Today we’re making GIANT Chocolate Chip Cookies! These gourmet cookies have soft and chewy interiors, slightly crisp golden brown exteriors, and are absolutely loaded with chocolate! Oh, and did I mention they’re huge!? Almost 6″ in diameter!
Really Really BIG Chocolate Chip Cookies
Do these photos make my cookies look big?
No, really, I feel like they just don’t do justice to the size of these massive, thick & chewy, bakery-esque cookies! Each one is made with half a cup of cookie dough and loaded with three different types of semisweet chocolate chips. I think those chocolate chips might be part of the problem here, actually. Some of the chips in the pictures are actually jumbo chips (I used Ghirardelli), so maybe the cookie isn’t looking as big in comparison to the giant chips??
Whatever the reason, you should know that these are BIG, Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies! Like, half a foot in diameter big. And while they may not be my “worst” chocolate chip cookies, they’re still incredible in terms of flavor and texture, and I think you’re going to love them just as much.
When I started testing these giant cookies, I realized that making them wasn’t as simple as just scooping larger portions of my favorite cookie dough and baking for a longer time. Too many of my trial versions ended up with raw centers and rock hard edges, and when I dropped my oven temperature they just ended up spreading all over the pan like a sad rendition of my chocolate chip cookie bars.
Ultimately what worked with this recipe was reducing the amount of baking powder and baking soda that I typically like to use when making cookies and increasing the amount of cornstarch.
It’s no secret that I love baking with cornstarch. It helps to hold the cookie together and keeps it from spreading without drying it out or making it crumbly (which would happen if you opted to simply add more flour instead). Here it plays a critical roll in making the cookie soft at the center while still providing us with a dough that bakes evenly in the oven. See why it’s one of my favorite secret ingredients in the kitchen?
Tips for Making Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
- You can use a half-cup measuring cup to measure out your dough, but I like to use a cookie scoop with a release lever. You’ll need a heaping scoop to get to ½ cup, but this is the easiest way I’ve found to portion the dough.
- Roll the dough between your palms for a smooth ball. This is the best way to get uniform, round cookies with rounded edges. It also might sound super obvious but for years I struggled with amoeba-like cookies because I just plopped them right on the cookie sheet.
- This cookie dough needs to be chilled for 30 minutes but you may chill it in the refrigerator for up to a week. Keep in mind that if you chill it for longer than an hour, the dough will get very hard and difficult to scoop, so you’ll have to let it sit out at room temperature before you’ll be able to scoop it. I personally recommend that if you don’t want to bake your cookies right away, chill the dough for 30 minutes, scoop the dough as indicated, then wrap each cookie dough ball up in plastic wrap or in a ziploc bag and store that way. Saves you a lot of wrestling with the dough later on!
- Never place cookie dough on a hot baking sheet, it will cause the dough to begin to melt/cook prematurely, resulting in cookies that spread way too much.
- One of my favorite tricks for pretty, picture-worthy cookies? Reserve a handful of chocolate chips and once your cookies have finished baking gently nestle additional chips into the tops of the cookies. This must be done 1-2 minutes after coming out of the oven.
- Let these cookies cool completely on the baking sheet. The centers should still be a bit underdone when they come out of the oven, and allowing them to cool completely allows them to finish baking all the way through. Plus, they’ll be to fragile to handle while they are hot!
If you’ve been following my other cookie recipes, you’re probably familiar with a lot of these tips, but they’re definitely worth repeating!
Enjoy!
More Great Cookie Recipes!
Let’s bake together! Be sure to check out my video at the bottom of the recipe where I’ll show you exactly how I make these GIANT Chocolate Chip Cookies in my own kitchen! If you enjoy watching, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’ve already uploaded over 150 recipe videos that you can watch for free!
Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled to room temperature (226g)
- 1 cup brown sugar¹ firmly packed (200g)
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (150g)
- 1 large egg room temperature preferred
- 1 large egg yolk room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (350g)
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ¾ teaspoons salt
- 1 ½ cups chocolate chips -- I recommend using ½ cup each of mini regular, and jumbo semisweet chocolate chips (255g)
Instructions
- Combine melted/cooled butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar in a large bowl and stir well.
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir until combined.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, stirring until completely combined. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Cover cookie dough with plastic wrap and transfer to refrigerator to chill for at least 30 minutes.
- About 15 minutes before dough is finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper².
- Once dough has chilled and oven has preheated, remove cookie dough from fridge and scoop ½ cup (yes, cup!) of dough and roll into a round ball.
- Place cookie dough on prepared baking sheets, spacing several inches apart.
- Transfer to 350F (175C) oven and bake 14-16 minutes or until edges are beginning to turn golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet before removing and enjoying.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Kelsie
I followed the recipe exactly and these are so good! THANK YOU for sharing!
Carmen
I have never made a cookie using melted butter. Why melt, cool, butter and refrigerate dough instead of using softened butter? Just wondering?
Sam
Hi Carmen! I prefer it this way because it results chewier, more flavorful cookie. Melting the butter allows it to coat everything better and give it an all around better taste. 🙂
Misty
These turned out so beautifully & tasted great! Definitely will be a go to recipe! The mini chocolate chips made these so cute!
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad you enjoyed the cookies, Misty! Thanks for coming back to leave a review ❤️
Meghan Elliott
Great chocolate chip cookie recipe! I followed it using the weights, which is super helpful. At first I was worried they wouldn’t spread but eventually they started to towards the end of baking. I did tap the cookie sheet on the counter when I took them out to get them to spread a little more. My dough wasn’t as sticky as you said yours was in the video. Do you think leaving some flour out or adding a pinch more baking soda would help them spread better? Flavor is amazing though!!
Sam
Hi Meghan! I’m so glad you enjoyed them! It sounds like there may have been a touch too much flour in the dough, but I’m glad they still turned out. 🙂
Meghan Elliott
Remade these with 3/4 tsp of baking soda instead of 1/2 tsp and they came out looking just like yours!!!! I’m wondering if my environmental conditions are a little different than yours and affected my baking. Either way, they were amazing. Gave some to a friend and she said they were the best cookies she’s had in her life 🙌🏼.
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
We’re so glad they turned out the second time around ❤️
Joanne
No flattening just a big fat ‘meh’ cookie. I put a little less flour in them because it was already too dry. Im at a high altitude so I should have had to add more flour. I added milk to the dough after the first batch, to help them flatten a bit – those turned out better but the dough was reeeaally sticky. I ended up baking them for only 11-12minutes or they got too hard.
Sam
Hmm, the milk probably made them more cakey and less likely to spread, honestly. Sounds like quite a few things were changed which I suspect would account for the unusual results.
Joanne
Quite a few things were changed? Where did you get that from? I added 2 tbsp of milk….the dough was dry and I didn’t add the whole amount of flour. That may have something to do with altitude.
If you add loads of chocolate chips you probably wouldn’t notice that the dough is blahsay. I like a tasty cookie dough. This isn’t it.
Sam
Hi Joanne! Per your comment you did not add all the flour and added milk. This shouldn’t be a bland cookie. If the dough was as dry as you describe and the taste was bland (and you can see the dough isn’t dry in the video, even after chilling, and that it does spread) it does unfortunately sound like something went wrong in the kitchen. Since I’m not in the kitchen with you I can only go based off of the information you give me and am trying to troubleshoot since you didn’t get typical results. I want you to get good results and am trying my best to help figure out what went wrong 🙂
I’d first check if the flour was accidentally over-measured or the sugar was accidentally under-measured or some of it was missed. These would be my best guesses and the most likely reasons for a dry dough and bland cookie (adding milk wouldn’t help the case either, unfortunately, but I think something went awry before this step). I’m biased, but I make these a lot and the flavor certainly doesn’t ride on the chocolate chips. To be fair, your attitude may be an issue here as well, as my recipes aren’t tested or designed for high altitude I really can’t advise on this, so that could be the wild card here, if you try again you could try using 2 full eggs instead of just 1 egg + yolk and see if that helps. I hope it does!
Kay
Do you have a recipe for 6” sugar cookies, 6” oatmeal raisin cookies and 6” peanut butter cookies?
Sam
Hi Kay! Unfortunately I do not. 🙁