This is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever! No funny ingredients, no chilling time, etc. Just a simple, straightforward, amazingly delicious, doughy yet still fully cooked, chocolate chip cookie that turns out perfectly every single time!
Everyone needs a classic chocolate chip cookie recipe in their repertoire, and this is mine. It is seriously the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever! I have been making these for many, many years and everyone who tries them agrees they’re out-of-this-world delicious!
Plus, there’s no funny ingredients, no chilling, etc. Just a simple, straightforward, amazingly delicious, doughy yet still fully cooked, chocolate chip cookie that turns out perfectly every single time!
These are everything a chocolate chip cookie should be. Crispy and chewy. Doughy yet fully baked. Perfectly buttery and sweet.
How to make The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever (how to make easy cookies from scratch)
Like I said, these cookies are crazy easy, however here are a few notes.
- Soften butter. If you are planning on making these, take the butter out of the fridge first thing in the morning so it’s ready to go when you need it.
- Measure the flour correctly. Be sure to use a measuring cup made for dry ingredients (NOT a pyrex liquid measuring cup). There has been some controversy on how to measure flour. I personally use the scoop and shake method and always have (gasp)! It’s easier and I have never had that method fail me. Many of you say that the only way to measure flour is to scoop it into the measuring cup and level with a knife. I say, measure it the way you always do. Just make sure that the dough matches the consistency of the dough in the photos in this post.
- Use LOTS of chocolate chips. Do I really need to explain this?!
- DO NOT over-bake these chocolate chip cookies! I explain this more below, but these chocolate chip cookies will not look done when you pull them out of the oven, and that is GOOD.
How do you freeze Chocolate Chip cookie Dough (Freezer-friendly chocolate chip cookies)
Freezer-friendly. I always make a full batch of these cookies, roll them into balls, and freeze what we don’t bake right away.
How to bake frozen dough – thawing it first: I love having dough ready to go in the freezer for impromptu guests. When you want to bake them, simple remove the dough balls from the freezer, set them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover with a light cloth towel or napkin to let them thaw.
Once they reach room temperature (after about 1-2 hours depending on the temperature of your kitchen) bake as directed in the recipe. SO easy!
Can you bake chocolate chip cookie dough from frozen?
I have tested baking this recipe from frozen more times than I can even count. I have gotten the best results when I place the dough on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Then, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (if you are baking the frozen dough) and put the cookies in the oven in the beginning of the preheating time. Set the timer for 15 minutes and remove the cookies after 15 minutes. The top will look a little more brown than usual, but they will still taste amazing.
FAQs about Chocolate Chip Cookies
How do you make gooey chocolate chip cookies?
The trick to making this best chocolate chip cookie recipe gooey is to not over-bake them. At the end of the baking time, these chocolate chip cookies won’t look done but they are.
These chocolate chip cookies will look a little doughy when you remove them from the oven, and thats good. They will set up as they sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes.
Why do cookies spread & flatten?
There are a few main reasons for this that I have found in my experience:
- Expired leavening agents. If your baking soda or baking powder are past their prime, your chocolate chip cookies will likely flatten and spread. Even if the date on the container checks out, it still might not be good. That would be the first place I would start.
- How to test if your baking soda is active: Combine 1/2 cup of hot water, 1/4 teaspoon vinegar and 1/4 tsp of baking soda. When you add the baking soda a reaction should take place immediately. If not, then you need new baking soda.
- How to test if your baking powder is active: Add 1/2 tsp of baking powder to 1/2 cup of hot water. It should bubble immediately. A reaction should take place immediately. If not, then you need new baking powder.
- Over-mixing. If you over-mix the ingredients in this best chocolate chip cookie recipe you may end up with flat cookies.
- Ingredients are too warm. Sometimes over-mixing can also lead to your ingredients becoming too warm. If you notice this happening, you can chill the dough before baking to return the batter to room temperature.
- Incorrect oven temperature. I recommend baking with an electric convection oven. If your cookies and other baked goods are not turning out properly, invest in a cheap oven thermometer to check the temperature. If your oven is baking too hot or too cold, then the cookies will not turn out well.
Why DIDN’T my cookies flatten?
If your cookies didn’t flatten, here are a few things that could’ve been the problem. I have never had this happen to me in 10 years, so here are my educated guesses…
- The ingredients/cookie dough was too cold. Cold dough doesn’t spread as well as room temperature dough.
- You accidentally used too much flour. Be sure to use a measuring cup made for dry ingredients (NOT a pyrex liquid measuring cup), and do not use a knife to level the flour. Instead, fill the measuring cup over-full and shake off the excess until you have a level 1 cup.
- The oven temperature is incorrect. I recommend using an oven thermometer to check the temperature of your oven (it’s only $7), because it can often be different than the reading it gives on the display or what the dial is set at.
- The butter/sugar mixture wasn’t fully creamed. Try creaming the butter and sugar together for longer.
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe: Ingredients & Substitutions
The only ingredient I feel confident that can be changed up is the mix-ins. Chocolate chips, sprinkles, peanut butter chips, etc. DO NOT change anything else in this recipe. If you do I cannot guarantee they will turn out. Here are a few notes on the ingredients I usually use.
- Butter. I use Kirkland Brand Salted Butter from Costco to make these cookies. I have also used Tillamook salted butter with equally excellent results. Unsalted butter would also be great. I just recommend tasting the dough to ensure that it’s salted to your liking.
- White Sugar. I always use Wholesome Organic Cane Sugar (also purchased from Costco in a 10 LB bag) to make this chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have been purchasing that sugar for as far back as I can remember and it’s really the only white sugar I use. But I know others have had success with other brands of granulated sugar as well. And any white, granulated sugar should work.
- Brown sugar. I use light brown sugar in this recipe for the best results.
- Flour. I recommend using an unbleached, all-purpose flour to make these chocolate chip cookies. Many readers have used gluten-free all-purpose flour with excellent results!
- Sea Salt. I exclusively bake and cook with pure sea salt (usually purchased from Trader Joe’s or Sprouts, their house brands). Sea salt is different than table salt (that is iodized), so if you use salt other than sea salt I recommend testing the recipe first with 1/2 tsp and then adjusting to your taste.
- Chocolate Chips. As you can see from the photos, sometimes I use chocolate chunks, chopped chocolate, or chocolate chips. It doesn’t matter what you use, as long as you use 2 cups.
IF YOU MAKE SOMETHING FROM JOYFOODSUNSHINE I WOULD LOVE TO SEE YOUR CREATIONS! DON’T FORGET TO RATE THIS RECIPE AND LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW! ALSO, FOLLOW ALONG WITH ME ON INSTAGRAM, PINTEREST, FACEBOOK, YOUTUBE AND TWITTER FOR MORE RECIPE INSPIRATION AND A GLIMPSE INTO OUR EVERYDAY LIFE!
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever
Ingredients
- 1 cup salted butter* softened
- 1 cup white (granulated) sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp sea salt***
- 2 cups chocolate chips (or chunks, or chopped chocolate)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking pan with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a separate bowl mix flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder. Set aside.
- Cream together butter and sugars until combined.
- Beat in eggs and vanilla until fluffy.
- Mix in the dry ingredients until combined.
- Add 12 oz package of chocolate chips and mix well.
- Roll 2-3 TBS (depending on how large you like your cookies) of dough at a time into balls and place them evenly spaced on your prepared cookie sheets. (alternately, use a small cookie scoop to make your cookies).
- Bake in preheated oven for approximately 8-10 minutes. Take them out when they are just BARELY starting to turn brown.
- Let them sit on the baking pan for 2 minutes before removing to cooling rack.
Video
Notes
- When you remove the cookies from the oven they will still look doughy. THIS is the secret that makes these cookies so absolutely amazing! Please, I beg you, do NOT overbake!
- **Butter. I use Kirkland Brand Salted Butter from Costco to make these cookies. I have also used Tillamook salted butter with equally excellent results. Unsalted butter would also be great. I just recommend tasting the dough to ensure that it's salted to your liking.
- ***Some people have said they think the cookies are too salty. Please be sure to use natural Sea Salt (not iodized table salt). If you are concerned about saltiness start with 1/2 tsp salt and adjust to your tastes. I always make it with salted butter and 1 tsp sea salt.
- **Recipe information calculated based on this recipe making 36 cookies - 2 TBS of dough a piece)
- All-purpose flour: Many readers have used gluten-free all-purpose flour with excellent results.
Nutrition
These cookies hold a special place in my heart. My friend brought me a meal after my first miscarriage (more on that below) and brought these cookies for dessert. They were so perfect I was convinced they were slice and bake, so I slyly said to her, “”the cookies you brought are SO delicious, how did you make them?”” Lo and behold they were from scratch and she shared the recipe with me!
Her sweet gesture {literally} took a very dark season in my life and made it a little brighter. You see, after our daughter Bethany turned one-year-old we were ready to have another baby! We found out I was pregnant with twins, but things didn’t look great. There were no heartbeats, and although it was early (7 weeks) we were fairly certain that it wasn’t a viable pregnancy. We waited two weeks just to be sure, and then I was scheduled to have a D&C and say goodbye to our babies.
This began one of the most difficult, trying times in my life. I was in a cloud of postpartum depression with no sweet baby to snuggle the blues away. My friends and family came alongside of me and I began to heal. I experienced another miscarriage and then got pregnant with my son, Gabe.
Losing three babies in such a short time changed me forever. I haven’t taken one single day of my kids’ lives for granted. They were chosen to be mine. I have some babies I never got to hold, so I cherish holding the ones I do. These cookies remind me of the sweetness and importance of friendship. I wouldn’t have made it through without a handful of close friends who I cherish. So make these cookies and share them with people you love.
Life is too uncertain to take a minute for granted. Spread love, make cookies. That’s my motto!
More of our favorite cookie recipes!
- The BEST Cut Out Sugar Cookies – Perfect for Christmas (or any holiday really)!
- For an easy and irresistible dessert, try this Skillet Cookie (Pizookie) recipe! It’s like eating warm cookie dough and it comes together in 20 minutes flat!
- Double Chocolate Chip Cookies have three different forms of chocolate!
- You have to try our Oatmeal Cookie Recipe – it’s seriously the BEST!
- Classic Soft Peanut Butter Cookies – My personal favorite kind of cookie!
- Classic snickerdoodles! This is my grandma’s recipe, you will love them!
- Soft & Chewy Gingerbread Cookies
- The BEST Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies (EVER)! My favorite Christmas cookie!
- Flourless peanut butter blossoms
- Candy Stuffed Cookie Bars
- No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Oat Bars
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you purchase a product through a link you clicked on here, I receive a portion of the sale. Thank you for supporting JoyFoodSunshine!
Karen
Amazing!! I have a very proud 7 year old, she followed your recipe and they were awesome! We possibly used too much flour as they didn’t spread but after 8 mins I pressed them down with a spatula and put them in for 2 more mins. Took them out looking underdone as suggested and they are legitimately the most delicious cookies I have ever had! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Donna
Thanks for this simple and delicious recipe! My family is gluten free and I also look for opportunities to reduce sugar in my baking. I made several changes to the recipe to make it gluten free and reduced sugar and have baked these cookies twice with great success! I make my own gluten free flour blend using a mixture of almond flour, arrowroot or tapioca flour, and coconut flour in a 3:2:1 ratio. For the sugar I used one cup of coconut sugar and 1 cup of baking stevia. For the chocolate chips I used 1 cup in total with 1/2 a cup of stevia sweetened chocolate chips and 1/2 of a cup of regular chocolate chips. The cookies were amazing!
Kinzy
Hi Laura! These cookies are the BEST! Honestly the best recipe for chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever seen and made and I’ve tried a lot of different ones! Thank you so much for sharing it. I baked some and froze the rest and baked them when we needed a treat during the lockdown! I wanted to ask you, can they be baked then frozen?
Laura
Thank you Kinzy! That means so much to me! Yes I explain how to bake them from frozen in the post!
Ashley Shabez
I am not a cookie person and I just ate 5 of these cookies in one day. Made a batch yesterday. Making another one now for a dinner party. So delicious!
Katie
Haven’t made these yet (although they look delicious) but I was wondering if you had a UK measurement conversion?? I’m not sure on cups and usually use grams! Thanks!
Laura
In the recipe box there is a button right under the ingredients that says, “US Customary – Metric” Click “metric” for the UK measurements!
Katie
Ah amazing! Thank you so so much!
Nona
Hi, will bleached all purpose flour and golden brown sugar be okay to use for this recipe?
Laura
Yes both of those substitutions should work well.
Nona
Thank you!
Nyiasia Bratcher
These cookies came out great! I used 1 stick salted butter and 1 stick unsalted- only because that’s all I had in the fridge! I added a pinch of sea salt in addition to the 1 Tsp of salt to make up for the unsalted butter. They were awesome and they got my husband’s stamp of approval (he is the cookie aficionado)! Also, my daughter, who is the kid version of Cookie Monster, could not stop saying “mmmmhhmm Yummmy!!”
Matthew
I’m pretty new to baking, but I decided to give this recipe a shot while I’m under quarantine. I can hardly describe how amazing these turned out. It sounds like an exaggeration but these are without a doubt the best chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever had. If anyone is browsing here looking for a recipe, seriously, look no further. Thank you Laura!
Laura
Thank you Matthew! I’m so glad these cookies brought some joy during this difficult time!
cleo gauthier
This recipe tastes AMAZING! I know this might seem weird but it is so good to make cookie bowls! Flip a cupcake pan over, put cupcake liners facing down on top, smush some cookie dough on (only about halfway down the side of the mold), put the tray n the freezer for 5-10 mins, bake, and VOILA! Fill with your favorite ice cream! 😉 Most people who make cookie bowls find that they break, but with this recipe and method, they come out great!
Laura
Weird?? No way! That sounds amazing!!
Sara
I finally made GREAT cookies. In high school my best friend always made the best chocolate chip cookies and I could never make anything remotely close in deliciousness. I decided mid pandemic to try again and came across this recipe, I followed it to a T and I could not be more excited! Took 17 years, but I can finally make the perfect chocolate chip cookies. Loved all the tips in the recipe as well. Baking doesn’t come naturally to me, so it was nice to have some of it broken down.
Laura
YAY! Love it Sara!!! I always try to make my recipes as helpful as possible, I’m so glad that you enjoyed it!
Michelle Waters
Oh my goodness! These are simply the most amazing chocolate chip cookies! They live up to their name! My family agrees– teens to adults– that these CC cookies are the only ones we’ll make from here on out. Follow the recipe to a T-(no over-baking!)- it’s perfect. Test your leavening agents! That must make a difference! I did the baking powder test that was recommended only to find mine was flat! I borrowed from a neighbor and my cookies were thick and chewy. They are sooooo good!
Laura
Thank you so much Michelle! It makes me so happy that these brought joy to your whole family!
Julia
These are so easy and the most delicious cookies I have ever made.
Laura
Woo hoo!!! Thank you Julia!
Joel
Absolutely delicious! Tastes like a bakery cookie and it’s very rich. I’m definitely making these again!
Laura
Thank you Joel!!
Angelica Petra
I’ve tried so many recipe for chocolate chip cookies but this one is by FAR the best one yet! They taste amazing and look so beautiful i was so surprised by just how awesome they were!! My husband loved them!! Needless to say I will keep this recipe as my go to! Thanks for sharing!!
Charlene Hanneman
I just made it today with my daughter and the whole family enjoyed it!! Such a great recipe and easy!
Laura
Thank you Charlene!
Angie
I’ve been looking for a good chocolate chip cookie recipe and this one did not disappoint! My kids were “Mmmm”omg their way through them fresh out of the oven. Great with milk, too. This is a keeper, Thanks!