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]
Very good. I suppose it is the amount of butter. I did not use the shaping technique so I only baked for 12 minutes, possibly still one minute too long. They end up thin but with a great texture.
You keep writing recipes and I’ll keep baking them. Deal?
Do the eggs have to be room temperature
I love this recipe and have used it for years!
I add white chocolate chips and espresso powder!
Amazing!!
They didn’t rise as much as I expected, I will maybe raise the temperature and bake less next time, but these have exceptional flavor. I was almost out of butter, in fact, all I had was salted butter, I put extra baking soda in accidentally but still they are incredible!
I loved your recipe. The cookies came out perfectly and my entire family loved munching on them.
So confused at first by the separating technique but man they look beautiful! And taste great!!
I just made these and they turned out huge and very flat. While they were in the oven, they spread and formed into one giant cookie (which was still amazing) and I came back to this post trying to figure out what I did wrong. Turns out I just completely forgot to let the butter cool. I would imagine these are even more amazing when made with cooled butter. I can’t wait to make them again!!!
I have made this recipe many times over the years and they always come out great. Made them this evening for teacher Christmas bags and they turned out badly. The dough was very wet and sticky, they spread alot, were flat and very buttery on the bottom. I have no idea what I did wrong?!? I’m going to try again tomorrow evening but any insight on what I did wrong is appreciated. I can’t give up on these, they’re too good!!
my go to recipe for over 3 years. Everyone loves them. I use a teaspoon scoop and often mix different flavored chips or add nuts.
This summer we made them a little bigger and made ice cream sandwiches!
By far my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, hands-down! Soft, chewy and just the right amount of sweet. They stayed thick too. I just used a 1 inch cookie ball scoop and dropped them on my pan. I also only made one batch at a time.
really yummy
Do you have a recipe for “crackle” top chocolate chip cookies?
I have been looking for years!! I am looking for a recipe that melts when you put them in the oven!
WOW! These are amazing! They really looked like I ordered them from a bakery- and they tasted just as good. Definitely saving this in my “favorites” recipe file!! Thank you for sharing! :)
My fav chocolate chip cookies EVER! When I want something really quick, I make them as is. When I want them to be extra special I brown the butter when I melt it and add toffee pieces with the chocolate chips. SO GOOD.
Hi, I made these yesterday. I actually made half the recipe because their is only two of us and we shouldn’t be eating sweets but life is short. I only use one egg and added a couple of spoonfuls of flour. Make 9 large cookies and they are delicious. I’m sure they wont last the day. Cant wait to make them when my grandbabies will be able to visit
These are so delicious!! I am usually cursed with chocolate chip cookies and almost every time my cookies would come out flat! Not with this recipe! I followed it exactly (except for the shaping, I just did balls) and mine ended up taking 23 min but other than that perfection!
I’ve been making this recipe all summer, and in fact I started making it as a buttery sugar cookie (simply by leaving out the chocolate chips) and it’s delicious that way, too. Over time I’ve modified it, though. To reduce carbs and for my personal taste, I substitute almond flour for half of the wheat flour and I reduce the sugar from 1.5 cups to 1 cup. Then after awhile of making it that way, the extreme butteriness started to get to me, so I also reduced the butter from 12 tablespoons (1.5 sticks) to 8 tablespoons (1 stick). I thought this made it even better. I just made a double batch tonight!
So good! Thank you for all of your recipes, but especially this one! Delicious.
This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe that I make. They are unbelievably good. People comment that they look like they came from a bakery. I do not make any changes or substitutions to the posted recipe.
Thank you, Michelle. I love your website, and I have used many of the recipes that you have posted.
I am only just learning how to bake, and these turned out really well! My oven is funky, so I had to do about 18 minutes at 350 degrees. Also that amount of chocolate chips ended up being way too much?? I used less than a cup by the time I was done shaping them, because there simply wasn’t enough dough to get all the chocolate chips to stick together.
Is the brown sugar packed or just measured to 1 cup
These are the best cookies I’ve ever eaten, hands down. I’m ruined for anything else.
measurements are silly.. need european translation for the measurements..
Will make this weekend for grad party. Thanks Michelle.l
Thank you soooo much!!!
I made this chocolate chip recipe for the first time and the cookies turned out just awesome. Thick, chewy and delicious. I was thoroughly overjoyed. I will never go back to my Tollhouse recipe or any other. I have not used a recipe before that melted the butter, previously only softened the butter.
Do you have a video that shows how you shape these cookies?
I’ve been making this recipe for years and it’s my all time favorite. I’ve found the easiest way is to weigh out your dough, roll it into a ball and break it half. Smoosh halves together so the broken crinkly parts are on the outside. I hope that makes sense. Sometimes I skip that step all together and the cookies still turn out fantastic. It really is a great recipe.
I, too, love these cookies and have made them often. As you say, no chilling required, which makes it fast and easy to satisfy your craving for a really good chocolate chip cookie. May I suggest another chocolate chip cookie (can’t have too many of a good thing!) that the Levain Bakery in NYC has made famous? This copycat recipe does require chilling but is so worth the wait! http://www.fransfavs.com/2012/07/levain-bakery-chocolate-chip-walnut-cookie-clone/
This is my family’s favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.
I make them at least once a month!
These are SO amazingly delicious that I may not even look for another chocolate chip cookie recipe….and I have lots of really good recipes. I used dark brown sugar to add a deep flavor and immediately when the cookies came out of the oven, I put 3-4 more chocolate chips on the top and pressed them in slightly. Not only did they look great but so yummy as well. I made this recipe 4 times in the last month.