Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Full of sweet butterscotch & chocolate flavors, exactly how a chocolate chip cookie should taste!
Texture: Thick and chock full of gooey chocolate with slightly crisp edges.
Ease: Super easy 30-minute recipe.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Easy, delightful chocolate chip cookie recipe. I’ve made this recipe probably 100 times always have the dough in my freezer for when the craving strikes.
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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.
The Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies is still one of my most popular posts, visited by over three million people!
That post inspired the creation of my second cookbook, The Ultimate Cookie Handbook. And since THOUSANDS of you have purchased that cookbook, I think it’s clear that we’re all obsessed with cookies here.
What Makes Cookies Chewy, Crisp, or Cakey?
My free guide reveals the ingredients and tweaks that matter.
That’s why I’m SO thrilled to share this Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe with you today. In my opinion, it’s the perfect easy everyday chocolate chip cookie recipe. This homemade recipe is simple to make and yields thick, beautiful golden brown cookies, crisp at the edges and gooey at the center.
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!
I love this time-lapse video of these cookies cooling right after I took them out of the oven. You can see that they hardly shrink or deflate as they cool. If you only beat the butter and sugar for 2 to 3 minutes max, your cookies shouldn’t deflate!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make The Best Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
How to Make Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
The key to the best soft, Bakery Style Chocolate Chip 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 Bakery Style 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 beautifully uniform, evenly-shaped, 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, and 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!
Tessa’s Favorite Tools for This Recipe:
- Large 3-tablespoon size cookie scoop for that bakery-style texture
- Or use a medium 1.5-tablespoon size cookie scoop and bake only for about 10-12 minutes instead
- Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Baker’s Half Sheet won our side-by-side comparison of the best baking pans
- 12″x16″ non-stick parchment paper for the best bake and easiest cleanup!
- The Ultimate Cookie Handbook: Your Guide to Baking Perfect Cookies Every Time by Tessa Arias
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
- Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies (these are CHEWIER than this recipe)
- Coconut Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies (dairy-free)
- Browned Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies (ultra flavorful!)
- Marbled Chocolate Chip Cookies (classic and double chocolate chip cookie dough in one cookie!)
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (for serious PB lovers only!)
See ALL of my types of cookie recipes & cookie baking tips here!
Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
- 3 cups (380 grams) all-purpose flour**
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature (67°F)
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cups (247 grams) lightly packed light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 cups (340 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until creamy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Add the vanilla and eggs and beat until combined, scraping the bowl down as needed. Gradually beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- If time permits, wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. This allows the dough to “marinate” and makes the cookies thicker, chewier, and more flavorful. Let dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.
- Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls using a large cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
- Although I prefer cookies fresh from the oven, these can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days. See post for storage tips.
Recipe Notes
The Ultimate Cookie Handbook
Learn the sweet SCIENCE of cookie baking in a fun, visual way to customize your own recipes frustration-free. Plus, my best 50+ homemade cookies!
Photos by Jess Larson.
I’ve tried dozens of recipes… this is by far the best.
Awesome! So happy to hear this!
This didn’t turn out correct at all. I’m normally really good at making chocolate chip cookies and I followed this recipe to a tee. The dough turned out like thick sand and when I tried baking a batch they just look like round rocks I was so confused as to why they were coming out like this, and I looks like I’m missing my friends 25th birthday party. This whole thing took way longer than expected. I normally crank out amazing cookies no problem but this recipe gave me so many issues
Oh no, Audrey, something definitely doesn’t sound right! Did you make any substitutions? Do you measure your ingredients with a digital scale to ensure the best results? These cookies shouldn’t turn out like round rocks! The dough itself is pretty thick, especially if you chill them as recommended, but that’s why you let the the dough sit at room temperature until it’s soft enough to scoop. What type of cookie sheet did you bake them on, light or dark colored? Do you have an oven thermometer to see if your oven temperature is accurate (most home ovens aren’t!)? I really want to help you figure out what happened as these are one of my absolute favorite cookies as well as one of the most popular and highly rated on my site!
I’ve made this recipe a few times now, but I brought them into work today and my coworkers can’t stop singing praises! These are THE BEST chocolate chip cookies ever. Don’t hesitate to make these. I’ll be coming back to this recipe every time I need a cookie fix!
Oh YAY!! I’m so happy not only that these were a huge hit but also that this is now your go-to recipe! Thanks for the wonderful feedback, Miranda!
This recipe is different from the standard. I liked it a lot. It makes a thicker more substantial cookie. I baked a 20 cookies without refrigeration and the rest the next day. I do think the refrigerated cookies were better. I added 1 cup chopped nuts, 1/2 cup homemade toffee chips and 1/2 cup dried tart cherries and left out the vanilla (mostly on purpose because I don’t like it).
I saw your picture of these chocolate chip cookies and thought…I have got to try these! My favorite type of cookie is a little crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. People, that is EXACTLY what these cookies are! My husband couldn’t stop eating them and neither could I (we had to give the rest away to stop from eating them all! haha). My loving mother who has searched long and far to find the perfect chocolate chip recipe gave me a recipe she thought was finally a good one….now I might have to give her this recipe to try instead! LOVED IT! Thanks a million!
Hooray!!! So happy to hear you both loved this recipe! I highly recommend freezing the rest (giving away is wonderful too!) for easy baking throughout the week whenever those cookie cravings hit!
Hi tessa! I’m so excited to try this recipe. The cookies look so good and yummy! One question, can I shift to folding with a spatula to mix the dry ingredients to the wet ones? I find my hand mixer is having a hard time to mix the thick dough. Also, how long should I bake if I use 2 scoops of a small cookie scoop (2 scoops stacked one on top of the other for one cookie). Thank you so much!
I haven’t tried mixing with a spatula –it’ll be harder and take a lot more time to get to the creaminess of the ingredients like an electric mixer does in 2 minutes. As for the baking time, are you looking to have very tall cookies or you just mean you’re adding two small scoops together rolled into one? I’d still bake at 12-15 minutes as recommended but then just watch it after that until they reach golden brown. Good luck!
This is why I love you, your site, and all your recipes! I feel like the way you do things (by weighing ingredients) makes every recipe a “no-fail”! I wanted to try a new chocolate chip cookie recipe and I knew I wanted to try one of yours. These are AMAZING!!!! Great thickness, chewy but soft, a little crisp around the edges. I added some m&ms to the last half of the batch for the kids and now I’m thinking I should hide all those for myself thank you for being a solid, go-to person for recipes! Love what you do! Happy Baking
I love to hear that! Thank you so much for the kind feedback, Haley! I’m absolutely thrilled you love these cookies 🙂
I’ve made these twice and they are amazing. Both times I added a 1/2 cup of peanut butter because my family likes the addition.
Just out of curiosity. Why doesn’t this recipe have baking powder when your ultimate chocolate hop cookie and the peanut butter chocolate chip recipes do add it.
I’m so glad you love this recipe 🙂 As for the baking powder, I just test out different ingredients with each recipe until I land on what I think works best!
I think it yummy
I made these in the afternoon and then put in refrigerator until that evening. I didn’t let them get to room temp and placed cookies back in refrigerator between batches. They turned out perfect. the best thick and chewy cookies ever. I only made 12, I let the rest stay in the refrigerator over night. Making the rest today for Easter. This will be my go to cookies. Thank you! Delicious
So glad you found your go-to cookie recipe!!
These cookies looked sooooo good. When I first made them though (followed the recipe to the T) they came out SUUUUUUUPER flat. I retried them again today though, with baking powder instead of baking soda and they came out perfectly fine! Wondering what happened there? But either way, super delicious! Obviously not as brown but they definitely didn’t flatten and they puffed up quite nice! I’m chilling the dough now and will make the rest tomorrow to see if that makes a difference. Thank you!
Hi Victoria, I’m sorry your cookies didn’t turn out correctly! I actually discuss why cookies might turn out flat in the pink box above the recipe, hope you give that a read! As for the baking soda, I wonder if yours wasn’t fresh? You can see how to check that in this article. Hope this helps!
Awesome!!!