I have been making these chocolate chip cookies for well over a decade! They are buttery, sweet with the perfect amount of saltiness that brings out the chocolate chips and balances the sweetness. They are perfectly crisp on the very exterior with a gooey and deliciously tender cookie on the interior. You will want to grab a big glass of milk to enjoy these.
When me and my husband were dating I really wanted to make him some cookies that rivaled his sisters. Ha! Silly I know, that it even mattered but I was younger then. She would make him a huge batch of cookies whenever he went to visit. So to stake my claim in his life, I bought a cheap cookie sheet and started trying recipes out. I still have that old cookie pan and it looks like it has baked A LOT of cookies because it has! I found a recipe I loved and over the years I have tweaked it to me and my husbands liking. Years later I got a Mrs. Fields cookie cookbook and was thumbing through and saw her chocolate chip cookie was almost exactly like mine. Mine is a little different but if you want a reference for how these turn out, I would say they compare closest to her chocolate chip cookie.
These cookies are soft with a slight crisp on the outside, the inside has the perfect cookie chew and melts in your mouth! The flavor is perfectly balanced. Here are a few tips I have learned over the years to get the perfect cookie.
Tips for getting the perfect chocolate chip cookie:
- Butter temperature matters. That is probably the best advice I could ever give you. The butter needs to be slightly colder than room temperature so it’s still slightly firm.
- When you cream the butter and sugars, don’t over mix and don’t under mix. Mix until the sugar and butter is a pale creamy yellow, if the butter and sugar mixture starts to separate or look grainy it’s mixed too far and your cookies will most likely be flatter when baked.
- If the dough is too soft when you roll it into cookie balls then it needs to go into the fridge to chill for 10-20 minutes. Cooking a dough that feels too soft will result in a flatter cookie.
- Preheat your oven and always plan on your first batch taking 1-2 minutes longer than your other batches.
- Place cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven to get even heating from the top and bottom.
- Always pull the cookies out earlier than you may think. They continue cooking when they come out of the oven so earlier is always better. They will maintain the perfect chew if they are pulled out of the oven slightly early. If you like crunchy cookies then I guess you have my permission to leave them in a little longer.
- Let the cookies slightly cool on the baking sheet before moving them to the cooling rack. If you remove the cookies too soon then they will fall apart on the cooling rack and your perfectly round shape will not be so perfect.
What chocolate is best to use?
So now that we have talked about the tricks of the cookie making trade. Lets talk about chocolate! Different chocolate varieties used results in different tasting cookies.
Semi-sweet chocolate usually balances best with the cookie dough because it’s a good balance of bitter and sweet to offset the brown sugar used in the cookie dough. If you use chocolate chunks then the little pieces of chocolate that break off when they are mixed into the dough; makes the cookies have a richer chocolate taste.
Milk chocolate chips will give you a really decadent and sweet cookie. This may be preferred if you like your cookies sweet! My husband loves sweet things and he likes when I use milk chocolate chips.
M&M’s or candy morsels will do similar to milk chocolate chips and add more sweetness. Of course my kids love it when I mix these into my cookies!
Dark chocolate highlights the bitter to sweetness ratio and really bumps the cookies into the sophisticated bracket (especially with a sprinkle of sea salt. Yum!) .
White chocolate chips will take these cookies to the ultra sweet category and really balance well with a salted nut, such as macadamia nuts, walnuts, pecans, pistachios, etc. to balance that sweetness. Something with some tang also works well so lemon zest, orange zest, craisins, raisins, etc. will help bring dimension to a white chocolate chip cookie.
Each of these combinations has a place! My personal favorite depends if I have a big or little glass of milk to drink alongside my cookie. For a typical and classic chocolate chip cookie use semi-sweet chocolate chips or semi-sweet chunks.
What you need to make Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Makes 24 large cookies
- 1 cup salted butter – slightly colder than room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar – cup packed full
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 2/3rds cups all purpose flour
- 12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks or chocolate variety of choice
- Optional – nuts, citrus zest, cinnamon or dried fruit
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- In a mixing bowl mix together butter and sugars until mixture is pale yellow and smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract and eggs and mix well.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.
- Add the dry mixture to butter mixture and stir until dough forms.
- Mix in chocolate chips.
- If dough is soft, place in refrigerator for 10 minutes so it can firm up.
- Roll cookie dough into about 1 1/2 to 2 inch cookie balls.
- Place on slightly greased cookie sheet with enough room for the cookies to spread out without touching. About 12 per standard cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes. The time depends on the size of your cookie. Check cookies at 8 minutes then watch them. When the bottom is golden and tops start to get slight cracks and no longer look doughy they are done, even though they will still be soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to sit on the hot cookie sheet for a few minutes, 2-3 until they start to cool. This helps the cookie keep it’s shape and not fall through the cooling rack when it’s placed there.
- Move to a cooling rack and enjoy.
Here are a few other cookies you may love:
Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
Thick Peanut Butter Cookies
Dark Chocolate Mango Orange Cookies
Banana Pecan Chocolate Spice Cookies
Peanut Butter Lovers Cookies
Vegan French Macaron Cookies
Oatmeal Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies
Keto Monster Cookies
Rainbow Sugar Cookies
Extra Chewy No Bake Cookies
Shortbread Cookies
Chewy Sugar Cookies
Cake Mix Thin Mint Cookies
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Carrot Cake Cookies
Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookies
Peanut Butter Cookie Bars
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter – slightly colder than room temperature
- 1 cup light brown sugar – cup packed full
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour or gluten free baking mix
- 12 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips or chocolate chunks or chocolate variety of choice
- Optional – nuts citrus zest, cinnamon or dried fruit
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- In a mixing bowl mix together butter and sugars until mixture is pale yellow and smooth.
- Add the vanilla extract and eggs and mix well.
- In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt.
- Add the dry mixture to butter mixture and stir until dough forms.
- Mix in chocolate chips.
- If dough is soft, place in refrigerator for 10 minutes so it can firm up.
- Roll cookie dough into about 1 1/2 to 2 inch cookie balls.
- Place on slightly greased cookie sheet with enough room for the cookies to spread out without touching. About 12 per standard cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes. The time depends on the size of your cookie. Check cookies at 8 minutes. When the bottom is golden and tops start to get slight cracks and no longer look doughy they are done, even though they will still be soft.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to sit on the hot cookie sheet for a few minutes, 2-3 until they start to cool. This helps the cookie keep it's shape and not fall through the cooling rack when it's placed there.
- Move to a cooling rack and enjoy.