those 2 extra tbsp, though I’ve made them with white flour and still I only use 2 cups.
Ok I just made these and followed direction. The flavor is fantastic. Beautiful and thick when right out of oven BUT then after cooling on cookie sheets they are FLAT! I didnt over mix when adding dry ingredients to wet. What went wrong? This is a recipe I would like to make again but only if they turn out thick and chewy. HELP!
A couple of things could have happened – the butter could have been too warm… also, did you use parchment paper or did you grease a cookie sheet? Greasing cookie sheet usually imparts way too much fat that can get soaked up into cookies, resulting in flat cookies that spread.
OMG these were amazing… I used white chocolate chips (preference thing) and wow. Sidenote: I have never in my life made cookies, period. This was my first hoorah and it was far better than I could have imagined. Thank you!
Hi, does it matter if the brown sugar has molasses as an ingredient? Thanks
All brown sugar is actually made by adding molasses to white sugar, so you’re fine.
Just made these and they are delicious! I added walnuts and just rolled them into balls, the size the recipe suggested. BUT I don’t think they taste that different from my usual recipe, which is the NESTLE tollhouse recipe. In a taste test, I don’t think many would be able to tell the difference. My recipe from the back of the chocolate chip bag comes out just as chewy as these too, they’re just smaller.
This is almost identical to the cookie recipe I’ve come up with over my years of tweaking. I’ve always used 1 cup of butter and think they turn out a little greasy (I’m the only one who thinks this). I’m going to cut my recipe back by 1/2 stick and see how it goes. Thanks!
Great recipe!!! I just made these and they are going in my favorites… Turned out perfect… I used measuring cups/spoons not weights… Followed instructions, only had salted butter and didn’t pull them apart… Just rolled into balls about the size of a golf ball, still looked like bakery cookies… Little tip::: I didn’t over mix and folded chocolate chips with my hands… Baked at 325 for 15 mins, no more, no less… Thanx, Luey…
I left the mixer going, tossed the chocolate chips in there and then proceeded to go check on the kids, forgot about it for a good 5 minutes, so it was way over mixed, but still turned out perfect. Only difference was the roughed up tops didn’t stay as obvious after baking, but that 15 minute suggestion was spot on with how long I did mine and they were amazing.