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 need to clarify. In your video you say “1 tsp baking powder”. The recipe calls for “1 tsp baking soda”. Which is correct? Thank you.
Hi Sally. We first published this chocolate chip cookie recipe in 2012. We are always working on perfecting our recipes so we modified the recipe with a tad more salt and switched to 1 tsp baking soda. This resulted in a softer, chewier cookie that spread perfectly with or without chilling the dough
Tried this cookie and ….my family and friends loved it! Will try your other recipes soon. Thanks!
I am so happy to hear that! I hope you and your family will love every recipe that you will try.
OMG these are THE BEST chocolate chip cookies I have ever baked. I can’t tell you how many recipes I’ve tried using butter only for the cookies to come out flat and sad looking. These were perfectly puffy and soft and the perfect balance of sweet and salty with walnuts. This will be my only recipe I will use going forward. Now excuse me while I indulge I. Yet ANOTHER cookie. (giggle, giggle)
I’m so happy you enjoyed this Mel! Thank you for that wonderful review!
These cookies had a great chewy texture but they were way too sweet. Is there any way to reduce the sugar without affecting the texture too much? Thanks.
Hi Bryn, that may work to reduce sugar but the texture does change with less sugar and they can seem a little more cake-like.
OMG these are THE BEST chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had!! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried baking cookies with butter only for them to turn out flat and sad looking. These were puffy, chewy and the perfect balance of sweet and salty with the walnuts. Thank you for sharing your recipe. You totally made my day. Now excuse me while I indulge in yet ANOTHER cookie. (Giggle, giggle.)
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing that with me Mel!
Awesome… Sooo delicious
Hi Natasha,
Thank you for this recipe! I have made it a few times, and my family loves it. One question though, if I wanted to make it into a double chocolate chip cookie by adding cocoa, how much do I need to add? Or would this completely change the outcome of the cookie?
Thanks!
Hi Melanie, without testing that through, I could only guess about the amounts. I would probably experiment by swapping out some of the flour for cocoa. I wish I could be more help. If you test this successfully, I would love to hear the details.
Hi Natasha, I was wondering how many ounces of cookie dough the recipe makes.
Hi, I didn’t weigh the cookie dough so I’m not sure.
This came out amazing! I had to use mini morsels because that’s all we had. My last batch I added chopped walnuts to the dough and after placing them on the baking sheet I added2-3 white chocolate morsels to the top. Delicious! Definitely going to be making this again and again!
Love it! Thank you so much for giving this recipe a great review.
This is the very first recipe of yours that I made that did NOT turn out. We were so disappointed. I did everything precisely following the recipe. The cookies were flat and spread to about 5″ across, they ran together on the cookie sheet and they were so sickening sweet, we threw them away.
Hi Robin, that is definitely not an expected outcome in this recipe but I am always happy to help troubleshoot. A couple of things – make sure to measure correctly to get the right proportion of wet to dry ingredients. Also, make sure to use baking soda and not baking powder. Lastly, make sure you don’t make them overly large or put them too close together so they spread into each other like the way you described.
Hi, I don’t really have baking soda, what will happen if I don’t use it?
Hi Donia, the baking soda is required in this recipe for the rise and spread as it bakes.
Hi Natasha and thank you for this great post!
I have been a regular reader for many weeks and I appreciate the quality of the articles
As a mother of 3, cookies are always a big hit in our home. But I am starting to be more mindful about sugars and carbs in our diet. Me and my husband I are currently doing a program and are very happy with the results. It helped me not only lose weight but keep it off, hope it helps some others!
Stay safe everyone,
Stella,
Thanks for sharing that with us, Stalla.
Hi Natasha,
These chocolate chip cookies are just the best thing in the world!
However, I sometimes notice some granulated sugar in the mouth. Is it normal?
Or am I doing something wrong.
Hi Busaina, I have not had that experience. I’m curious if its due to the type of sugar used?
Hi Natasha,
You say to roll the cookies slightly but in your video You just release the trigger on the ice cream scoop, which is correct?
Thanks
Hi, I use the trigger release ice cream scoop for even portioning and then roll them lightly.
Hi Ms.Natasha, is it okay just to use 1cup of brown sugar?
Hi Melanie, the texture does change with less sugar and they can seem a little more cake-like.
Hi Natasha! I was wondering how long these cookies stay soft? I have made chocolate chip cookies before and once they get cold, they get really hard. Thanks!
Hi Saleha, these cookies stay soft for days. You can try it and let us know how it goes.
These cookies taste wonderful! I’ve made them twice already, but the only problem I’m having is that they don’t flatten out…any tips on how to fix this?
If your cookies ended up too thick and did not flatten, the usual culprit is too much flour. Be sure to measure by fluffing the flour first with a spoon then spoon it into a dry ingredient measuring cup and scrape off the top. If you push your measuring cup into a flour bin, you will get up to 25% too much flour. Also, do not tap the flour down in the measuring cup.
Also, form cookies with 3 Tbsp of dough. If you make them too large, they will take longer to spread.
Made the receipe with exact directions, wow it’s amazing, I started eating from the time it came out the oven.
Sounds like you found a new favorite! Thank you for sharing that Donna!
Hi Natasha! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe, this is the second time I’ve baked them, and this last time,my son said, and I quote. “This is heaven”. I never imagined I would be able to bake a single batch of cookies.
Thanks to you, I am even considering selling them. I gotta work on the presentation though, but flavor wise, OMG!! They’re amazing…you’re amazing!
I love it! Thank you so much for your great comments and feedback. That sounds like a great idea!
Great recipe!!!!!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that!
This is the best ever recipe that I’ve tried. Natasha thank you. Baking is my way of coping up with my loneliness and depression. Again,thabk forsharing your recipes. More power
You’re welcome, Laine! I’m so happy you’re enjoying our recipes!
I’m not into too much sugar, what will happen if i remove the granulated sugar in the ingredient?
Hi Eve, that may work but the texture does change with less sugar and they can seem a little more cake-like.
This time I tried butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips and it’s pretty good!❤
Awesome!
Never ever have I made cookies like this… they are FAB!!! I have made soooo many different recipes and this is the best by far!!!!!
I’m so glad you loved it, Amanda! Thanks for your great feedback.
These cookies were perfect!
In future recipes I’d like to see more of you saying EXACTLY what speed to “beat” or “add” certain ingredients, as they affect general texture… I want to re-make them but I don’t remember what speed I added in the flour, I feel like it should be ‘slow’.
Looking forward to more great recipes from you!
Thank you for sharing that feedback with us Michelle!