I have a few tricks that make these the best soft chocolate chip cookies that you’ll ever try. With hundreds of positive reviews from bakers around the world, I’m confident you’ll fall in love with this chocolate chip cookie recipe too. Chilling the cookie dough is imperative and cornstarch makes them extra soft and thick!
Chocolate chip cookies are a household favorite, a timeless classic, an unparalleled snack… warm, cold, dunked in milk, in dough form, or in baked form. No one can resist the comfort of a chocolate chip cookie and everyone has their favorite recipe, whether it’s on the back of the yellow chocolate chips bag or scribbled in your grandmother’s recipe book.
Heck, I even have separate recipes for crispy chocolate chip cookies and chewy chocolate chip cookies!
Like many of you, I’ve searched far and wide for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe: the best chocolate chip cookies, a recipe I can bake again and again for years. I’ve lost sleep, I’ve burnt dough, I’ve tested and retested and retested… and retested, countless times. And I’m so happy to report that I finally found a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I’ll treasure for years. And I know you’ll enjoy these cookies too!
How to Make Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Start With Butter: Use room temperature butter. You can soften butter quickly with this trick or set the butter out 1–2 hours before you begin.
- Use a Mix of Sugars: Cream the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar together. This process aerates the butter, which promises soft chocolate chip cookies. Brown sugar yields soft chocolate chip cookies, and white sugar helps the cookies spread. For chewier and more flavorful cookies, use more brown sugar than white sugar.
- Dark Brown Sugar: Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar are interchangeable in most recipes. Though either works in this chocolate chip cookie recipe, I love using dark brown sugar for extra flavor because it contains more molasses.
- Add Egg & Vanilla Extract: Eggs provide structure and richness, while vanilla adds flavor.
- Use Cornstarch in Dry Ingredients: Cornstarch, a thickening ingredient, is the secret weapon in this cookie recipe, just like in shortbread cookies. 2 teaspoons give the cookies extra lift and leave them extra soft. You can’t taste it! You also need all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt.
- Add Dry Ingredients to Wet Ingredients: Combine all the ingredients, then add the chocolate chips.
- Chill the Cookie Dough: For extra thick chocolate chip cookies, chill the cookie dough for at least 1 hour. Chilling cookie dough will make or break the recipe! The colder the cookie dough, the less the cookies will over-spread. If you’re interested, here are 10 tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading.
- Extra Chocolate Chips: This is optional, but as soon as the cookies come out of the oven, press a few chocolate chips on top. They’ll melt right down into the cookie, making them extra pretty. And melted chocolate is never a bad thing! I recommend doing the same with double chocolate chip cookies.
Room temperature butter is cool to touch and about 65°F (18°C), which may be cooler than your kitchen. To test it, poke it with your finger. Your finger should make an indent without sinking into the butter. The butter should not be shiny or greasy. You can’t cream cold butter and you can’t cream partially melted butter, either. Room temperature butter is imperative to the outcome of these cookies! You need 3/4 cup, which is 1.5 sticks, 12 Tablespoons, or 170g.
Don’t Have Time to Chill Cookie Dough?
If you don’t have time to chill the chocolate chip cookie dough, try my crispy chocolate chip cookies, giant chocolate chip cookies, or Nutella chocolate chip cookies. Or even these soft and chewy chocolate chip cookie bars or cookie dough frosted cookie cups, which don’t require individual cookie rolling, either!
I also have an entire section of no-chill cookie recipes. 🙂 Snickerdoodles and shortbread are two more favorites!
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
Freezing chocolate chip cookie dough is really easy. I have a whole post dedicated to how to freeze cookie dough, but here’s a recap:
- After the cookie dough has chilled in the refrigerator, roll the cookie dough into balls. Chill the cookie dough balls in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Place the solid and cold cookie dough balls into a plastic zipped-top freezer bag.
- Label the bag with the month and the baking temperature, and place the bag in the freezer.
- Freeze cookie dough for up to 3 months. The date will help you determine when the cookie dough is fresh, and the temperature is written for obvious reasons. Really, you can write whatever is helpful to you. The date, temperature, time, recipe name, etc.
- When it’s time to bake the cookies, remove them from the freezer. Preheat the oven according to the recipe’s instructions.
- Bake the cookies for a minute or 2 longer, since the dough is frozen.
Bake the frozen cookie dough balls whenever that chocolate chip cookie craving hits, or when you need a big batch of fresh-baked cookies. I do it all the time!
Sometimes the simplest recipes are what stick. I really don’t need to convince you—it’s a chocolate chip cookie. THE chocolate chip cookie!
PrintThe Best Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 dozen
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
I have a few tricks that make these the best soft chocolate chip cookies that you’ll ever try. With hundreds of positive reviews from bakers around the world, I’m confident you’ll fall in love with this chocolate chip cookie recipe too. Chilling the cookie dough is imperative and cornstarch makes them extra soft and thick!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup (12 Tbsp; 170g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/4 cup (225g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and sugar together on medium speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk flour, cornstarch, baking soda, and salt together. Add into the wet ingredients, then beat on low speed until combined. The cookie dough will be slightly thick. On low speed, beat in the chocolate chips.
- Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to 3–4 days. Chilling is imperative for this cookie dough.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Set aside.
- Once chilled, the dough will be slightly crumbly, but will come together when you work the dough with your hands. Roll cookie dough, about a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie (I use this medium-size cookie scoop), and place 3 inches apart on baking sheets.
- Bake for 11–12 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges. The cookies will look extremely soft when you remove them from the oven. Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. If the cookies are too puffy, try gently pressing down on them with the back of a spoon. They will slightly deflate as you let them cool. If desired, while the cookies are still warm, press a few extra chocolate chips into the tops. This is optional, just for looks.
- Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely. Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days. Allow to come to room temperature, then continue with preheating the oven in step 4. Baked cookies freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
- Adapted from Anna Olson
These were amazing! Perfect consistency.
I have a question….
I just got a new convection oven.
Do I need to adjust the oven temperature, lower it? I didn’t know if you baked these in a conventional oven or convection oven. I bake for farmers market, and I’m considering using this recipe instead of my old go-to that I’ve used for years!!
Thanks!! I love your recipes!!
Hi Teresa, I always bake on my conventional settings. The general rule if using convection is to lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees and the bake time may also be a bit shorter.
My husband and I made these this year. Had a great time making them and they were wonderful. We done a couple of variations and not one left. Will be making all year long
Sally,
I made these cookies today and they are perfect!!! You are very passionate about your baking and this passion comes through with every recipe. But I think what really makes your recipes so special are your kind words of encouragement, and the empathy added when you are explaining the instructions to folks like me who are beginner bakers. Thank you.
Warm regards,
Hey Sally!
I’ve been baking using your website for years now, but this has always been my favorite recipe when I’m yearning something simple, sweet and original. Just wanted to thank you for sharing with us, and making me happier personally. Thank you, truly!
Sally , these were amazing and everyone asked me about them . I made them three times for Christmas gatherings. Love everything you make .
Could I add oatmeal to these? If so how much and would I need to change anything else?
Hi Sally. I made these for my Christmas Cookie tray, and while they tasted just fine, they really didn’t turn out. After chilling, the dough came together with no problems, not crumbly at all. I hand rolled them into walnut sized balls and instead of puffing up like you described, the just flattened out like a pancake. 10-12 minutes was too long as they came out crispy, so I cut it down to 8 minutes on the next tray and they stayed relatively soft after cooling, but still flat and thin. I followed the directions completely, so I don’t know what went wrong. What do you think?
Hi Jessica, If your cookies are over-spreading I recommend checking out my blog post with Tips To Prevent Cookies From Spreading to help you troubleshoot. I hope this helps!
This is my new go to recipe!!! I am allergic to eggs so I used egg replacer and these cookies came out perfectly. Thank you!
Omg Sally! I doubled the recipe and made huge lot of these cookies today ( made dough last night and kept in refrigerator) .. these are seriously THE BEST! They came out so good !!! Thank you for the perfect recipe.
This is a perfect recipe. I think I already made 6 batches of this recipe.
I just made these cookies today. They are absolutely what they promised to be . I will definitely make them again. Thank you.
After eating these cookies, my boyfriend stated that you have to be lying about these cookies staying fresh for days. I asked, why he didn’t think they would. He said, there was NO WAY these cookies would survive because they would all be eaten. I have to agree, I might never know due to the fact we ate them all! So not sorry either… Thanks for this recipe! ❤ Next I plan on making your recipe for The Worst Chocolate Chip Cookie, which is how I found your site. I just didn’t have any maple syrup on hand. I told My boyfriend about that recipe and he went out and bought me some. I LMAO and promised to make them tomorrow.
Haha – I’m so happy that you both enjoyed these so much, Gwen! I think The Worst Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe is another site, but let me know how you like them with the maple syrup!
Hi! I was wondering whether the cornstarch was necessary or not. It’s my first time using one of your recipes and I’m really excited to try it out!
Hi Newt, I highly recommend using cornstarch. It give the cookies extra lift and leave them extra soft. You can’t taste it!
Hey Sally, My husband accidentally bought salted butter. Is that okay for this recipe?
Absolutely. There’s really no need to change the added salt amount, though you could reduce it to 1/4 teaspoon if desired.
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Best chocolate chip recipe ever!!! My husband thinks I’m magic because of you haha
The BEST chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! They stay soft after cooling and I really liked the salt addition, it adds great flavor to the cookies! Thank you for the great recipe!
I live w/my 85-year-old widowed father (the original cookie monster) who loves chocolate chip cookies, but he wears dentures & occasionally the cookies I bake get a little too crisp (depending on the recipe), so we have to put bread in the cookie jar to keep them soft, but sometimes we both forget. I started looking around for a soft chocolate chip cookie recipe & decided to try this one, hoping it would be a hit, and it was–the most delicious, soft cookies ever! Has to be the cornstarch! So I’ll be making this recipe every week, my father loves them. thanks so much!
Hands down, these are the best chocolate chip cookies ever. I only use your chocolate chip recipes. This year we are gifting these for my kids teachers! As a teacher myself I love getting homemade treats! I would love to get these cookies!!! Thanks for the fantastic recipes!
Sally,
I just happened to fall upon your website and all the wonderful recipes you have available yesterday!
The chocolate chip recipe hit me first so having all of the ingredients I made the cookies. They are the best ever. So simple yet so delicious. I made the dough yesterday and chilled until I was ready to bake today. WOW! Just WOW!
Today I’m also making your Spritz cookies. Can’t wait for the cookies to be done so I can decorate.
Thank you so very much. I have you on Instagram.
I followed the directions carefully, but the baking time wasn’t right for me. I like my cookies a touch under-baked, but these were VERY under-baked. I thought that maybe they were supposed to look they way they did, so I set them out to cool. Nope. They were delicious, but I didn’t feel comfortable giving them away, as had been my plan. I’ll try Sally’s chewy chocoloate chip cookies next time.
I made these once and the best recipe I ever had thank you ..Im making again tomorrow using peanut butter chips and freezing on a cookie sheet and then freezing in my vac food saver Worked great last time took them out and thawed they tasted like I just made them Yvonne
Hiya I have a wee question about brown sugar. I popped to the shops and there was so much choice! There was light and dark, but it was soft, almost fluffy, there was Demerara and Muscovado, there was a few different ones labelled as raw.
Sadly nothing actually said “brown”
So which of these sugars would you consider brown/the best to use with this recipe?
Thanks!
Hi Izzy, Great question! You want either light brown sugar or dark brown sugar. Demerara and Muscovado have slightly different textures. It should almost feel like very soft wet sand. Light brown sugar and dark brown sugar are interchangeable in most recipes. Though either works in this chocolate chip cookie recipe, I love using dark brown sugar for extra flavor because it holds a little more molasses. I hope this helps!
Hi Sally, I felt like baking yesterday and made these soft chocolate chip cookies.! I’ve never used cornstarch in cookies…let’s just say these are amazing. My husband said they’re better then Entermans…a big company in the New York area…soft chewy…I’m adding them to my Thanksgiving dessert roster. Thank you for all your delicious recipes and tips. Baking is my therapy
Yes, I’m giving your cookie recipe a five star rating BEFORE I bake them! If (most) everyone is in agreement vs. trying to change your recipe, they have to be great! It always baffles me why people ask if they can substitute ingredients or change up the way an original recipe is stated … if you don’t want to go by the recipe, make another one! I can’t wait to make this, “exactly as directed”
I made these cookies for a dessert table for a wedding. They came out looking just like the picture. No more deflated cookies! Thank you!
The absolute BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe!
I have never been know for my baking skills until I made this recipe! Best soft chocolate chip cookies ever!! Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi Sally; I have been making your 6 Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies for the last 2 months, probably 8 times, but I make smaller ones and everybody thinks that is the best, but now I have to try this one today. Thanks for always making all your followers happy.
Sally… Sally … Sally…
I just needed to tell you that your recipe’s are superb! I Have been using your recipe’s for years, to a point where I no longer bake anything without checking to see how you did it first. Thank you! From a cook who likes to bake.
These are perfect every time! I roll these into balls before I refridgerate them to save messing with the “fresh out of the fridge” crumbly dough. Literally the best chocolate chip cookie recipe ever!