You deserve better than the chocolate chip cookie recipe on the back of the yellow bag. You deserve cookies that are perfectly soft and chewy with a rich, buttery flavor, easy to make and guaranteed to wow anyone lucky enough to receive one. Hundreds of recipe reviewers agree — this is the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll ever try! So, what are you waiting for?
What Makes These Cookies the BEST
- Melted butter = maximum flavor + perfect chew. The best chocolate chip cookies start with melted butter for the deepest flavor and softest, chewiest texture.
- Heavy on the brown sugar. The higher ratio of brown sugar not only gives us a deep hints of caramel flavor, but it also helps the cookies stay soft for days.
- Cornstarch = perfect softness. Just a small bit of cornstarch works behind the scenes for a super tender crumb without making the cookies cakey.
- No fancy ingredients. We’re using basic pantry staples you’re already familiar with (it’s all about how we use them).
- Pull them early for chewy perfection. Perfectly under-baking cookies is something of art, and one that’s well worth mastering. Pull the cookies from the oven while the centers still look slightly underdone. They’ll finish baking on the tray and stay soft for days.
A sister recipe to my worst chocolate chip cookies, these are appropriately named the best chocolate chip cookie recipe. There’s not a drop of maple syrup in this recipe (a common reader request), yet the flavor and texture are still just as incredible. While the “worst” will always be my favorite, this is my own sisters’ favorite version!
Try them both and tell me which you prefer (I know which one is my favorite!) 😉
Ingredients
What do you need to make the best chocolate chip cookies? Surprisingly, just basics (it’s more about how we use them)!
- Melted butter. This is your secret weapon when it comes to making chewy chocolate chip cookies. Melting the butter infuses flavor into the cookies in a much different way than creaming it with the sugar does (and gives you cookies that are chewier and stay chewier). So melt your butter, but make sure to let it cool before adding the sugars; if your butter is scorching hot, it will melt the sugars and you’ll end up with a greasy, runny mess rather than cookie dough.
- Egg + egg yolk. Adding just the yolk and omitting the white enriches the dough and encourages that tender, chewy texture we’re aiming for.
- Brown sugar. While you could use all light brown, I prefer using a mixture of light and dark brown sugar here (when I happen to have both in my pantry). This blend adds a more complex flavor. All dark brown will yield even richer cookies, if you really have a sweet tooth.
- Cornstarch. Cornstarch helps the cookies hold their shape and creates a super soft, melt-in-your-mouth texture. If you don’t have it or can’t use cornstarch, subbing it for a Tablespoon of flour will “work”, it’s just not the best option.
- Vanilla. A hefty pour (half a tablespoon!) adds such a nice flavor here, just like in my vanilla cupcake recipe. Bonus points if you use homemade vanilla extract! Hint: sometimes if I want to be extra indulgent I bump this up to 2 teaspoons.
- Flaky sea salt. Not pictured, and technically optional, a sprinkle of flaky sea salt while the cookies are still warm will put send you into gourmet cookie territory.
This is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
SAM’S TIP: Measure out a few extra chocolate chips for pressing into the top of your cookies after they come out of the oven. This will give them a bakery-style look!
How to Make Them
Step 1: Melt the butter
Cut your butter into pieces (makes for more even melting and less likelihood of your butter splattering in your microwave!) and heat it in 15-second intervals until it’s melted. Now wait. It is key that your butter not be warm before you proceed with the recipe, or your sugars will melt. Feel the butter, and/or feel the bottom of the bowl. Once it doesn’t feel even a tad warm, then you can add your sugars, then egg and yolk (room temp is best!) and vanilla.
Step 2: Make the dough
After this, the dough comes together easily and quickly. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients. Doing this gradually allows the flour mixture to fully absorb into the dough; it will make combining much easier than if you were to dump it all in at once!
Add your chocolate chips, saving a few for pressing into the tops of the cookies when they finish baking (makes ’em extra pretty!). Cover the dough tightly and let it chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so the flavors develop and the cookies don’t spread too much.
Step 3: Scoop & bake
Scoop the dough, and I like to roll it into a smooth ball before baking. This makes them more round and uniform after baking, but if you don’t care about such things simply drop them right on the baking sheet, unformed). Give the cookies some room on the baking sheet so they don’t spread into each other.
Bake until the edges are just (!) starting to turn a very light golden brown, then remove from the oven (bonus points if the centers of the cookies look almost underdone still). If you saved some chocolate chips, press them gently into the tops of your chocolate chip cookies now.
If you properly, just barely underbaked your cookies as instructed, let them cool completely on the warm baking sheets. This lets them finish baking and keeps them soft for days!
SAM’S TIP: I can’t stress this enough, don’t over-bake your cookies! Pull them out when the centers are still slightly underdone; they’ll finish baking outside the oven on the hot cookie sheets. I use this trick for all of my softest, chewiest cookie recipes, like my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter cookies.
Frequently Asked Questions
The best, chewy chocolate chip cookies start with melted butter. When you cream softened butter (like that yellow bag tells you to do) you whip air into the dough, which gives you a fluffier, more cakey cookie. But when you melt the butter, you skip the aeration entirely. The result: less rise, more spread, and a denser, chewier texture. The melted butter better saturates the flour, which slows gluten development and makes the cookies tender, soft, and chewy, not tough.
But that’s not all. Additionally, my recipe also uses a higher ratio of brown sugar (once again, more moisture + better flavor!) and cornstarch, which tenderizes the dough. All these factors, coupled with not over-baking the dough, will give you perfectly chewy chocolate chip cookies, every time.
If your butter was too warm when your sugar was added, if the dough wasn’t chilled long enough, if the cookie dough is placed on a hot cookie sheet or the cookies are placed too close together, or if something was simply mis-measured your cookies may spread all over the pan. If you run into this issue or your dough seems especially soft, try chilling it longer. As a last-ditch save, you can add a few additional spoonfuls of flour and this should help, too.
If your dough is dry, crumbly, or difficult to work and your cookies aren’t spreading as they should, with you may have accidentally over-measured your flour. Another sure sign of this is having your cookies stay in a ball shape after baking instead of spreading properly. I sometimes encourage people to hang on to their extra egg white after they crack their eggs, you can stir this into the dough as a last-ditch resort if your cookie dough is just too crumbly.
Over-measuring flour is easy to do, especially if you are measuring with cups instead of weights. If this happens to you often, make sure you brush up on how to measure your flour the right way!
Yes, and you’ll get even richer, more flavorful cookies if you do, you patient person you. Just make sure to keep it tightly covered in the fridge so the dough doesn’t dry out. If you chill your dough much longer than an your, you’ll likely need to let the dough sit at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before scooping as it gets quite firm. You can also freeze this dough, see my instructions on how to freeze cookie dough.
If you are feeling especially lazy, my chocolate chip cookie bars taste very similar but require zero chilling or scooping.
Alright, when you try them, please leave me comment and let me know what you think of them! I always love your feedback 💜
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The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled until no longer warm to the touch
- 1 ¼ cup (250 g) brown sugar firmly packed (see note)
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk room temperature preferred
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 ¾ cup (300 g) semisweet chocolate chips plus additional for tops, optional
- flaky sea salt for sprinkling (optional, but recommended!)
Recommended Equipment
Instructions
- Combine melted butter and sugars in a large bowl. Stir very well.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 ¼ cup (250 g) brown sugar, ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- Add egg and egg yolk, and vanilla extract and stir well.1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt.2 ¾ cups (350 g) all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon table salt
- Gradually add flour mixture to wet ingredients — stir well so that all the flour is absorbed.
- Stir in chocolate chips.1 ¾ cup (300 g) semisweet chocolate chips
- Place dough in refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 350F (177C) and prepare cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper.
- Scoop dough by rounded 1 ½ Tablespoon (47g) onto prepared cookie sheets, placing at least 2″ apart.
- Bake on 350F (177C) for 11 minutes — cookies may still seem slightly soft in the centers, that is OK, they will cook completely on the cookie sheets. Don’t over-bake or your cookies will be too hard.
- If desired, gently press additional chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies and sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
- Allow to cool completely on cookie sheets.
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.
I originally shared this recipe for perfect chocolate chip cookies over on Spend with Pennies! I shared it on my blog as the “second best” chocolate chip cookies, too, and have updated it with new photos and a new video (the recipe remain the same).
Lois M
Hi Sam, I’ve been trying different chocolate chip cookie recipes all year in order to find my very favorite, and these are by far the “best” out of at least 30 different chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve tried (including your “worst” recipe)! The only alteration I made was to brown the butter – not just melt it – and it took your wonderful recipe up a notch! Now I can stop trying – I found “the one”! I love your recipes and videos…you make everything so easy to follow.
Ashlee D
The flavor and texture was perfect! I’ll be using this recipe from now on! Thanks, Sam!
Janet
Delicious chocolate chip cookies! So yummy! Recipe is so easy to follow and make! Turn out perfect first time and every time! Looks just like the picture!
Thank you for your great recipes!
Loretta Wales
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Sam Merritt
24 cookies. 🙂
Gale B
Loved the cookies! I’m not sure which cookies I like better—the best or the worst? There’s a place for both. As always, outstanding recipes.