These chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies are the perfect cookie with a soft and moist center, melty morsels of chocolate, and crisp edges. It’s the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need because it’s classic—not fussy, complicated, or time-consuming.
There’s no need for refrigeration, special tricks, or complex cooking techniques to get the best chocolate cookie. Our foolproof, classic recipe tastes exactly how it should—insanely delicious. After all, it’s the incredible flavor and easy-to-make recipe that keeps traditional desserts like Gingerbread Cookies, Banana Bread, and Baklava so popular for ages!
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Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
My high school used to sell the best chocolate chip cookies at lunchtime. They were soft, thick and irresistible. With this cookie recipe, I sought to recreate that memorable texture and this recipe takes me back to the days when I saved up my quarters for the rare treat of the cafeteria cookie.
There is no match for homemade chocolate chip cookies with chewy and soft texture, gooey chocolate chips, and the sweetest aroma coming from your oven. As America’s most loved cookie, they are perfect for every occasion, whether you’re making Christmas cookies, comforting a neighbor, or surprising your kiddos with a sweet after-school treat.
Just like with Chocolate Crinkle Cookies or Christmas Sugar Cookies, everyone needs a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe, so here’s why this one is a keeper:
- The cookies stay soft for days
- Easy, straightforward recipe with tips to make it foolproof!
- No resting/refrigerating time—so you can satisfy your craving immediately
- Pantry staple ingredients
- True to the classic flavor everyone loves
- Stores and freezes well
- Make ahead option to always have dough on hand
Chocolate Chip Cookies Video
In this video, Natasha shows you how easy it is to whip up a batch of homemade chocolate chip cookies. *Note that we updated the recipe and now use 1 tsp of baking soda because we loved the results even more.
Ingredients:
The best chocolate chip cookie recipe is made with pantry and refrigerator staples—nothing fancy or hard to find here.
- Unsalted butter – room temperature butter creates the best consistency to trap air for a chewy, airy dough with the best texture and rise.
- Granulated sugar – white sugar adds sweetness without adding moisture for the perfect spread
- Brown sugar – molasses keeps the cookie moist, soft, and chewy. Be sure to press the sugar tightly into the cup when measuring
- Eggs – room temperature eggs mix more evenly to bind the dough
- Vanilla extract – store-bought or homemade vanilla extract gives that classic chocolate chip cookie flavor
- All-purpose flour – be sure to measure correctly to get the right amount: fluff with a spoon and then scoop the flour into the measuring cup. Finally, scrape off the top. Be sure not to pat the flour down
- Baking soda – sift to eliminate clumps
- Salt – balances the sweetness of the sugars
- Chocolate chips – we prefer semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use milk chocolate or bittersweet chips for a slightly different taste. See our buying guide below – be sure to use the full amount because they add moisture and give good form to the cookies
Pro Tip:
If you don’t have time to let the butter come to room temperature, try this trick to soften the butter quickly, because it makes a big difference.
How to Buy Chocolate Chips
Chocolate chips come in different varieties. Here’s what to look for:
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips (46%-60% cocoa): the traditional chip for chocolate chip cookies. You can use full-size or mini chips, chunks, or even chopped chocolate. Nestle, Tollhouse, Ghirardelli, Guittard, Kirkland, Hershey’s….they all work!
- Milk chocolate chips (10% cocoa): these make very sweet cookies, so have your glass of milk ready. Try mixing with semi-sweet.
- Bittersweet chocolate chips (70% cocoa): less sweet and intensely chocolatey. These produce a more “adult” cookie.
Substitutions
It’s easy to make these cookies your own. You’ll need 2 cups of mix-ins, so if you’re feeling adventurous, try some of these fun alternatives to chocolate chips:
- Peanut butter chips
- Sprinkles
- Butterscotch chips
- M&M candies
- Macadamia nuts
- Chopped unsalted peanuts
- White vanilla baking chips
- Shredded coconut
- Pretzel pieces – the options are endless!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
It’s so simple to mix up this easy chocolate chip cookie recipe with pantry staples and no refrigeration is needed.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and cover 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper or Silpat mats. Cream the butter and sugars together for 5 minutes until light and fluffy—this is the most important step to get a chewy cookie. Be sure to beat for the full amount of time!
- Beat eggs into the butter mixture one at a time followed by the vanilla extract.
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and sifted baking soda) in a separate bowl, and then add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in thirds. Finally, fold the chocolate chips into the dough. Be sure not to over-mix (this can cause the dough to become tough).
- Roll balls of dough or use a trigger release scoop to scoop 3 Tbsp balls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 minutes. The tops should still look a bit wet and not browned. We usually bake 1/3 of the cookies at a time and refrigerate or freeze the rest for later, so see our tips below.
- Rest the cookies on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Store cookies in an airtight container on the counter for 5 days. To warm the cookies, try toasting in a toaster oven or baking at 350 for 2-3 minutes.
Pro Tip:
For a prettier cookie, press a few extra chocolate chips into the top of each cookie dough ball just before baking.
Common Questions
Room temperature butter and eggs, beating the butter and sugars thoroughly, and not over-mixing create the best cookies! No need for fancy techniques, because the best chocolate chip cookies are easy to make!
These homemade chocolate chip cookies spread perfectly without flattening.
Over-baking is the #1 cause of hard cookies, so remove them before they brown, when the edges are just turning golden. The top should still look a bit raw.
Once baked, store the cookies in an airtight container to keep them soft. You can even place a piece of bread in the container to maintain moisture.
Usually, cookies go flat when a recipe doesn’t include enough flour. Be sure to measure the ingredients correctly. Also, check to be sure your baking soda is still fresh by placing 1 tsp baking soda into a cup with a splash of vinegar. It should fizz, but if it doesn’t, replace your baking soda.
This usually means you use too much flour. Be sure to fluff and spoon your flour into a dry ingredient measuring cup, and don’t pat it down. Also, be sure not to make the cookie dough balls too large, or they may take longer than the cooking time to spread in the oven.
Make-Ahead
Our homemade chocolate chip cookie dough is refrigerator and freezer-friendly, so you can always have dough on hand. To make a few days ahead, mix the dough as directed and store:
- To Refrigerate: put dough into an airtight container, or cover rolled dough balls on a cookie sheet in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, and then bake as usual. It may take 1-2 minutes longer if starting with chilled dough.
- To Freeze: Scoop the dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and freeze for 1 hour. Then, once the dough balls are frozen, store them in a freezer zip-top bag until ready to bake.
- To Bake: thaw in the refrigerator and bake as directed. You can bake from frozen, but the cookies will take a few more minutes to bake.
You will love these homemade chocolate chips with melty chocolate, a chewy cookie center, and an irresistible aroma. Our easy recipe uses pantry staples without unnecessary techniques! Grab a glass of milk because this will soon become your go-to recipe!
More Cookie Recipes
If you love this chocolate chip cookie recipe, then you won’t want to miss these other delicious cookie recipes.
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Snowball Cookies
- Russian Tea Cakes
- Shell Cookies
- Cranberry Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Thumbprint Cookies
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, (16 Tbsp), softened
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar, tightly packed
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, measured correctly*
- 1 tsp baking soda, sifted
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, (12 oz), divided reserving 1/4 cup for the top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Line a baking sheet with parchment or Silpat liner. In the bowl of a stand mixer with paddle attachment, combine 2 sticks of butter, 1 cup of packed brown sugar and 1/2 cup of white sugar. Beat 5 minutes on medium/high speed until creamy and light, scraping down the bowl as needed.
- Add 2 eggs, one at a time, beating well with each addition, scraping down the bowl as needed, then beat in 2 tsp of vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp of baking soda (sifted to eliminate lumps). Add the flour mixture to the creamed butter in thirds, mixing to incorporate with each addition. Fold in 2 cups of chocolate chips.
- Use an ice cream scoop to get even balls of dough (3 Tbsp each). Place scoops of dough onto lined baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Mine fit onto 3 cookie sheets and made 26 cookies. Roll balls lightly with your hands then stud tops of cookie balls with reserved chocolate chips. Bake right away or cover and refrigerate until ready to bake.
- Bake one cookie sheet at a time for 12-15 min at 350˚F (we bake 12 minutes), until edges are just turning golden. The tops should still look under-baked. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet 5 min then transfer to a rack to cool.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
I just used a little bit more than what the recepie calls for. Maybe just a little bit extra, but not by much, like a teaspoon with a heap on it. But I wouldnt worry about it. The one teaspoon is fine also, I just sometimes add generously so I have to tweak the recepie a bit 🙂
I love making these cookies. I always had them turn a little different than I wanted and no matter what I did they were not soft and fluffy like I like it. So I decided to experiment and instead of just adding baking soda, I put in lemon concentrate and fizzed it out. When my little sister saw what I did she informed that I ruined the cookies, I was starting to get worried but when I pulled it out of the oven, the cookies were soo fluffy and melt-in-your-mouth soft. We always do this now and cookies turn out amazing. Just wanted to share. 🙂
Oooh that does sound like a nice addition to make them fluffier. Thank you for sharing! I’ll definitely add baking soda next time. How much baking soda did you use for the batch?
Yum! Another tip my mother in law taught me is to outa piece of bread in the bag or Tupperware with your cookies and it keeps them softer longer!!! We also love adding oats and lots of nuts too!!!
Thanks for the tips! I’ll have to try the bread idea; and the oats and the nuts too!! 🙂
mine didnt turn out soft! i can never make soft cookies. why?
Lana, it sounds like you’re pretty frustrated with cookies 🙁 The most common cause of non-soft cookies is usually baking too long. And just a few minutes can make a huge difference. You may have an oven that heats up faster so try cutting the baking down 2-3 minutes and see what happens.
Simply amazing!!! Thank you 🙂
hey natasha
do u have a recipe for Russian Shokoladnaya kolbasa :)?
yes, i do. It’s on my to do list. Keep checking my posts or subscribe to email notifications for the new posts. If you have a recipe for one, i would love to hear from you.
Natasha
Dave and I made this cookies, and i have to say, i will never buy store cookies again!!! The only think i did different with these cookies was add white chocolate chips and peanut butter ones. Yummmm thank you for all the work you put in to this, i look foreword to many more recipes 🙂
Mmmm… all those yummy things you listed makes me want some cookies!! I’m so glad you liked the cookies 😉
🙂 wait until your son grows older, you’ll be amazed!!!
Making them right now. I accidently whisked the chocolate chips in my kitchen aid mixer lol 4got to fold got to excited. I hope they still turn out okay lol:)
That sounds like something I would do 🙂
Beautiful:)
Aha ! Especially cleaning their working areas))) They help me do that, too!
How did you score that?! My son’s forte is currently mess making. He only cleans up when I make it sound really fun; if it’s a race or something. I have to get creative.
They are almost 3 and 5. Birthdays are coming)
How sweet that they help you in the kitchen. I bet they are good helpers 🙂
I made these cookies today! Really good:-) Definitely better tasting than store bought ones. My little girls helped me make the dough and they, too, agreed that the cookies were delicious! Blessings to your family, Natasha:-)
That’s sweet that your girls helped you with the cookies. How old are they?
Yum! Been using this recipe since I was in grade school and my mom found it on the back of the Nestle chocolate chips :). It’s my absolute fave, except we’ve always used 1/2 the chocolate chips called for in the recipe–makes the cookies not overly sweet. I’ll bake up a few and stick the rest in the freezer on a plate (rolled into balls already) to freeze, then put them in a Ziploc bag and take out a few to bake whenever we want some cookies.
I should try that next time. We still ate all the cookies but 3 baking sheets of cookies is a little much at one time 🙂
thank u! looks delish gonna try 4 my family
thank you darlin
I have been using the exactly same recipe. One day, I ran out of time to bake the entire batch. So, I covered the batter and put it in the refrigerator. After work and errants, later that night, I wanted warm, soft chocolate chip cookie with a glass of cold milk. So, I baked one cookie sheet, since it pretty late. Oh, let me tell you, they are the best! They were so good! From that day on, I would make a batch, stick the batter in the refrigerator and when my 3 year-old daughter asks for a cookie, I pull it out and let her help me bake. We have so much fun and its not so time consuming. I hope you’ll try this method, because you will not regret it. I promise! My recipe is exactly the same except, I use only 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp baking powder.
Tanya, thanks for the tip!! That’s a great idea.
These look soo good! Can’t wait to try today(: but one question, my daughter is allergic to vanilla, can I just not add any in? Will they still be the same?
I think they will still be good. It would be fun to try like a hazelnut extract maybe, but they should still be good without the vanilla.
I just made some and me and my son had a couple cookies while they were still warm. Very yummy.
Yay!! I’m so glad you both enjoyed them 🙂
Thanks will make some 4 my family! They look mouthwatering! yumm Your son is sweet! how old?
He is 2 1/2 🙂