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 was watching your video on how to make chocolate chip cookies and you say in the video to use 2tsp baking powder but in the recipe below, it says to use 1 tsp baking soda. Which is correct??
Thanks!
Renee
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.
This is my go to recipe! I add in chopped walnuts too. I changed to baking soda and a tad more salt as recommended. So yummy! I have to freeze the otherwise I would be binging.
I bet this was so good with chopped walnuts! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
I am thinking to make these again. But the last time I made them, they were were not very spread out and I like my cookies spread out
Hi Ella, I recommend checking the tips in this part of the recipe: Why did my Cookies not Flatten? 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 it 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.
Thank you Natasha for another amazing, no fail recipe! I halved this, and used shortening (yes..) instead of butter and it came out fine. The balance of vanilla and baking soda was perfect. I wonder, can you try and incorporate oats for some of the flour as a modification? I’ll try it!
I’m so glad it all worked out, Catherine! Thank you so much for sharing that with me. Oats work great in this recipe. However, I have not tried them in place of flour. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
On your video you say baking powder and on your written recipe it says baking soda?
Hi Merry, we updated the recipe after publishing the video for more consistent results. I think what was happening in the past is that people would flip flop the baking soda and powder since both types of leavening were in the recipe. The written recipe is the version we make now.
This is my “go to” cookie recipe. I had mixed the batter with 3 cups of flour and it was sticking to the beaters and was extremely thick. So I use only 2 cups of flour and make it into cookie bars, and it works every time! I use less flour cuz it’s easier to mix and easier to spread out. Other than that, there perfect and taste good! My siblings are always asking me to make these! Thanks!
Btw, I follow the measuring video that Natasha has.
Good to know that you follow the measuring video too, that is so useful. Thank you for the great feedback and review!
Can I make the cookies smaller? If so how lone would I bake? I made them once so great! My new go too
Hi Vicky, I have not made this with a smaller scoop to advise, you will need to watch the baking time closer. Here’s what one of our readers wrote: “I made the chocolate chip cookies and they were delicious. I had a smaller scoop so I made 47 cookies from this recipe. Thanks Natasha I have tried dozens of your recipes and they were all delicious. Keep up the great job.” I hope this is helpful!
I think that 3 cups of flour is way too much, and yes, I did measure it correctly. The cookies were dry and too cake-like. I checked with a chocolate chip website (Hersey) and the exact same recipe but only 2 1/4 cups of flour.
Hi Andrea, with 2 1/4 cups flour, they would spread out in the oven unless you refrigerated the dough for several hours before baking. Also, it sounds like they assume you would push your measuring cup into the flour bin which would compact the flour and you’d end up with 25% too much flour (I have tested this theory with a kitchen scale)
Hi Natasha, I wanted to ask that can I use this cookie recipe to make M and M cookies, but instead of adding chocolate chips I’ll add M and Ms to make it an M and M cookie?
Hi Jehan, I bet that could work. I would sub some of the chocolate chips with M&Ms.
Wow! Holy smokes these are good cookies. I’m definitely making these again. I follow the recipe exactly and I got 33 cookies out of it using an ice cream scoop for three tablespoons of dough. Excellent, so delicious, thank you!!!
That’s so great! It sounds like you have a new favorite, Rita!
Hi Natasha! What would be the measurements if I wanted the cookies to be less sweet.
Hi Clara, less sugar may work, but they may seem a little more cake-like.
Hi Natasha. I really love your cookie recipe. But I think I have added too much flour since it did not spread out. How many grams of flour will be the 3 cups? Thanks!
Hi Ritchie, 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, 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.
1 cup of flour is 120 grams, so 360 grams for 3 cups, I always weigh my flour after watching the British baking show 😉
Is it 2 teaspoons of baking soda or baking powder? ❤️ Your recipes.
Hi Tabita, the recipe is correct “1 tsp baking soda, sifted” I hope you love the chocolate chip cookies.
I just pulled these out of the oven. They are excellent! I substituted gluten free flour and they turned out perfect
Thank you for the recipe
I bet your home smells so good right now! You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
The cookies were fabulous! So soft and gooey. Every bite was delish. Loved it so much ♡
They truly are the best! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Rose!
Thank you for sharing both the recipe and the ‘tips’. These are the best cc cookies I’ve ever made!
I’m so happy those are helpful! Thank you for sharing that with us!
These were absolutely divine! I never knew that measuring the flour like Natasha does or actually making sure my eggs and butter are room temp would make such a difference, but it seemed to. Instead of chocolate chips, I used toffee bits since that’s what I had on hand. Yummy!!
I’m so happy you enjoyed that, Rebecca. Thank you for sharing that with us!
Natasha, I need to make 7 dozen of these for a gathering. Could I make the dough in advance and keep it in the refrigerator until ready to use? If so, how many days in advance? I don’t want to make and freeze them method.
Hi Irena, the cookies stay soft for days, We store ours in an air-tight container for a few days. You can also refrigerate or freeze the dough until ready to bake and they bake up perfectly every time.
I can’t figure out what I did wrong. The flavor is perfect but they are very bread-like 🤨.
Hi K, did you change anything about the ingredients or maybe accidentally switch the leavening in the recipe? Baking soda is 3-4 times stronger than baking powder so that could be it. Also, make sure to measure the ingredients correctly so you don’t end up with too much flour.
Chocolate chip cookies; in the video you said 2ts of baking soda but written in the recipe 1ts. Pls confirm. Thank you. I love your recipes, simple & good!
Hi Vanny, thank you for the note. We first published this chocolate chip cookie recipe in 2012. We are constantly 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. The recipe also used 1 tsp of salt. I would recommend following the recipe card always as we can update that compared to the video that we cannot edit anymore.