Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Tons of butterscotch flavors, the perfect amount of sweetness, and plenty of chocolate chips.
Texture: Perfection. Crisp and chewy on the edges and ooey-gooey inside. These cookies warm out of the oven with a cold glass of milk may be one of my favorite things in life.
Ease: Even easier than most Chocolate Chip Cookies because this one uses cold butter. No waiting for butter to soften!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Utterly delicious giant cookies.
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My last meal on earth would include these Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies because they are that over-the-top good.
Some desserts I have to be in the mood to eat. When it comes to Chocolate Chip Cookies, however, I could always have one (or two … or three).
My favorite kind of Chocolate Chip Cookies are crisp at the edge, and chewy yet melty and gooey in the middle.
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Cookie dough is great, but my greatest weakness has to be cookies just out of the oven. I mean, is there any aroma more intoxicating?
This recipe was partially inspired by Levain Bakery. I had the opportunity to visit recently, and while the cookies were absolutely gorgeous, I found them to be too much.
That’s something I never thought I’d say. But you could only have a few bites before you felt such a heaviness sitting in your stomach. I think it’s because the center of those cookies is so underdone and gooey. I actually enjoyed their cookies much more the next day, strangely enough.
So this is my dream version of a huge, big, Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie that’s over the top but still edible and enjoyable to the last bite, both while they’re still warm and gooey, and for days later!
Check out the Sprinkle of Science box below for my recipe tips and answers to common questions!
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Perfect Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Use Cold Butter for Thick, Chewy Cookies
- I know, this seems to go against everything you’ve learned about the temperature butter should be when creaming.
- If you’ve read Tip #1 in my 3 Reasons Your Cookies Flop article, then you’ll know the calamity that warm butter can cause your cookies.
- Overly warm butter all but ensures your cookies will spread out too thin and sad.
- This recipe was developed to use cold butter to ensure that the cookies stay ultra-thick and tall and don’t flatten.
Can I Use a Hand Mixer for This Recipe?
Because of the cold butter in this recipe, it’s best to use a stand mixer and not a hand mixer for this recipe. I don’t recommend mixing by hand.
Chocolate Chips + Chocolate Chunks = Maximum Gooeyness!
- I use both chocolate chips and chocolate chunks in this recipe to get the most gooey deliciousness possible.
- For the chocolate chunks, I recommend chopping the chocolate yourself. Pre-made chocolate chunks won’t get as gooey.
- You can also use baking wafers, discs, or feves such as these in place of the chunks.
Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder in Cookies
This recipe for Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies uses both baking powder and baking soda for the best of both worlds.
- 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 about the shocking differences between these two leaveners in my Baking Soda vs. Baking Powder article.
How to Shape Giant Cookie Dough Balls
- I used my biggest cookie scoop with a kitchen scale to get accurate portions of this dough.
- Each ball of dough is a whopping quarter pound! (or approximately 113 grams)
- Top each cookie dough ball with a few extra chocolate chunks for picture-perfect cookies.
Sea Salt: The Secret to Extra Tasty Cookies!
This is optional, but you can add a sprinkling of flaky finishing sea salt to the cookies right after pulling them out of the oven. This really brings out that butterscotch flavor. I love fleur de sel for this. This also makes the cookies even more mouthwatering visually!
How to Make These Cookies Ahead of Time
Get my full instructions on how to freeze cookie dough here. These cookies are particularly best the day they’re baked, in my opinion. For this reason, I prefer to freeze the balls of cookie dough. If baking from frozen, reduce the heat to 340°F and add a few minutes to the baking time.
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes You’ll Love:
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
- 3 cups (380 grams) all-purpose flour,
measured correctly - 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 sticks (227 grams) cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) packed light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups (255 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup semisweet chocolate chunks or wafers
- Flaky sea salt, for topping, if desired
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium-high speed until well combined and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then add in the vanilla and beat until combined. Gradually beat in the flour mixture on low speed until combined. Beat in the chocolate chips and half the chunks.
- Weigh out 1/4 cup (4 ounces or 113 gram) portions of dough and roll into an even ball. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, spacing far apart. Bake 6 cookies per pan. Press chocolate chunks into the top of each ball of dough.
- Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cookies are slightly browned at the edges and puffy. Bake longer for crispier, chewier cookies, bake less for ooey gooey cookies. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, if desired.
- Cookies will deflate slightly as they cool. They are best the day they are baked but may be stored in an airtight container for 2 days.
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This post was originally published in 2012 and updated recently with recipe improvements, baking tips, and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
I just made these and they turned out delicious. The first batch I made turned out flat even though I stuck to the recipe. I refrigerated the remaining dough for 30 mins before baking and the rest turned out perfect. Thick, crispy on the outside and nice and gooey on the inside. I’d recommend to everyone to do the same for best results!
Good to know! I didn’t have to chill mine but everyone’s ingredients/kitchen/oven is different so chilling is a great idea.
My cookies turned out a bit too thick like a muffin top. I guess I should leave them out to warm a bit before baking?
I`m totally sold on these cookies, especially since you made them 3 times!
I’m so impressionable when it comes to your recipes. I’m in the middle of a bit of a weekend work fiasco and I had an hour of downtime til the next update so I made the cookies. YUM!
Yay! Hope they improved your working weekend a bit 🙂
It’s never wrong to eat chocolate chip cookies! These are beautiful!
I’ve had Levain Bakery’s cookies and they are amazing! I will have to try the recipe and report back. The Levian version had huge bittersweet chocolate chips, which probably added to their amazingness….
Haha, I’m home for the weekend so I made my parents a treat 😀 they loved it!
I did use cold butter, straight out of the fridge and cubed. My mother’s poor old mixer barely got through the dough, but everything turned out fine except the thickness. They spread ridiculously thin. I eyed the ingredients a bit because my mother doesn’t own a scale, so maybe I put in too much of something else? Baking powder or soda perhaps?
These were awesome, but I’ll cut down on the sugar and butter next time. However, mine spread completely flat and thin – why? I did everything as you said. :S
(Photo http://instagram.com/p/RiRCh-Jtix/ if you care :D)
Wow I can’t believe you already made these!! Did you use cold butter?
Um, hello.
Darn if you make me crave actual cookies for once!!
Hahaha 🙂
Thanks Tessa. For easier mixing then I assume a similar result can be reproduced from chilling the dough before baking. Might make for easier mixing. BTW, I really enjoy your site. Nice work.
That should work… if you have the patience to wait for the dough to chill! If you have a stand mixer you should be able to cream the cold butter and sugar with no problems. I was a little worried about it when I first made these cookies but my Kitchenaid mixer had the dough ready to go in a matter of minutes. Thank you!
Forgive the dumb question but what is the point of using cold butter in these? I’ve traditionally only seen cold butter used when you want to maintain chunks of butter in the dough and that is not the case here.
This is not to say I won’t try them on the weekend as I’ve been looking for a cookie to make and these do look yummy.
Not a dumb question! Since the cold butter is creamed as opposed to blended (like with pastry dough), it just keeps the dough cooler so when it hits the hot oven it maintains a thick, fat shape instead of spreading into flat cookies.
Pretty please pass me one, or two. I could absolutely break for a cookie right now 🙂
It did not work for me. My mix & result was crumbly and dry. I have to cut the recipe in half cause 6 big cookies is enough and that might have messed things up. Also we don’t use grams in Canada. So 1 stick of butter seems to be 1/2 a cup. Any idea?
Oooh they really look more than wonderful 🙂 I am always on the hunt for the perfect cookies so I am definitely gonna try this one!