My favorite type of recipe to bake is absolutely COOKIES. They’re so fun and simple and can teach us SO much about the science of baking.
Watch the video below to step into my kitchen and see exactly how to bake these delicious cookies with me. I give tons of tips and tricks for getting perfectly thick cookies with chocolate chunks, and you can see what every step of this recipe should look like!
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How to Make The Best Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
How to make soft chocolate chip cookies:
The key to the best soft cookies is to take the chocolate chip cookies out of the oven just before they look like they’re done baking. They should still appear slightly wet in the very center. The residual heat of the oven and pan will finish cooking the cookies through to soft perfection once you allow them to cool completely.
Also, measure your flour correctly to improve your baking forever. Too much flour will lead to dry, dense, or crumbly chocolate chip cookies that barely spread.
Why are my chocolate chip cookies flat?
When making cookies, be sure your butter is at a cool room temperature before beating with your sugar. It shouldn’t be greasy or overly soft otherwise it’ll melt and spread the cookies too much.
The warmer your chocolate chip cookie dough is when it enters the oven, the thinner and flatter your cookies will be. To prevent flat cookies, try freezing your balls of cookie dough while your oven preheats. Learn more about how to bake THICK cookies here.
Better yet, refrigerate your chocolate chip cookie dough for 24 to 48 hours. This ‘marination’ process will transform your chocolate chip cookies by making them thicker, chewier, and more flavorful! Plus, this is a perfect way to make your delicious cookies ahead of time. Read more about the magic of chilling your cookie dough here. NOTE: chilling is OPTIONAL for this recipe but using chilled dough will enhance your cookies!
How to make chewy chocolate chip cookies:
One of the keys to CHEWY chocolate chip cookies is to use more brown sugar than granulated sugar. The molasses in the brown sugar draws in more moisture, making the cookies thicker, softer, and chewier.
For extra chewy cookies, try adding an extra egg yolk to this recipe. You can also replace half or all of the all-purpose flour in this recipe with bread flour for an ultra chewy bite.
How to bake chocolate chip cookies:
For the BEST chocolate chip cookies, make the recipe below keeping these top tips in mind:
- Use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients for the BEST most consistent results.
- Make the recipe exactly as written, without substitutions, at least the first time you bake it.
Use the correct baking pan and a spring-loaded cookie scoop for bakery-quality cookies at home. More on that below!
Why use a cookie scoop?
Using a stainless steel spring-loaded cookie scoop when portioning out cookie dough is one of the KEYS to beautiful, uniform, evenly-shaped and evenly-baked cookies. My cookie scoop is one of my most frequently used kitchen gadgets. A spring-loaded scoop saves you *so much time* in forming the balls of dough. When using a scoop, you ensure each ball is evenly sized so the cookies bake evenly, meaning you don’t have any small overbaked cookies or large underbaked cookies. Learn more about Cookie Scoops and how to use them here!
What’s the difference between baking soda and baking powder?
Baking powder and baking soda are both chemical leaveners that work to create light textures in baked goods.
Although baking powder actually contains baking soda, the two leaveners are very different. Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable – just take a look at the impact the type of leavener used had on each of the cookies below!
Find out more in my Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder article here.
Which baking pan is best for cookies?
Take a look at the chocolate chip cookies below. These cookies are all the same batch of cookie dough, baked at the same temperature of 350°F, baked for the same amount of time of 12 minutes. The only difference? The type of baking pan used!
Check out my Best (and WORST) Baking Pans article here for more details on the science of baking pans.
How to Keep Chocolate Chip Cookies Fresh
The best cookies are the freshest, there’s no magical way around that. However, here are a few tricks to keeping them fresh and soft for as long as possible!
Can you freeze chocolate chip cookies?
I love the taste of cookies straight from the oven the best. I always keep pre-scooped balls of chocolate chip cookie dough in a resealable bag in my freezer, so I can bake cookies off and have them warm from the oven in a matter of minutes whenever I want. Here are more tips for freezing cookie dough.
But for those times when you need to keep already-baked cookies soft, see below for my tips. First of all, most cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temp for up to 5 days. Be sure they are completely cooled before storing.
How to keep cookies soft:
To keep your baked chocolate chip cookies soft, you can add an apple wedge, piece of bread, or a tortilla on the top and bottom of the cookies to the container a day or two after baking them, or whenever you find the texture starting to harden. The moisture from the bread or apple will migrate to your cookies, making them soft and chewy again.
A tortilla is a favorite of mine because it takes up much less room than a slice of bread, and doesn’t transfer any flavors or aromas like an apple wedge. Not to mention, it fits into a round cookie tin pretty perfectly.
How to refresh stored cookies:
What I like to do is reheat and refresh the cookies in a 350°F oven for 3-5 minutes. Your toaster oven should work just fine. This improves the texture and there’s nothing like a warm chocolate chip cookie!
Hello! Can I use baking powder instead of baking soda?
Hi there! Baking powder and baking soda are not interchangeable – learn more about the differences between the two here! 🙂
Bonjour,
J’ai testé cette recette qui était délicieuse.
Mais mes cookies étaient plats, il faut savoir que j’avais divisé la quantité par 2.
Aurais-je dû battre le beurre et le sucre seulement 1 minute au lieu de 2 puisque ce n’était pas la même quantité?
Ou bien aurais-je dû laisser reposer au réfrégirateur avant de les cuire?
Hi Sevda! Even if you divide the dough in half, your butter and sugar still need long enough to cream together, so 1 minute would definitely not have been long enough. Learn more about How to Cream Butter & Sugar, and how it can impact your baking, here. If your cookies were flat, that could be due to a few other things. Was your butter at a cool room temperature? 67°F or 19°C is perfect for creaming – any warmer than that, and this can cause your cookies to be flat. Chilling your dough will also help your cookies be thicker. Also, is your baking soda fresh? If your leavening agents are not fresh, they cannot do their jobs and your cookies can be flat – learn more about that here. Finally, check out Tessa’s post on How to Make Thick Cookies here for more assistance. I hope this helps! Happy baking 🙂
I made these and substituted one cup of butterscotch morsels and one semi sweet chocolate chips. Delicious Thank you for sharing!
they are sooo good i went around the neibour hood and sold them for £1!
Great cookies and very popular with my family 🙂 Love that you have a supplement with weight indications in grams (I’m from Denmark).
Delicious! I made half a recipe last night and there is one left. I thought, start with half this try it… I’ll make again tomorrow. I added some coconut, oats, and nutmeg at the last minute for fun. My family loved them, and not just because they like cookies. Thank you for the great tips on getting the batter just right.
I just made these for my kid’s high school class. I tripled the recipe and there were plenty to feed even the footballers in the crowd. As awesome as they were, I wish I had a bit more time for them in the fridge. Some still got a bit flat. But next time…watch out. By far my new favorite recipe!
Best chocolate chip cookies our family has had! They beg me to make these!
I made a double batch of these chocolate chip cookies. I took them to a church function. they were a hit. that was absolutely none left. my family love them also. can’t wait to try more of your amazing cookies. thanks for sharing
Hands down the BEST cookie recipe and blog post EVER!!
fantastic cookie recipe
will be making then again
Wondering if you can freeze cookies after baking
So glad to hear that you love these cookies, Sherry! There are directions in the pink tip box (above the recipe) for freezing the cookie dough and baking from frozen, but we haven’t tried freezing the cookies after they’ve been baked. It should work fine, but ensure you wrap them well in plastic wrap and freeze inside an airtight container or a ziptop bag, to prevent them from drying out and/or protect them from freezer burn. Thanks again for your comment and Happy Baking! 🙂
This is thee best and easiest chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever baked. Thank you so much! Happy baking
P.S…my kitchen smells amazing!
Cookies was amazing. I changed it a bit. I used baking powder instead of banking soda. 2 teaspoons. And added more chocolate chips. Thank you for sharing. Amazing!!
I make this recipe at least every other week with different mix ins and it is a staple recipe I make for the people I care about Thanks for sharing!
That’s amazing to hear, so happy this is your go-to recipe!
I took these cookies to my church function and for my family. they all love them. thank you for sharing such a wonderful cookie recipe.
Yay! So happy to hear these cookies are such a hit with your friends and family, Linda! 🙂
i just baked these delictible chocolate chip cookies.. they came out wonderful. I added 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, although they did not need them. Wonderful aroma in my kitchen.
They turned out really good! I made them for my family and friends and they loved them!
Perfect recipe! I halved the chocolate chips and added 1 cup butterscotch. Dang! We gobbled them up!!!
Can you freeze the dough and bake them later? How long can they last in the freezer? Thanks:)
Hi Tasha! You sure can – learn all about how to freeze cookie dough here! AS long as they’re stored in an airtight container or freezer bag, safe from freezer burn, cookie dough can be stored in the freezer for at least a month, often longer!
These turned out great and was so easy to make!!! Will be using this recipe from now on, thank you!!