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I just finished making these and they came out AMAZING. The fact that I didn’t have to freeze the dough was perfect for me because my husband really wanted COOKIES 🙂 He rated it YUMMMMMYYY!!! :)They came out soft inside and a bit crispy on the outside. Just the way we like them. To be honest it’s only my 2nd time baking cookies but it will definitely not be my last. I’m so happy I found this recipe and your tips works like magic. ThANKS AGAIN!!
Aasiyah
I have made these Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies at least 20 times now. Not exaggerating.
I first made these when we were in the Philippines, when it was a struggle to just keep butter solid for 2 seconds on the counter, and they were absolutely incredible. I had no idea how or why, but they just WORKED. And they blew my mind in the way only a perfect chocolate chip cookie really can.
But then every once in a while, they didn’t work. I’m not always super exact with my baking, but still. They were not thick and chewy and buttery like the perfect cookie should be. Some of your comments said the same things – most of the time they worked, but sometimes they didn’t. And I don’t like that.
Now I’m back home in dry, cool Minnesota and I have been waiting for this day just so I could figure out what would really make these cookies awesome for you. You who live in normal climates and shop at Cub Foods. I am now speaking your cookie-baking language.
Since I’m responsible for bringing some treats up the cabin for my big family and I had an excuse to make excessive amounts of cookies, I made these. Many times. To get to the bottom of this cookie perfection.
So here are my semi-scientific but mostly trial-and-error regular home cook tips for perfect chocolate chip cookies that look like this on the inside.
Use Salted Butter.
Butter. Butter butter butter, butter. Butter. Yum. Whether I’m baking or sauteing or eating the butter straight off the stick, I always choose good quality salted sweet cream butter. And I guess by good quality I mean the grocery store budget brand. Because, well, yum. It tastes really good, so that’s what I use.
Melt The Butter About Half Way In The Oven.
For me, for this blog, for these ultra-thick cookies, we melt the butter HALF WAY or less. So literally I heat the stick of butter until roughly half of it is melted. This gives me the most success with a cookie that is both soft and structured. And guess where I melt my butter? Well, I told you already. In the preheating oven. It goes slowly and it keeps most of the stick firm while just gently melting off the outer layer, unlike melting in the microwave where the whole thing gets kinda soggy. Try to melt half or less – my goal is usually about one third and it usually takes just 3-5 minutes. Set a timer, please! Any more than that will start to make the cookies flat (and you can check out my last picture of my failed cookies for proof).
Bring The Butter Back To Room Temperature.
It’s almost like a soft solid again. I sometimes stick it in the fridge or freezer to help speed up the process but then I let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to come back to room temperature before actually making the dough.
I KNOW, I KNOW, I KNOW this is annoying. Because you just want to make cookies right now. Believe me, I know. But hot melted butter just doesn’t work the same way as the cooled, soft-solid room temperature butter. Beeee paaatient.
Just Barely Beat The Egg.
Just a little beating in with the sugar and butter will be enough. Too much beating makes the cookie more stiff, and I like ’em soft.
Add Flour Until The Dough Pulls Away.
When in doubt, add a little flour to the dough, especially if the butter was melted. I always go by feel more than by measurement, because sometimes the amount of flour in a recipe (my OWN recipe) doesn’t seem right for a particular batch. This is what I always look for –> the dough to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Just slightly.
When you’re using those electric mixers and mixing all your flour in with your dough, if the dough is just stuck all over the sides of the bowl and feels wet, add a spoonful of flour. And again, and again, until your dough is soft and dry to the touch and pulls into a large dough ball at the center of the bowl when you’re mixing it.
I also notice that when I get just the right amount of flour in the dough, it makes kind of a delicate sticky noise when I stir it. Annnd you can file that under the world’s most obscure baking tips.
Use Two Kinds Of Chocolate Chips.
At least two, possibly ten. I love texture, so having at least two types or two shapes of chocolate in my cookie is a must. My favorites are Nestle semisweet chocolate chunks, Hershey’s milk chocolate chips, and Guittard dark chocolate chips. The slightly different tastes of the chocolate and the varied shapes and sizes of the chips make for a more interesting (ehmm, more chocolatey) cookie.
Bake In Smaller Batches.
This is a weird one, but I always have better luck getting that awesomely thick and buttery cookie when I make half of my favorite recipe. Go figure. I included the measurements for the “half” recipe at the end of this post.
Refrigerate The Dough.
This is a SOMETIMES tip. For the recipe in this post, I found that I actually really didn’t need to refrigerate the dough as long as I had enough flour, but sometimes you bake the first batch and you get spread-flat-cookie-city. In that case, try refrigerating or freezing the dough until it’s more firm to help it stay together better.
Use a Calphalon Cookie Sheet.
I don’t have a baking stone or any other fancy baking sheets, just a few cheap Target finds that sometimes do the pop-bend while baking. So this isn’t a hard and fast rule – this is just the cookie sheet out of my very basic cookie sheet collection that seems to work best the most often. It’s non-stick, dark, and small.
Make ’em BIG.
Hi, I’m a crazy cookie lady and I mean really big. Like possibly 1/4 cup of cookie dough big. If everything goes like it should, the more dough you can cram into that dough ball, the thicker and more irresistibly divine they will be.
Shape Your Cookies By Hand.
I’ve spooned dough without shaping, I’ve used a special cookie dough scoop to get the rounded top, and yet the thing that works best for me is shaping them by hand. Like, literally, rolling them in between my palms to get a perfect round ball.
Strategically Place Your Chocolate Chips.
Sometimes I put tons and tons of chocolate chips in the dough, but then the tops of my cookies just look plain white. Mehhh. We want chunky, chocolatey cookies here. So I take a few chocolate chips from the dough bowl intentionally press a few extra into the top to make it look extra chocolate chippy.
Look For Barely Browned Spots.
For this recipe, I always look for those very slightly browned spots on top. That’s how I know they’re done.
Cross Your Fingers.
Science shmience. For a regular baker like myself, sometimes baking just feels like a little bit of dumb luck. There are so many factors that can make a cookie great or not so great. Even if your cookies didn’t turn out juuust how you wanted them, I bet your dough still tastes pretty darn good, right? Grab a spoon and a glass of milk and enjoy.
One more thing before the recipe! I wanted to show you my three failed batches during testing, and the things that I think made them turn out the way that they did.
And here’s my two of my good batches and what I think made them turn out they way they did.
Half-Batch Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Total Time: 54 minutes
- Yield: 10–12 big cookies 1x
Description
Here are my simple tips for perfect chocolate chip cookies with an easy recipe for my all-time favorite, classic, perfect chocolate chip cookie.
Ingredients
- 7 tablespoons salted butter
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg
- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (to start, but plan to add a few tablespoons)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup mixed varieties of chocolate chips
Instructions
- Turn the oven on to 350 degrees. Put the butter in the oven in a stainless steel or glass bowl as it’s preheating until about one third to one half of the butter is melted. Do not melt more than half of the butter. Turn the oven off. Let the butter come back to room temperature for at least 30 minutes – it doesn’t have to harden completely but it should be a soft solid.
- Add the sugar and vanilla. Cream with electric mixers until well mixed and lightly fluffy. Add the eggs and beat until incorporated..
- Measure in the flour, baking soda, and salt. You can do this in a separate bowl, but I usually just dump it all into the mixing bowl. Slowly mix with the electric mixer on low speed, scraping the sides, until all the flour is incorporated. If the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl and looks wet, add one tablespoon of extra flour at a time until the dough feels dry and sticks together in one large ball. Too much flour will make the cookie stiff, so stop adding flour right when the dough starts to take on that dry look and feel. Stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll 1/4 cup dough into high, round balls with chocolate chips at the top. Place on a baking sheet a few inches apart and bake for about 9 minutes. You want to take them out when they are puffy and just a tiny bit brown on the tops and edges. Let stand for a few minutes – they will lose a little of their puffiness but they should stay thick and hold together well.
- Prep Time: 45 mins
- Cook Time: 9 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: chocolate chip cookie, easy chocolate chip cookie recipe, small batch chocolate chip cookies
Nope – not done yet! Because when I asked, these smarties (and more!) shared their tips with my on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook!
You guys! I am so excited to hear about your great aunt’s secret tip for using cornstarch, or how your grandma uses pudding mix, or how you buy a certain brand of butter and only use your own milled flour, or whatever else you do to make your cookies awesome. If you have anything to add, I would looove you.
To cookies!
Update May 2015: I have recently posted a new version of this recipe that still gets the soft texture WITHOUT requiring any high maintenance butter melting/cooling. Here’s the new recipe!
I cannot find a place to leave a comment. but I followed your recipe to the letter and these are the worst cookies I’ve ever tried. if you’ve made an update on these cookies I’ll most likely try them because my boyfriend loves chocolate chip cookies and I love making them for him but I won’t be using this one again ever
Rebekah King
I’ve been making these perfect chocolate chip cookies for years now!!!!! Thank you!
The cookies 🍪 came out amazing me and one of my friends baked them and they where great my friends and family liked them very much to!
I will definitely bake them again!!😄😄😄😄
These truly are THE BEST cookies! Followed all tips. I always get rave reviews, they are a must make! Great for gifting 🙂
these had very little flavor
Great recipe and I loved the tip of adding more flour if needed! I have baked a lot and had never thought of that before 🙂 I doubled this recipe and used a little more brown sugar (1/2cup) and 1cup granulated sugar. They turned out great! Thanks for this recipe
Glad you liked the recipe, Nassim!
I have struggled for years to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie. But these were amazing! It takes a little more time and patience, but its so worth it!
Lindsay, you are a godsend. Thank you so much!
How much is your yield on this recipe? Thank you!
We had 10-12 large cookies from this recipe. 🙂
We are in the corona quarantine and my husband requests chocolate chip cookies!
I have one stick of butter and find your recipe!! Unbelievable! You are amazing!
Thank you. Spot on and so yummy!
These came out picture perfect, full and moist – I love that your don’t have to refrigerate dough! Thank you!! I have been plagued with flat cookie syndrome for way too long 🙂
Hands down fave cookie recipe in our house! Thank you for sharing 🤗
I have been on the hunt for a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe and am so glad I found it here! The cookies were absolutely perfect! They spread evenly and with the right amount of flavor! I used half salted and half unsalted as my French salted butter tends to be too salty! Thank you!
I’m trying your recipe but the ingredient list says one egg however the directions refers to “eggs” so I added another. I’m hoping it will turn out delicious. Also I kept adding flour and it got to where I’d added another cup but still didn’t reach the dry look and so I stopped adding flour also had to refrigerate dough after rolling them out as it was melting in my hands. Had to make many adjustments so I really hope I don’t fail the cookie test! Thanks for the details and tips. Fingers crossed.
Great tips and recipe. I feel like the cookies were too big and took much longer then 9 minutes. Second batch I made the cookies much smaller then 1/4 cup and they didn’t flatten out as much
Thanks for sharing this feedback with us, Katherine!
I made this last night because I only had 1 cup of choc. chips. They turned out great. I used Semi sweet chips but I think the cookies were slightly too sweet so I may do 1/2 cup white sugar next time and 1/4 cup brown sugar and leave out the extra tablespoon. I also will try some dark choc chips and maybe some chopped pecans. My 1/4 measure cup that i used is kind of big I think cause it made 9 monster cookies instead of twelve. Overall it is a really grat recipe. (I put the cookie balls on the cookie sheet than in freezer for about 5 min before baking because the dough seemed to warm up after handeling dough.)
Thanks for sharing, Deanna! 🙂
Hey just a lil tip if u just leave the butter out the night before it will bs room temp and work perfectly also I use both margarine and butter together and the two mixed makes for a perfect cream which is the most important part!
I have a recipe book I’ve had for years. The chocolate chip cookie recipe is basically the same as yours. Here’s the one difference that I think you’ll love! When shaping the cookies, take that 1/4 cup of dough, form it into a ball. Now sort of “unscrew” it, or twist it. After you twist it, turn the rough sides up, the parts that were once together, make them facing up. I don’t know WHY, but this always made the cookies crisp on the outside and soft on the inside! Hope it works for you. It’s a pain and takes longer, but anything that’s going to und up tasting delish, is going to take work!
I am always looking for a very good tasting chocolate chip recipe. I am going to try yours now. Wish me luck.
Thanks for your insight on making Choc Chip Cookies.. I told my wife I was making Choc Chip Cookies for my Dentist and her crew. My wife looked at me like Huuh?
is it vanilla essence or just vanilla?
These are my favorite chocolate chip cookies. Mine have always come out flat and these are perfect. I did double the recipe and put in half the salt since the butter was salted. My daughter took some into work and they all loved them.
You my dear Are. A. Genius. Now, I will be honest, I have never made cookies very well. Either thin and crispy (burnt really) or uncooked in the center(raw). I stumbled upon your site when I typed in” half batch chocolate chip cookies” in a Google search, and surprise! They came out perfect. I followed your recipe down to the bone, including butter slightly melted in the oven and egg not beaten but rather folded in nicely to the dough. Put extra chocolate chips on top and I almost cried when they came out slightly browned, soft and chocolatey deliciousness. Thank you. Thank you. Thank You! 5 stars all the way, I will never make another chocolate chip recipe, this one is honestly perfect. (In my opinion)
The last ones that are the highest, look the most like my grandmothers. I’m always would wonder as a kid why she didn’t make more! Part of the secret. Thanks
I know I said it sounded like a lot of work for just 1 dozen of cookies but, it was worth it!!! I also got 2 dozen from the batch cause I made smaller cookies, regular size, just not big. This is a keeper!! Thank you