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.
The last 3 times I made these they spread like a puddle. Butter was cool room temp., eggs room temp.,I refrigerated the dough for 2 days.
Hi Linda! Oh no, that definitely sounds like something is going wrong here 🙁 I have a few ideas as to what may be going wrong:
– How do you measure your ingredients? By volume (using cups), or by weight (using a digital kitchen scale)? When measuring by volume, it’s so easy to mis-measure flour/sugar/etc and throw off the entire chemistry of a recipe. Tessa talks about how to best measure ingredients to ensure accuracy every time, in this article here!
– Another thing could be how long you creamed your butter and sugars together for, as this can have a huge impact on a cookie’s outcome. Have a look at this article, where Tessa discusses the repercussions on the resulting baked goods!
– I just want to mention your leavening agent. If your baking/soda powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your baked goods can not rise properly, fall after baking, spread too much, and much more. Tessa talks about the science behind leavening agents, and how to test for leavener freshness, in this article here!
– What type of pan are you baking on? Different materials of pans conduct heat differently. Tessa discusses and shows the differences between a variety of baking pans in this article here!
Hopefully something here helped! Feel free to reach back out to us with any further questions – we are always happy to help!! 🙂
Hi! Can I add a cup of walnuts to this recipe?
Hi Brittani! Yes, you can! You might want to try removing some of the chocolate chips, so your dough doesn’t get too overwhelmed with mix-ins, but it will work and taste great! 🙂
Thank you! Is there a min in rule? On how much mix ins should be added in?
Hi Brittani! Yes, you just want to follow the recipe – so keep the total amount of mix-ins around 2 cups 🙂 Happy baking!
Hi, if I want to make these smaller(for kids) will it affect the crisp edge, chewy center? How long should I bake?
Hi Melissa! There should be no problem making these smaller, and still getting a perfect consistency – but you will have to play around a little with the bake time. My best guess would be approximately 8 minutes, but that’s just an estimate because we haven’t tested this recipe in a smaller size (and all ovens are different!). As long as you keep an eye on them, and follow Tessa’s advice with chilling for 24-72 hours before baking, your cookies should be perfect 🙂
These are legit the best. The dough resting in the fridge for 32 hours-ish is definitely key! We devoured the whole batch in four days
Yay! So happy to hear this, Sami!!
I have made soooo many chocolate chip cookies, this is the best out there! By far. So glad I tried them and my family all agree on a recipe finally! Lol thank you!
That’s so wonderful to hear, Kayl!! Thanks so much for the comment 🙂
I’d rather have less chocolate and replace that with walnuts in the recipe. What amounts would you suggest?
Hi Kathleen! It depends on your personal preference! I prefer more chocolate to walnuts, so I would typically do 1 and a 1/2 cups chocolate chips, and 1/2 a cup of walnuts – but if you want to do 1 cup of each, that will work too! I wouldn’t recommend doing any less chocolate than a 50/50 spilt, though! And just in case you have not tried this before, I highly recommend lightly toasting your walnuts before baking – it takes the cookies to another level!! Enjoy 🙂
These were so fluffy and delicious! Definitely make these.
So thrilled to hear these were delicious, Lauren!!
This is my go to recipe! Everyone loves them! To really drive them home for the best cookies is by adding guittard super cookie chocolate chips! They are just a larger flat chocolate chip that ensure you get a more even spread of chocolate! Amazing!
Mmm, sounds delicious, Chelsea!! So glad to hear that you love this recipe 🙂
I love this recipe! I really enjoy making cookies because of how diverse you can make them and what you can add to them but these sr wine of the best recipes I’ve come upon! Thanks!
But these are one of the best*
So fantastic to hear that, Caleb!!
just made this it tastes amazing thank you so much
Hi Ella! So excited to hear that you enjoyed these cookies so much! 🙂
This is honestly the best cookie recipe ever. Since finding the recipe a while ago, I have never found a better cookie. 5/5 ⭐️
That’s such an incredible compliment, Elysia! Thanks so much for the comment! 🙂
Could I freeze the dough instead of the fridge for 24 hours to speed up the process??
Hi Lee! No, freezing and chilling actually do two different things to cookie dough! Once you put the dough in the freezer, the moisture in the dough will actually freeze, and you won’t be able to have the same benefits in the freezer as in the fridge; it’s like the dough is in suspended-animation and the flour/starch won’t be able to absorb moisture because the moisture is frozen. The chemical processes that happen while the dough is marinating can only happen in the fridge. Check out Tessa’s full deep dive article here! I hope that helps 🙂
I am a bit confused. In this comment you say to not freeze the dough. But in a lower comment you on August 3rd to Alexa you say you can freeze the dough.
It’s raining here today and I am home from the office so thought I would do some baking and freezing.
Can you share which was is better?
Hi Martha! You can absolutely freeze this dough. What I am speaking to in this comment above, is when to freeze the dough! You always want to give your dough 24-72 hours in the fridge before freezing it, because this allows the flavors to meld (sort of like marinating meat!) and it allows the flour to fully hydrate, among other things. Then, once the dough has received this beneficial chilled time, you can go ahead and freeze the dough. If you freeze it right away, you just don’t get the same benefits. You can read more about this in Tessa’s wonderful article here! I hope that helps! Happy baking 🙂