Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Big butterscotch flavor without being too sweet. These cookies taste how you imagine a Chocolate Chip Cookie should taste!
Texture: The best part! Big, thick, super chewy yet soft on the inside, and crisp at the edges. Perfection.
Ease: Very easy, though I do use two different flours, and there is a chilling period, so some patience is needed – but I promise, they’re worth the wait!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe: My all-time favorite cookie recipe. I have extra dough stashed in the freezer at all times.
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I’m super excited to share with you my Ultimate Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. They’re my version of the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie!
If you’re anything like the hundreds of people who have taste-tested and tried this recipe, you’re going to love it! (Just read some of the comments below!)
You may be asking yourself what makes this recipe “ultimate?” Well, these cookies have HUGE butterscotch flavor, which is exactly what I adore in a Chocolate Chip Cookie. Beyond the flavor is the texture, which is nothing short of incredible.
These cookies have my version of the ultimate texture combination: thick, super chewy, soft, and a little gooey in the middle, crisp and slightly crunchy at the edges, with gooey chocolate chips throughout. Does anything get better than that? I don’t think so.
I would want these cookies to be a part of my last meal on earth, that’s how much I love them!
This is a perfect recipe to learn some of the basics of the science of baking, because with cookies, it’s so easy to see how different tweaks impact the final result! Learn more about that just below.
Sprinkle of Science
How to Make Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
Why This is the Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
- This recipe utilizes half bread flour, which lends chewiness to the cookies.
- It also uses a good amount of brown sugar, which lends that butterscotch flavor and a thick, soft texture.
- The extra egg yolk in this recipe also helps keep these cookies soft yet chewy and adds richness in flavor.
- You can think of the 24 – 72 hour chilling period as a “marinating” period. The flavors intensify and the texture will become thicker and chewier. It’s pretty amazing and I promise it’s worth the wait.
Do I Really Need to Use Bread Flour?
You don’t absolutely HAVE to use bread flour, but it adds a ton of chewy texture to these cookies that’s worth the extra trip to the store. If you can’t get bread flour, then use all AP flour in its place.
Do I Really Need to Chill the Dough?
The last key element is the 24 to 72 hour chilling period which is a huge pain in the butt, I know, but it is so completely worth it.
Why? The flavor and texture improve SO much as the dough chills!
If you’re absolutely strapped for time, you can bake off some cookies right away – but I’d definitely encourage you to try chilling and see all the wonders it works on your dough.
How to Chill the Dough
Make the dough and scoop into balls using a cookie scoop. Place in an airtight container and place in the fridge for 24-72 hours. Bake straight from the fridge when ready. Learn more about chilling cookie dough here. The colder the dough, the thicker the cookies!
Can You Freeze Chocolate Chip Cookies?
I love cookies straight from the oven, so 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.
How to Store Cookies & Keep Them Soft
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temp for up to 3 days. Be sure they are completely cooled before storing.
To keep your baked Chocolate Chip Cookies soft, you can add 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 will migrate to your cookies, making them soft and chewy again.
How to Refresh Stored Cookies
If desired, 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!
Step-by-Step Video
If you want to watch me demonstrate how to make this recipe LIVE, with all of my scientific explanations, tips, and tricks, check out this live Facebook video I did a while back!
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
- Bakery Style Chocolate Chip Cookies – my most popular recipe!
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake
- Soft Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Giant Reese’s Pieces Peanut Butter Cookies
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- See ALL of my cookie recipes + tips on the SCIENCE of cookie baking here!
Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups (191 grams) all-purpose flour*
- 1 1/4 cups (159 grams) bread flour*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 sticks (227 grams) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) lightly packed brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at cool room temperature
- 2 cups (340 grams) semisweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- If baking right away, preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs and yolk, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla. Slowly beat in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop, divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls.
- If time permits, wrap dough balls 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.
- When ready to bake, place dough balls on prepared baking sheets, at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 12-15 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 pink tip box above the recipe for storage tips.
Recipe Notes
This recipe was originally published in October 2013 and has been updated with more baking tips and new photos. Photos by Constance Higley.
I made these cookies last year. They came out perfectly. I made them again and they were flat and brown. I was very disappointed and couldn’t figure out what I did wrong. I refrigerated them for2 days and they were a disaster. I gave up but this year I decided to give it one more try. This time they turned out perfectly. I’m glad I made them again.
I plan on making these again and again. They are my favourite chocolate chip cookies. I was very careful following the directions and will continue to do so. They should turn out perfectly every time.
Thanks for a great chocolate chip cookie recipe.9
So glad you tried this recipe again, Maureen! Do you use a digital scale to measure ingredients? With your previous batch turning out flat, it’s possible either your butter was too warm, or there wasn’t enough flour added. I’m happy that they turned out well for you this time 🙂
Hi Tessa!
I was wondering what’s the shelf life of this particular recipe as well as the other cookie recipes? I already tried making the brown butter chocolate chip cookies and my brother says they taste like home!
Thank you!
Hi Liz! Thanks for your feedback, I just added those details to the recipe 🙂 Enjoy!
OUTSTANDING chocolate chip cookies. I used three different kinds of chocolate chips to please the dark chocolate, milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate lovers (2/3 c. each). This cookies were so yummy that there was only one left by the time I sat down to try one at my super bowl party. Nice job Tessa!
That’s amazing!! Happy to hear they were such a hit!
I don’t refrigerate the first half of dough. Cookies are awesome, just spread out very thin but are still chewy. I refrigerated second half so will see if that makes a difference!
Hi Julie! Not refrigerating the dough prior to baking will result in more spread out cookies. You want to make sure also that your room temperature butter isn’t too warm to begin with; otherwise that can affect the outcome as well, even after placing the dough in the fridge. We like our butter to be at a cool room temperature, which is 67°F 🙂 I hope that helps!
I was so excited for this recipe as I tried the peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe – which was so amazing – this one – the cookies were dry and not real
Chewy – they baked nicely and could have been sweeter on the cookie part. I am gonna tweak it again and see if it helps. Thank you though for the recipe
I’m sorry to hear your cookies didn’t turn out, Michelle! Do you weigh your ingredients with a digital scale? Dry cookies tend to happen when too much flour is added, or they’re overbaked. Did you substitute any ingredients? I also want to make sure you used room temperature ingredients when noted. I’d love to help figure out what went wrong so you can enjoy these cookies the way they’re meant to be!
It took me a few tries , but I the cookies came out great! I totally forgot the baking powder though, DOH! I wonder how much better they’d be if I didn’t forget? My oven is a bit colder than yours, so needs longer time or higher temp
They still came out great 🙂 Thanks Tessa
PICS: https://imgur.com/ZT4g6Iv
Wow they look incredible! Sounds like you were just experimenting without baking powder like I did in my Ultimate Guide to Chocolate Chip Cookies, right? 😉
Indeed, there’s no such thing as “accidents” heheeheee 😉
I’ve made another recipe that includes bread flour. They are great the first day, but get very crumbly after that. The only thing I can think of is the bread flour somehow makes them more dry the next day. I’m not sure though. What do you think?
Without knowing the recipe you’re using, I can’t say for sure. Just based off of what you said about them being crumbly the next day, I want to make sure you’re using a digital scale to measure the ingredients as it’s super easy to overmeasure flour especially, which could possibly be causing the crumbliness. Overworking your dough could also make them crumbly. I’d suggest storing your cookies in an airtight container as well. Hope that helps!
Eggless substitute?
I haven’t tried this recipe with an egg substitute, sorry!
I enjoyed it
Soft and delicious
Not overly sweet tastes great
Easy to make, not overly sweet tastes great