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.
Save This Recipe
Enter your email address, and we'll send it straight to your inbox!
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]
When you rotating the baking sheets front to back and top to bottom halfway through the baking time, you have to open the oven door. My concern is it might affect of rising the cookies? most of the recipes say rotating the baking sheets top to bottom but i am too scare to do this so I always bake only one sheet which takes more time to finish baking….but if it does not affect the result of baking I would love to open the oven and rotate the pans. Thanks.
No, it won’t affect the cookies. A lot of recipes (cookies, cakes, breads, etc) call for rotating pans. This is to ensure even baking.
What do you think about browning the butter? :)
Sounds amazing!!!
Wow delicious, I was looking for this everywhere. Finally here we go…
I made these cookies Weds and am making them again today! I haven’t had luck with melted butter cookie recipes but yours was PERFECT!! Seriously turned out amazing, not too flat, not greasy, just yummy! Thanks for sharing!
I made these for a BBQ I am hosting tonight. I weighed the ingredients and used 2 oz. of dough for each cookie. The recipe made exactly 18 as stated. They are delicious and I know they will be a big hit!!! it is nice to have a quick and easy recipe that produces a great cookie:) I often bake your ” New favorite thick and chewy chocolate chip” recipe. It is my number one chocolate chip recipe.Thank You for all the great recipes and posts!
.
As I was reading through this recipe, it looked very familiar. I realized it is the same recipe I have for big,chewy M&M cookies from America’s Test Kitchen.
I use this base quite often and have substituted/added nuts, dried cranberries, white chips, coconut…mixing and matching depending on my mood. The dough holds up so well but I do refrigerate it…as I do just about every cookie dough. I find it intensifies the flavors and I like the finished baked product. Thanks for sharing so others get to enjoy this yummy cookie.
Michelle,
What does the dough rolling method do for the cookie?
Hi Marcie, It gives the cookies that craggly look on top vs smooth and puffed.
Curious to know if you have used this exact recipe for a cookie cake? The recipe I uses produces a more cake-like cookie, and I prefer one that is more dense and chewy. I’ve thought about melting the butter in my recipe, but thought I’d see if anyone has used this in a cookie cake pan already. Excited to try it either way!
I have! The recipe is here: https://www.browneyedbaker.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-cake/
This is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. It’s so quick and easy. I found it on your site years ago and everyone that I make them for LOVES them.
Here’s my search.
30 years ago at the office, someone brought choc chip cookies that were:
Mounded like a macaroon
Crispy-ish but not like you’ll break a tooth (texture inside like a macaroon, actually)
White-ish not yellow like all the others with brown sugar.
I lost the recipe.
Thanks for the info about the extra yolk makes them rise and the melted butter makes them soft. I always assumed she used just regular sugar but am at a loss as to how to accomplish the rest!
Perhaps she used self rising flour, even.
I guess I”ll start over with your recipe as a starting point, thanks!
I made these with a few variations:
I made the dough a day of ahead of time and chilled overnight. I also added in 3/4c of chopped walnuts. The result: BEST COOKIES EVER!!
I’m so glad you posted this recipe. I was trying to copy and paste it for a friend off of the America’s Test Kitchen website, but couldn’t since you have to pay to join (even though I have the cookbook, which is where I originally found the recipe). Thanks for saving me some typing time.
Have you even frozen the dough after shaping into cookies and then baked straight from the freezer? I’m thinking about making a freezer meal with some cookies for a new mom and was wondering if they would work and if there were any changes to the baking directions.
Hi Carissa, Yes, I’ve done that! You may just need to increase the baking time by a few minutes.
You say that you always weigh your baking ingredients -yet are your measurements are in cups etc. Why don’t you provide them in grams as well, to make it easier for everyone who is following your own tip? Thanks
I’ve been using this recipe from BEB for a few years now, and just as I come online to get the recipe yet again, decided to comment.
These are so good! Best cookie recipe I’ve tried (and I’ve tried quite a number!) over the years. I don’t make them over sized but make mini cookies (we have small children who often have that old problem of ‘the eyes are bigger than the stomach’ ) with the same recipe and they turn out just as amazing that way – just smaller and great for the little hands in our house.
Thank you for putting it up, everyone in our house is very appreciative! Not to mention the workmates, relatives and friends who have also enjoyed these cookies (when there are any left over) :)
Which is your favorite cookie between the NY Times cookie, Levain, and this one?
Hi Jacob, Definitely the NY Times cookie!
Oh. My. Lord. Best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever baked. I cannot thank you enough.
Amazing recipe and cookies! I am trying it.
Hey M! Been looking at the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipes that use a 12 to 72 hour rest. What adjustments need to be made or can any recipe be used?
Anyone who says these don’t turn out well is wrong! Follow the directions! I followed them exactly and they turned out perfectly…just had to bake for about 20-22 minutes instead because they are so big! And if you don’t believe that this recipe is foolproof, know that I’m 16 years old and don’t always follow directions and they still always turn out perfectly! My go -to recipe.
Great recipe! I followed exactly and they turned out great.
Hi Michelle,
I had a question about the brown sugar. Did you choose to use Light Brown or Dark Brown sugar?
Hi Mimi, I use light brown sugar.
Made these for the first time today – I am not an experienced baker – followed instructions exactly but did chill the dough first and between batches. Cookies turned out great! Big hit with the resident 10-year-old. Thanks for a great recipe.
these are my go to chocolate chip cookies have made them soooo many times and have had many compliments:)
I have made these but tweaked it a little
hit enter before i could finish!
i tweaked by reducing sugar by 1/4 cup and added caramel bits and flaked sea salt for salted caramel chocolate chip cookies. my back wasn’t turned before the plate was just crumbs!
These cookies are amazing! Can they be frozen?
Yes, they can definitely be frozen. Enjoy!
Can you make these with bread flour?
Hi Sally, I never have, but you could certainly give it a try!
I love this recipe. It is my go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe. I hate to think about how many of these I’ve gorged on late at night with a big glass of ice cold milk. Today for a change of pace, I whisked a half tablespoon of dark cocoa and two teaspoons of instant espresso powder into the flour mixture. I also folded in a cup of pecan pieces with the chocolate chips. They are incredible. A beautiful mocha brown cookie loaded with texture and absolutely delicious.
these are amazing cant wait to make again:)
These were AMAZING!! Definitely my new go-to choc chip cookie recipe! And who knew about the jagged edge thing? I love everything about these cookies!