BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES – This ‘best chocolate chip cookie recipe’ makes the most perfect homemade chocolate chip cookies! Loaded with chocolate chips, I’ve spent years perfecting how to make cookies that are chewy, soft, and slightly crispy with a slightly crackled top. You’re going to love these award-winning, easy BEST EVER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!
WHAT MAKES A BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE?
Perfect chocolate chip cookies that are soft on the inside, chewy on the outside, with a slight crispy bottom. Easy to make, you’re going to love biting into these best chocolate chip cookies that are loaded with chocolate chips! They really are the best ever, and the only chocolate chip cookie you’ll ever need!
My chocolate chip cookies are ‘The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe, Ever’ after being challenged into a Twitter Bake-Off in 2009. Loaded with chocolate chips, what sets this chocolate chip cookie recipe apart is the fact they are perfectly soft and gooey on the inside, chewy on the outside, with a slight thin layer of crispiness to the cookies.
Not many people can claim their chocolate chip cookies are award-winning, but I can! So can several other people who’ve used this Best Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to enter and win blue-ribbon baking contests – that is the ultimate compliment!
The story of the ‘best chocolate chip cookies ever’ all started when I started blogging. I’d always wanted to share what only my friends and family had only known, “Alice’s best chocolate chip cookie recipe” but up until this point hadn’t shared it with the world.
You see, my chocolate chip cookies are insanely good. The problem is, EVERYONE and their grandma thinks their chocolate chip cookies recipe is the best, too. So, I decided I wouldn’t do a post on my ultimate cookies because it seemed overplayed (putting it mildly). I didn’t have it in me to enter the “I have the best chocolate chip cookies” rat race.
Back in 2009 on Twitter I asked why people believed their homemade chocolate chip cookies were the best. After some friendly trash-talking, Ashley Rodriguez and I would engage in the ” Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever Twitter War,” and the following week we engaged in the ultimate chocolate chip cookie bake-off.
I asked her to post her recipe, and she kindly obliged. I made her chocolate chip cookie recipe that same evening, and I must say they were incredibly good. I reported back my results to her and said, “They’re really good, almost as good as mine.” Her next tweet went something like this, “Almost?” – a.k.a “Say what?!?”
We weren’t the only ones baking our chocolate chip cookies. People who followed our chocolate chip cookie battle on Twitter also baked them sharing their findings on their food blogs. Depending if you like a more sophisticated cookie or the BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES, the verdict was clear. This perfectly easy cookie recipe was the crowd favorite!
I can tell you she does have a fabulous recipe. But I can also tell you with bold confidence; my homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe is fierce.
Who doesn’t love chewy caramel edges and soft centers loaded with gooey chocolate chips with hints of sea salt? I mean, c’mon. How much more perfect of a cookie can there be?
THE ROLE OF BROWN SUGAR IN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
The reason why I love this chocolate chip cookie recipe so much is the balance of flavor and texture. Not overly sweet, the brown sugar gives the cookie a deeper flavor that only the molasses in the brown sugar brings. It gives it a caramel type chewiness around the edges.
As a result, you get a nice paper-thin crisp bottom, but the rest of the cookie is soft and chewy.
Using coarse sea salt or kosher salt (over table salt) enhances and intensifies the flavor of the chocolate chips bringing a nice balance to the cookie. I will sometimes sprinkle 3 or 4 flecks of sea salt over each ball of uncooked dough before baking just to get a tiny hit of salt amplifying the chocolate flavor to another level.
These are the chocolate chip cookies my Army sister who lives in Germany requests of me to send her because they are all she can think about when she thinks of home. They are the same cookies she shared with her platoon in Iraq and the same chocolate chip cookies I will be sending to her in Afghanistan. I once sent her a batch of a new recipe and trusted me, she noticed. I was told not to deceive her again and send this version only.
Moral of the story… Do not trash-talk-tweet if you can’t back it up. And for the record, I can back it up. Enough said.
I hope you enjoy the most best ever chocolate chip cookies in the world!
NOTES ABOUT THE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE AND TROUBLE SHOOTING
*PLEASE do not use table salt, the course sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.
-WHY ARE MY CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES FLAT?-
If you’re cookies are coming out flat and not like the pictures there are probably 4 reasons for this.
#1) Your baking powder and baking soda is old. If your baking powder and soda is older than 1 year and has not been in a sealed (preferably air tight) container, it has lost some of it rising properties and isn’t reacting properly.
#2) Creaming. It’s not enough to just cream the butter and sugars until it has come together. This recipe requires you to beat it with a mixer for 3 minutes until the texture of the butter and sugar turns to light and fluffy-just like the picture. This step is crucial as it whips air into the mixture to help the cookies rise properly. This also helps with the crackled top.
If you own a Kitchenaid stand mixer and bake regularly, I HIGHLY recommend purchasing the beater attachment with the silicon edge scraper. I’ve own two of these beaters because it saves me a step from having to stop the mixer to scrape the bowl down. I haven’t used the medal attachment for years since discovering the scraper attachment. I hate having to scrape the bowl down when baking and this attachment makes for a better workflow for me. I recommend this KitchenAid KFE5T Flex Edge Beater for Tilt-Head Stand Mixers.
#3) Too little or too much flour.
Flour should be weighed. This can make or break the recipe because just scooping flour into a measuring cup will never yield ideal or consistent results. Because all measuring cups are not manufactured exactly the same, weighing the flour is the only real way to measure correctly. If too little flour is used, the fat content in the butter will cause the cookies to spread more than usual. A good inexpensive digital scale (like this one Ozeri ZK14-S Pronto Digital Multifunction Kitchen Scale) pays for itself in joy and peace. Don’t let too much or too little flour ruin your baked goods you’ve worked so hard on. I own an older version of this scale and I use it nearly daily for weighing ingredients.
#4) Parchment paper vs. silicon mat – I’ve literally baked these cookies a gazillion times and I’ve noticed when I bake the cookies on parchment paper they hold their shape much better than the silicon mat. I get inconsistent results with the mat because of the natural wear and tear on them. A NEW mat will prevent the cookies from spreading a lot better than a really worn one. But parchment paper always yields the the most consistent results! I’ve used Reynolds Kitchens Cookie Baking Sheets Parchment Paper (Non-Stick, 22 Sheets) with very good results!
-Other Notes and Helpful Tips-
* I know most bags of chocolate chips are 12 oz but this recipe requires a lot of chocolate chips to help bulk the cookie up. You’ll need approximately 1.5 bags. I’ve found towards the last of the dough I sometimes add a small handful of extra chips because when we scoop cookies we tend to scrape just dough off the scoop and the last of the dough has a lot less chocolate.
*If you like your cookies to look uniform and the same size, please use a cookie scoop. It makes all the difference and works a lot better than the spoon method. I own this OXO Good Grips Medium Cookie Scoop. I’ve had it for 10 years strong and it is my go to tool from scooping cookies to scooping mini-scoops of ice cream.
*For those of you interested in freezing your dough for future use, here’s a great article on HOW TO FREEZE COOKIE DOUGH. Having pre-frozen balls of dough is great when you need to bake a batch for future use.
I PRESENT TO YOU, THE AWARD-WINNING BEST CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE, EVER!
ALICE RECOMMENDS THESE COOKIE RECIPES FOR YOU TO CONSIDER!
- 1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 1.5 cups brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1.5 tsp baking powder
- ¾ tsp smallish-medium coarse sea salt or kosher
- 2¾ cups all-purpose flour (12 ounces) If at all possible, please weigh the flour
- 2¼ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 360 degrees. This is not a typo.. three hundred and sixty.
- Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed on a Kitchenaid)
- Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes on medium.
- Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated.
- Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick.
- Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Remove from the heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Updated: May 7, 2018
Shannon Brooker says
I use some bread flour instead of all AP flour for chewiness. And it doesn’t change the flavor at all. On this recipe, I use 8 Oz of bread flour and 4 Oz of AP flour.
N.J. says
Sometimes I add vanilla pudding to the cookie recipes I make to keep the oft longer, is that possible with this one? Or will it take away from the flavor?
travis shatsky says
I’ve been making these for about 5 years. Always a hit when I bust them out around the holidays. Thanks for the recipe! Merry Christmas.
Mandy says
We’ve been making this recipe for our Christmas cookie for years and agree that it’s the best one ever! We keep it bookmarked in several places just so we never lose it!
Karen Martin says
best cookies ever. made them several times everyone loves them thank thou soon much for recipe
Lisa Hamilton says
This is the best ever cookie! My husband is so impressed with this recepie and has told me many times how much me loves them. I made 4x the recepe and added choc chips, Reese’s peanut butter chips, oatmeal raisin, coconut (macaroons) I rolled the cookie balls in a mixture of brown sugar and regular sugar and everybody is happy here! Thank you for what will be a lifelong favorite!!
Anna says
Very nice flavor. I had them in a convection oven and used milk chocolate chips which made them a bit flatter. I have the dough in the refrigerator and am going to try baking them tomorrow at 360 without convection and from a cold state and see how that pans out. I really enjoy the flavor and I appreciate you sharing this yummy recipe.
Jane says
These are the best chocolate cookies I’ve made in a long time. Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Kyrandia84 says
Amazing cookies! I love how they crisp on the bottom and edges but still soft in the middle. The color also is lovely (great for gifts!). I couldn’t find flour so I improvised with 9oz of oatmeal and 3oz almond flour – combined and ground into a powder (via food processor). The cookies came out VERY flat but still tasted great. I then looked harder and found flour. I added 1/2 cup and then cookied the rest of the batter. Those ones turned out perfect. Just the right depth and even better with the soft inside and crisp outside.
These are perfect gift cookies, can’t wait to make them for the holidays. And maybe I’ll keep my own adaptation (oatmeal flour, almond flour, all purpose flour) because the flavor is unique!
RUTH says
Thank you! Gracias! Finally a great recipe for those of us who want a little gourmet look and taste from our chocolate chip cookies. Even at 5,000 feet pluse above sea level the recipe came out just like your pictures. Excellent tips too!
Stacey says
These are the absolute best chocolate chip cookies ever! Thank you so much for perfecting and sharing this recipe with perfect instructions. EVERYONE loves these! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!!!!
Lesly Gutierrez says
I really haven’t been wowed by a cookie. I’ve made a lot of cookies. I’m talking hundred of recipes but the baking gods shined down on me today and brought this little nugget of heaven to me. So easy to make (I didn’t have to chill anything!) and came up in a flash and the taste is out of this world. I got a little crazy and added some m and m’s to the mix and 10/10 would do it again
Suzan says
I made theses and they were really good the sweet and salty was a good balance and the cookie itself was tasty. 🙂 What I didn’t like is how big they got and I used a medium scoop that say 2 tablespoon right on it, and only got 26 cookies.Which we were disappointed.I needed 4 dozen.
Kelly says
This has been the only Chocolate Chip cookie recipe that I have used for.3 years now and I adore it. People can’t believe how amazing these.cookies are. My recommendation; just folow the recipe and dont deviate.
V says
These are sincerely the best cookies I have ever made, and probably ever tasted. Thank you for sharing! I don’t know how I stumbled upon this gem, but I am insanely grateful!
AmandaK says
And I meant to add – my sisters name is Alice, so I knew they would be good!
AmandaK says
I’ve used this recipe for years now. I was frustrated with trying all different chocolate chip cookies and they turned out with average taste. In fact, I found these by googling “chip cookies that are actually good!”
These are even better the day after. I really *heart heart* these cookies.
Wish I had a kitchen aid to mix them in!
Tara says
These are the best cookies ever! I know. Now for making the best chocolate chip cookies :). They are so fluffy! Thanks for sharing and I really can’t say enough about them!
Alice Currah says
Thanks Penny!
Alice Currah says
That’s the ultimate compliment!
Ajnbellasmom says
Best cookies ever! My kids love these. They don’t like anyone else’s cookies but “mom’s”. Thank you.
Penny says
I have used this recipe for at least three years now. It is THE BEST! I love them, but more importantly everyone I have ever given them to love them too. And every time someone asks for the recipe, I just send them to your site. Thank you so much for sharing!
Stacey E. says
Oh, hi there, Alice! I just made these about 5 minutes ago. They turned out wonderfully. They aren’t salty, despite what someone claimed. I used Kosher coarse salt. If hers were salty, she probably didn’t mix them properly. I’d suggest mixing stuff like baking powder and soda, as well as salt, into the initial mixing process. I grew up with a mother who consistently made banana bread with a “lucky piece” in it, with a semi-lump of baking soda. Unpleasant, to say the least. Because she’d mix that sort of stuff in near the end. Anything with the potential to lump up and be ultra unpleasant gets put in first in anything I make. I used a half bag of sugar free chips, and a half bag of cinnamon chips. I didn’t bother with creaming the butter and sugar, because I don’t like fluffy cookies. I want them to be fairly flat. These turned out exactly how they should. The only complaint is that the centers are a little underdone, but we live at a high altitude, and everything we bake ends up weird. There are plenty of websites that will tell you how much extra flour or liquid to add, depending on your elevation, but I want to try the original recipes first to see if that’s even necessary. I also don’t like adding flour, because I don’t like “cakey” cookies. I like the flat things they’ll sell you at Subway.
tiffany says
hello!
I’ve been baking your recipe for years – it’s literally the best out there. however, my last two batches came out “puffy”. The dough didn’t spread and almost feels like there’s too much flour. I know my baking powder is old but wouldn’t that help flatten it, not keep it raised?
Thoughts?
Betty Petraitis says
Love these, Thank you so much!!!