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
Just made those bad boys. So delicious. first time my cookies did not go flat. I used half chocolate chips and half butterscotch.
thank you so much.
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed that.
Made it yesterday and it was perfectly soft and moist. I’m using a convection oven so I have to bake it at a lower temp and around 10-12mins. I now have a go-to choco chip cookie recipe. Thank you.
That is so nice to know! Thanks for sharing that with us and I hope you love every recipe that you try.
I’ve now tried one more, the chocolate cake. It was perfect. Looking forward to trying more!
So great to hear that you loved the Chocolate Cake too, Tere! I hope that you love every recipe that you try
It’s the best recipe ever!!!!
I’m so glad you loved it! Thanks for sharing that with me.
Hi I did this recipe last week it came out good but it the cookies didn’t stay Soft like the ones you have in the picture is it because of the butter or I over cooked it. Thank you
Hi Iman, baking longer does harden the cookie so if you prefer a firm cookie, you can bake an extra 1-3 minutes. Was anything altered in the recipe so that I can better troubleshoot?
Hi Natasha! Are you using convection oven? Any tips for using convection oven?
Hi Mich, I haven’t tested this on convection mode. I typically use my conventional oven mode. Typically when converting to convection, you would check on the recipe at three-fourths of the time that it is supposed to be done or reduce the temperature down 25 degrees and bake as directed.
I don’t know what I keep doing wrong but nothing is right about these cookies.
I’m so sorry to hear that Ashley. What are you experiencing? We are more than happy to troubleshoot.
Dry, didn’t flatten, just not good. I’m having bad luck with cookies today. Its most likely not the recipe.
Sorry to hear that, Ashley. Can you be more specific and tell me if there was anything changed with the ingredients or recipe?
The taste was delicious, but they came out kind of dry. What did I do wrong?
Hi Jim, the most likely culprit is too much flour. When measuring flour, be sure to use dry ingredient measuring cups (that can be leveled at the top) and spoon the flour into the measuring cup and scrape off the top. If you scoop the measuring cup into the flour bin, you can get up to 25% too much flour which would affect how the cookies spread. Here’s our post on measuring that will help with that.
Girl I love your recipes you have no idea how much i apreciate you for that…. made this today and it was delicious!
Hello Naomi. So great to read your comments and good feedback. I’m glad you loved this recipe!
Hi Natasha,
We love your recipes. My son and I made these cookies. We find them too sweet. How do we reduce sugar? They came out just as per the recipe. My son loves home baked cookies and I am worried about nutrition on them. ALThough they are the best we ever baked.
Hi Manisha, you should be able to lessen the amount a bit. Some of our readers opted in for brown sugar as well to help with color. I don’t have the exact measurements, however.
Hey Natasha,
Trying a cookie for the very first time. The sugar just doesn’t dissolve while, is that alright?
Hi Sarita, what kind of sugar did you use? Did you use regular granulated sugar?
The cookies tasted great but the visual wasn’t the usual chocolate chip cookie. Mine were white and puffy. Too much baking powder made them cake like. If I were to use this recipe in the future I reduce the baking powder and add baking powder.
Hi Karen, if you prefer a darker colored cookie, you could use a dark brown sugar instead. Also, keep in mind if you are going to substitute that baking soda is 4x stronger than baking powder. Lastly, make sure to measure the ingredients using a leveled measuring spoon. More information on how we measure here.
hello Ms. Natasha how many cup of cocoa will i add if i want to bake chocolate cookies? and if i use 1tbsp size how many minutes will i bake it?i hope you notice this comment.i really need your answer.thank you
Hi Precilla, I haven’t tested it that way but if you choose to experiment & add cocoa, be sure to remove the same amount of flour so they don’t get too dense. Chocolate cookies sound great. Let me know how it goes.
It’s the second time I make this recipe and I absolutely love it! Always turn out amazing ♡ This recipe makes about 43 medium cookies
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe!
Best recipe ever i made it twice in 2 days, everybody loves the moist texture.thank you Natasha for your easy and delicious recipes.
Such a great feedback! Thank you so much for your review.
Hi Natasha, is there any chance to get the temperature for the oven temperature in Celsius as well as that is what we use in Australia. Thank you very much.
Hi Violet, I recommend using a converter for that. We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes but it is taking some time as we have to add them one at a time. Thank you so much for being patient! In the meantime, check out our post on measuring which should help or scroll down to the printable recipe and click “metric” I hope that helps.
Violet , I believe 350 Fahrenheit it is 176 Celsius .
Love all ur recipes. Could u pls guide me with eggless version of these cookies. It wil b of gr8 help. My kids love the taste of them.
Thank you Vidhi. I haven’t really tried making this recipe with eggs yet but if you decide to do an experiment, let us know how it goes.
I just tried and eggless version. I substituted the eggs with applesauce and the cookies look the same coming out of the oven as they did going in…don’t think I recommend that way. They taste ok. They look messy and like dough.
Thanks for sharing that with us Hanna. I haven’t tried making this recipe eggless but yeah it could really mess up the recipe.
Hi! I love the taste of this cookies, I just have a problem…they don’t go flat enough. I measured the flour as you said, but they still remain puffy. Can you tell me the amount of flour in grams? Thank you for your recipes!
Hi Alexandra, if you click “Metric” in the recipe card, you will see the measurements displayed in grams.
Thank you so much! I missed that😁!
I love all the recipes so far but you don’t put how many servings in ur nutrition part like how many cookies per serving would help can u fix this is the recipes plz
Hi Tara, Hi, we are slowly working through all of our recipes to add nutrition info but it is a time-consuming process as they have to be added one at a time. Thank you for being patient!
These cookies are good. A bit too sweet though. We even put half the chocolate chips and it was still too sweet. If we make them again, we’ll cut the sugar down as well.
One little caveat I have here is that you changed the recipe but left the original comments. Most of the older comments (and ratings) are from years ago and for the old recipe. I don’t think that’s fair. The recipes are significantly different. I’m glad I saved the original b/c these just don’t turn out for me for some reason. I love most of your recipes though!
Hi D, when we updated, we addressed the concerns of previous readers and worked to solve issues that existed. We also made them so they don’t require the make-ahead refrigerated step.
Hi I’m wondering could you substitute self rising flour for the all purpose flour and baking powder since it has both in it?
Hi Dylan, Possibly but I haven’t tested it myself. Since baking is so much a science, I can’t really recommend something I haven’t tried. Sorry I can’t be more help.
I made soft chocolate chip cookies and what a great success they were
The recipe is so easy to follow.
That’s so awesome, Derek! Thank you for that wonderful review!
Just made these cookies, they were gorgeous, so tempted to go and eat another! Being a bit critical they were a bit flat, hoping a new tub of baking powder will sort that out.
Hi Claire! These are gorgeous cookies, aren’t they! I’m glad I’m not the only one that thinks so lol. Thank you for stopping by with that great review!
Hands down the BEST recipe I’ve ever made. Soft interior slight crunch to the exterior. Super delicious, super easy.
That’s just awesome!! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Amanda!
I have made these twice now…they turn out perfect both times. I freeze them and use them a couple at a time…or more if the grandbabies come by..they freeze well.
That’s so great, Charlotte! Thank you for that wonderful review!