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.
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:
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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.
This post was originally published in 2012 and updated recently with recipe improvements, baking tips, and new photos. Photos by Ashley McLaughlin.
Loved this recipe I did it just as you said but I did soften up the butter just a little bit to get it started put everything in and I did put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours and then I started out with six cookies of one quarter cup and then I put the chocolate chunks on top did it for 20 minutes and they were really good the next time I think I will make them a little bigger and maybe 18 minutes but I do believe this is my new chocolate chip recipe thank you so much
Great recipie… love them
Im your instructions, you say weight out a 1/4 cup, then say 4 oz. A 1/4 is 2 oz. Half a cup is 4 oz
Hi Jason, in the body of the post it states 1/4 pound which is 4 ounces. I’m guessing since they are so big, and she probably uses cups more than pounds in her recipes, she may have put the wrong measurement.
Hi Jason! Different things weigh different amounts even if they take up the same space. For example, 1/4 cup of flour (32 grams) is very light, but 1/4 cup of cookie dough is much heavier (113 grams) because it contains butter, sugar, eggs, chocolate, etc. That’s why in this recipe, 1/4 cup of cookie dough weighs about 4 ounces. Tessa loves using her 4-tablespoon cookie scoop, which holds 2 ounces of dough and her kitchen scale to measure out 4 ounces so that all the cookies are the same size and bake evenly. I hope that helps clear things up. Can’t wait for you to try these cookies 🙂 Let us know what you think!
a nuclear bomb sized portion of goodness
Its gooood
5 star
These cookies were a mess. I don’t even know why I follow this recipe. Never use cold eggs or cold butter. My gut told me not to 20.00 wasted.
Hi, I want to add caramel and marshmallow fluff to these cookies, how much would you recommend (1/2 cup of each)? And does that effect the baking time? Thanks
Hi Jess! We haven’t tried either, so I can’t say for sure how much to use or how they’d turn out. Let us know how it goes if you experiment!
In Step 4, my 1/4 cup of cookie dough was much lower than 113 grams. When I measured out 113 grams, it was more like 1/2 cup. Using the 1/2 cup or 113 grams produced 12 cookies and they were 5-inch in diameter when baked.
I made a second batch and measure out 70 grams per cookie and that made 20 4-inch cookies. This was the size and quantity I was looking for.
Do you have any suggestions for making a 4-inch cookies that are thicker? I think I should play around with either baking soda or baking powder.
The cookies were a hit at my church so it’s all good.
Hi, I want to make these cookies for Christmas, but want to reduce the size the cookies. Cann I do this without changing anything about the recipe? Also, I imagine a small cookie with take lest time to bake. Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi! Does chilling the cookie dough in the fridge overnight produce same results as using cold butter?
Hi Varun! Not quite – chilling the cookie dough overnight allows the flavors to meld together, enhancing their taste. It would also make these cookies a bit thicker and chewier (aka even more delicious!) Learn more about chilling cookie dough here.
I have made these giant chocolate chip cookies several times and they have turned out great every time. My question is, I make them into 3 oz. cookies and want to know if recipe can be safely doubled.
Hi Barry! You can absolutely double this recipe. Let us know how it goes!
Hi,i think i overbeat my sugar and butter so my cookie spread into a flat puddle…is there any way to fix this for the next batch? Thank you
Hi Kyla! I’m sorry to hear that these cookies didn’t work quite as they should for you! Over-creaming could be one of the reasons – learn more about how to prevent that here. Here are a couple of other possible culprits here:
– This recipe uses cold butter, which is different from most cookie recipes. Was your butter cold when creaming? If not, this could be the cause of your cookie puddles.
– How old are your leavening agents? If your baking soda/powder are not fresh, they won’t do their jobs and your cookies can have several issues. Baking powder and baking soda can also lose their effectiveness long before the expiration date on the packaging. 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!
– Also, always be sure to bake on pans that are completely cool; baking on warm pans will cause your butter to melt faster and your cookies to spread more. Never grease your pans, either; a piece of parchment paper is best – and it also requires less cleanup, so it’s a win-win!
– Although not an instruction in the recipe, feel free to chill your cookie dough prior to baking. This helps create thicker cookies! Learn more about that here.
I hope something here helps, and I hope you give these cookies another try – they really are fantastic! Happy Baking 🙂
I used cold butter like instructed but i think the overcreaming in the mixer made it ends up warmer? This is the first time that a cookie from handletheheat recipe spreads too much for me (i usually use Tessa’s bakery style choco chip cookie or the ultimate chewie choco chip cookie recipe and they never failed)
Thank you, i put the rest of the dough in the fridge right now and hopefully it’ll work
Hopefully that’s all it needs – I’ll cross my fingers for you, Kyla!