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
Hi Natasha,
I’ve been making these cookies for a long time and absolutely love them. One question though, could I bake these cookies inside a muffin tin. I’m asking because I don’t know if the heat from the oven will circulate throughout the whole pan to fully bake the whole cookie so the cookie isn’t raw in the middle. Just wondering!
Sincerly,
Ashton
I haven’t had a chance to test that out yet, but if you do please let me know how it goes.
Hi Natasha!!
This is me and my son’s to-go cookie recipe. He even sold some of the cookies he made. I was wondering though what is the shelf life of the baked cookies. How long do they last?
Great to hear that, Rio! Hope it sells well and it becomes a hit. Usually, bakery or homemade cookies can be stored at room temperature for two to three weeks or two months in the refrigerator.
I love to watch your videos. I have made so many of your recipes. My whole family loves every one of these especially anything having chocolate in it. Lol
Great to hear that, Lisa. I hope you and your family will love all the recipes that you will try!
Hi Natasha, do you have a good recipe for Oatmeal Raisin Soft Cookies please, Hubby keeps buying them and I thought I wouls like to try making them, thank you in anticipation
Kathy
Hi Kathy, I don’t have a video and recipe for that yet but thanks for the idea and suggestion. I’ll try to add that to our list.
Hi Natasha! I just made these and they are super duper delicious.. I made half of the recipe and everyone just finished them in a few minutes….Thank you so much Natasha for such an amazing recipe…
You are very welcome, Maryam. I’m glad that the recipe was a huge hit!
NATASHA!
We just made them.
They are REALLY AMAZING!
We will definitely make the again! Thank You!
Yay! I’m so happy to hear that, Luba! I’m glad these were a hit!
Followed the recipe and they are AMAZING… Thank You
Glad you loved it, Mike!
My husband is a major Cookie Monster. I bake cookies every week. I made these cookies and added toasted walnuts. He love loved them. I will definitely make more of these. Thank you so much. I just love your videos.
That’s just awesome, Suz! I’m so glad he loved them! Thank you for your excellent review and compliment!
I am planning to switch from my recipe to this one and use them as our go-to camping cookies. We make our cookies with walnuts, white and dark chocolate chips but they tend to not be soft, hence why I plan to switch recipes. I just wanted to offer a storage suggestion: I form equal size cookie logs, about 1 foot long and wrap them in plastic wrap tightly. I place 3 logs in a ziplocba and freeze them. When I am ready to bake them, I take one out in the fridge and let thaw sloe or place it on counter 1 hr for a fast thaw (still wrapped). Once oven/baking sheet are ready, I unwrap and cut the log in 1/2inch slices. Each can be formed in a ball or broken and formed in smaller balls. Then bake for required time. The log will cut even if it is not fully thawed but dough should be thawed by th time it s baked.
Hi Angela, thank you for sharing your tip for storing cookie dough.
A tad too sweet for my taste, I’ll eliminate 1/2 cup sugar next time. I ended up with 48 large cookies.
Hi John! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
Hi Natasha,
They look delicious! I was wondering if you could provide measurements of ingredients in the metric system too?
It would be very nice! Thank you
Hi Olivier! If you scroll down to our printable recipe card, most of our recipes have a metric conversion option on the printable recipe card. We are currently working on adding metric measurements to all of our recipes, but it is taking some time 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.
Thank you very much Natasha! I totally missed this when looking at the recipe. That’s awesome, thank you again. Will try it right away then.
You’re very welcome! I hope you love it!
Best recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies. I have made many, these are the Best yet. I added Chopped nuts to mine. Thank you Natasha.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Diane!
I LOVE THEM they were perfec my whole family loved the cookies their perfectly sweet, not too much not too little in sweetnes. I usually make the base and then add whatever topping im craving sometimes white chocolite or with oreos or both or rasons, nuts. This recipe is truelly perfect goes with everytopping. than u so much keep up the wonderful amazing perfect work!!!!!! trually inspiring!
Thank you for sharing your wonderful review, Ruta! That’s the best when the entire family loves a meal!
Could I Also Use Chocolate Chunks In This One Because I Do Not Have Chocolate Chips, I Only Have A Milk Chocolate Bar?
Hi Noah! That will work! Here’s what one of my readers wrote: “No-fail and best cookie recipe! So soft and the whole family loved it. Cut down the sugar about 1 tbsp each and replaced chocolate chips with chunks. They’re fantastic.” I hope this helps!
My family LOVES this recipe! It’s a perfect balance of soft, not too gooey, not too “cake-y”!
Great to hear that, Jami. Thank you for your great review and feedback!
Best cookie I’ve ever made! How did I NOT know to fluff up the flour? It’s not like I’m a spring chicken. Thanks for the tip.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, and the tip was helpful, Karen!
Can I use regular sugar instead of brown sugar?
Hi Shreyas, The brown sugar helps the cookies get the right color so, without it, it will come out as too white.
Hi Natasha! Love your chocolate chip cookies! My go to recipe and been making them for years! One question- can I use all of the batter and make it into 1 big cookie? Like a cookie ‘cake’? Would like to try this for my son for his birthday- your cc cookies are his very favorite and this is what he wants me to make him for his 16th birthday on Sunday. I didn’t want to waste the dough if it doesn’t work this way. Any thoughts?
I have not tested that as one big cookie. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe.
This is my go to cookie recipe, as a 13 this is so simple to make and my family LOVES it, soft, chewy and melts in your mouth. YUM. Already made it 3 time in a week lol
Wow, looks like you found a new favorite!
Yes, you can make a cookie cake. I hand press it and bake it on a pizza stone. 350 degrees F for 20-25 min, making sure it doesn’t brown too much. I cut around the edge after letting it cool 10 minutes. I serve it right on the pizza stone. I use colored buttercream for the frosting. Make sure the cookie is 100% cool first! Tastes amazing!
I forgot to add when pressing it onto the pan, leave an inch or more around the edge because it will grow. Also use parchment paper if you aren’t using a stone.
Good morning Natasha, I tried the cookies and they were amazing. I recieved positive comments like, the cookies are by the book, delicious, when you pop you can’t stop. Many thanks Natasha for your great recipes.
I have a question plz, can I store the ready made cookies in a box for i week?
That’s just awesome! Thank you for sharing your wonderful review! We store ours in an air-tight container for a few days.
Delicious with a cold glass of milk- going to add toasted pecans!
The perfect combination! I’m so glad you liked these cookies, Lindsey!