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, soft cookies aren’t fully cooked in the centre which made it soft? Is it correct? Thanks.
Hi Donna, yes, they are cooked in the middle. The cookies should be removed from the oven when they are just turning golden at the base and the dough still looks a little raw on top. Removing them at the right time is the secret to soft chocolate chip cookies. For the best results, I recommend preheating your oven and using an internal oven thermometer to ensure your oven is heating correctly.
On the recipe it says baking soda, but you say in the video is baking powder, which one it is
Hi Rosemary! The written recipe is correct. I put a note in the blog about updating this recipe (after the video was made) because we had better results.
Hi please can you tell me which recipe is best? The video recipe or the written recipe for soft chocolate cookies please? They are different. Thank you!
Hi Helen, I recommend checking out both. I hope you love it!
Followed the recipie to a T mine are not gooey like the picture leads you to believe (is you scroll down there’s other pictures that look like a completely different cookie) they’re more of a chocolate chip muffin/cake texture vs a soft & gooey cookie
The picture by the recipe is misleading not bad but will be searching for a more ooey goey recipie
Hi Kay! Did you possibly use more flour? Using too much flour would cause these to have a dense muffin/cake texture. I recommend watching my tutorial on how to measure ingredients, HERE.
In my view, the most accurate way to measure flour, sugar, and other dry ingredients is with a scale, not a measuring cup, because of the accidental packing you talk about… so maybe you could include the weights for the dry ingredients in your recipes?
Hello Justin, you can convert the ingredients to metrics. Just click Metric in the recipe card.
Mine didn’t flatten at all, even fluffing the flour. Made them twice and both times weren’t soft and gooey but more like a sift biscuit with chocolate chips in them.
Hi Dani, 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.
Hola! I baked yesterday for the first time ever and I decided to make these cookies. They are soft, chewy, flavorful and so easy to make! I can’t wait to keep finding recipes to try. Gracias!
That’s wonderful, Alejandra! So glad you loved them. I hope you find many more recipes to enjoy.
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies I’ve ever made! They turned out perfect!
Love it! Thank you for the awesome review, Kat.
I don’t have a stand mixer, can I mix/whisk by hand or will they not turn out as good? Thank you!
Hi Kevin, You could use a hand mixer instead. If the batter gets too thick for your hand mixer, use a spatula to mix the rest of the way.
Not really happy with the way the dough turns out. I measured the flour as suggested using a whisk to fluff it up and the dough is still just SO THICK. I don’t have a stand mixer so I started out with my faithful hand mixer and when that turned out to be a bust I tried mixing it using a spatula but It feels like you need to be a professional bodybuilder to mix this dough by hand.
Hi Taelyr, cookie dough is hard to get together with an electric hand mixer. It’s too thick and will get stuck in the egg beaters, this is why I suggest a paddle attachment on the stand mixer. If mixing by hand you would need a firm/wooden spatula to mix it together.
My son asked for chewy soft cookies and these are perfect! An easy excellent chocolate chip cookie recipe. We will definitely be making our cookies this way again.
That is the best when kids love what we moms make. That’s so great, Mary! Thank you for sharing your great review with me!
Fluffy and addictive! My first time making chocolate chip cookies, and oh boy, I hit the jackpot with this recipe! Learning the flour trick was a game changer for other recipes too. (Best flaky biscuits EVER.) The second time I made these cookies I put in 25% buckwheat flour and the result was more crispy but still super tasty. (If anyone else is interested, 25% of 3 cups is 0.75 cups. So basically I mainly filled one of the cups with buckwheat… I think that math works out.) Thank you Natasha for sharing this flour trick to help bakers level up their game!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Sudevi! The flour trick is a must know!
Good Afternoon Natasha:
Today I made the chocolate chip cookies and they are so good.
Thank you for sharing the recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Olga!
Good day!! is it pretty straight forward to double recipe? just twice everything?
Hi Stacie, yes, you can double the recipe. I have a tool on my website, in the recipe card above, hover your cursor over the number of servings and slide it to the right to increase the servings. It will convert the ingredient list for you.
What can I substitute for the butter?
Great recipe by the way!
Hi Natasha! What can I substitute for the butter?
Great recipe by the way!
Hi Ellie, thank you! I have not tested an alternative.
I used Bob’s Red Mill Gluten free baking flour, country crock plant butter, and Simple Truth allergy friendly semi-sweet chocolate chips to make this dairy and gluten free! At first I baked them 12 minutes and they were cakey and dry. I cooked them 10 minutes the next time and they were soft and chewy! I’m not sure if it’s the substituted ingredients or if I made them smaller. Haha. Thank you Natasha for the flour measuring tip! I never knew that! And the tip to add chocolate chips to the top. I wish I could upload a picture! They look awesome!
A note to anyone trying to make dairy free cookies. I kept ending up with cakey cookies until I realized if your margarine substitute has less fat than dairy that this will happen. I was using smart balance (75% less fat than regular dairy butter) and this happened every time!
Thank you for the wonderful feedback, Sam! So glad you shared this with us. I’m sure it’s much appreciated by my other readers.
How can I make a chocolate chip cookie that is not soft or crunchy. but somewhere in between?
Hi Garry, you may find this article from King Arthur Baking helpful. CLICK HERE to view.
Does anyone know how to successfully make these dairy free? I realized I was using smart balance which has 75% less fat than regular butter. So next time I used country crock’s plant butter sticks which say 1 stick plant butter= 1 stick dairy butter, it has 11g of fat per serving. And my cookies still come out cakey. ):
I hav one question can I make these and then put pumpkin purée in it if so how much would I use?
Hello Ellie, I have not tried adding pumpkin purée to advise. If you do that as an experiment, please share with us how it goes.
Ok so I just made it and it turned out a little runny but I added more flour and it tasted really good! I used about 1 cup -1/2 cup.
The Best chocolate chip cookie I’ve ever made!!
Thank you so much
You’re very welcome! I’m glad you found a favorite! 🙂
I just made these they are the BOMB!!! They are sooo good!!
I will definitely be using this recipe again. Thank you!
Glad you loved it!
All my life I have looked for a cookie recipe that rivaled my grandma’s. Today I found it
That’s wonderful, Patrick! I’m so glad to hear that.
Unbelievable cookies. I had given up on great Chocolate Chip cookies. I tried one more recipe – yours. These are by far the most remarkable ever.
Thank you.
That’s wonderful, Sara! I’m so glad to hear that.