The best recipe for double chocolate chip cookies must obviously include extra doses of chocolate. These soft-baked thick and chunky cookies are as indulgent as they look: rich and fudge-like with chewy centers, slightly crisp edges, and oodles of melty chocolate chips in each glorious bite.
It’s the chocolate dough recipe I’ve been making for years and even included it in my cookbook stuffed with peanut butter cups. There’s no reason to stray from this basic chocolate dough!
Included in my cookbooks and used all over my website, this cookie dough is my go-to base for chocolate cookies. There’s a reason I work with this dough often: it’s because it WORKS and it’s pointless to stray from a tested, dependable recipe. (That’s also delicious!)
One reader, Kat, commented: “Wonderful recipe! By far my favorite chocolate chocolate chip cookie and very well received by everyone who tries them. They are like brownie cookies in the best way and stayed the perfect softness for a few days after baking. Adding to my yearly cookie rotation for sure! ★★★★★”
Another reader, Amber, commented: “Arguably the best cookies I’ve ever had. ★★★★★“
And another reader, Cynthia, commented: “Love these. I’ve made them too many times to count, and I always double the recipe. I’ve made them with dark chocolate chips, white chocolate, nuts, coconut, Andes candies in the middle. So many ways. It’s just a perfect chocolate cookie. ★★★★★“
Why You’ll Love These Double Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Easy to make with a basic dough
- Soft-baked and chewy with fudge chocolate centers
- Recipe is easily doubled
- Cookie dough balls freeze well
- You can use the cookies to make chocolate cookie ice cream sandwiches
- Versatile dough! Turn them into s’more chocolate crinkle cookies in the summer, peppermint mocha cookies, Andes mint chocolate cookies, or peppermint frosted cookies in the winter, chocolate crinkle cookies, chocolate frosted cookies, or salted caramel dark chocolate cookies any time of year, or switch to white chips for inside out chocolate chip cookies
My team and I receive many questions about turning this base chocolate dough into regular double chocolate chip cookies, so I figured having a separate spot for that particular cookie recipe would be ideal for chocolate cookie lovers everywhere. And I’m guessing that’s you. 😉
Grab These Ingredients
All of the ingredients required for this cookie recipe are kitchen staples. You need:
- Wet ingredients: Butter, white & brown sugars, egg, vanilla extract, and milk
- Dry ingredients: Flour, unsweetened natural cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt
You also need chocolate chips and I recommend semi-sweet. Mini chocolate chips, chocolate chunks, or other flavors such as peanut butter chips or butterscotch morsels work too. You could even keep them plain and roll in chopped pecans to make chocolate turtle cookies.
Success Tip: Use Natural Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
Because the double chocolate chip cookies use baking soda, it’s important to use natural cocoa powder since it’s acidic. You could get away with dutch-process here (since brown sugar is also acidic), but the cookies may lose shape and taste dense. To avoid issues, I recommend natural. For further information, you can read about the differences between natural and dutch process cocoa powder.
Did you know? Cocoa powder is a very light, yet drying ingredient. To keep the cookies tender and moist, the dough needs liquid like milk. That’s why chocolate cake calls for so much liquid.
Overview: How to Make Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Cream the butter and both sugars together before adding the egg and vanilla extract. If you need extra guidance on this step, I have a separate tutorial on how to cream butter and sugar. Separately, whisk the dry ingredients together and don’t be concerned about how little flour this recipe requires. (Remember that cocoa powder is another dry ingredient to bulk up the dough.) Combine wet and dry ingredients, then beat in the milk and then the chocolate chips.
Ensure you use proper room temperature butter, which should still be cool to the touch at about 65°F (18°C). If it’s too cold, it cannot cream and if it’s melty in the slightest, your cookies will be a mess.
Success Tip: Chill the Dough
The dough definitely comes together easily, but it’s sticky and tacky as a result of the cocoa powder mixing with liquid. It’s even stickier than the chocolate layer of pinwheel cookies. Therefore, the dough requires chilling before you can shape and bake. I recommend at least 3 hours in the refrigerator, but you can also refrigerate it overnight. Need cookies right NOW? Try giant chocolate chip cookies, Nutella chocolate chip cookies, or even one giant double chocolate cookie.
Expect a sticky, tacky dough:
How to Shape The Cookie Dough
This cookie dough is still a bit sticky even if you’ve chilled it, but it’s much more compact since it’s cold. Use a cookie scoop to help you portion the sticky dough. The medium size is perfect because each dough ball should be around 1.5 Tablespoons. After scooping the dough, shape it as best you can into tall column-like balls. I know that sounds odd, but it’s the trick I teach when making regular chocolate chip cookies. Taller balls of chilled dough = thicker baked cookies.
The cookie dough will undoubtedly stick to your hands during the shaping step, so have a kitchen towel or paper towel nearby. I usually wipe my hands clean after every few cookie dough balls because clean hands make rolling easier. (Same tip I recommend for peanut butter filled brownie cookies.)
If you’re looking for cookie cutter style cookies, here are my chocolate sugar cookies.
Get your cookies to spread: The cookies take at least 11 minutes to bake, however if they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven for a couple more minutes.
How Do You Know When Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Are Done?
It’s hard to see when the cookies are done because they’re so dark. Instead, give a cookie a light tap on the edge and if it feels slightly set, they’re done. Be careful with this because they’re hot! The centers will still look very soft and that’s ok. They usually take about 11-12 minutes.
Can I Freeze the Cookie Dough Balls?
Yes, once portioned and before baking, the chocolate cookie dough balls freeze beautifully. If the dough balls are a bit sticky, chill them in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes first. Place the balls in a single layer in a zipped-top freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months. You can take a few dough balls out of the freezer at a time, and bake (no need to thaw) whenever that chocolate craving hits. Simply add another minute to the bake time. Read my full tutorial on how to freeze cookie dough here.
After publishing 200+ tested cookie recipes and 3 cookbooks, I know what works and what doesn’t, so check out my top cookie baking success tips if you’re ever having trouble. Additionally, my entire team and I put together our recommended 10 best cookie baking tools if you need top-rated suggestions. Happy baking!
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Favorite Double Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
- Prep Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes (includes chilling)
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: 20-22 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft-baked thick and chunky double chocolate chip cookies are rich and fudge-like with chewy centers, slightly crisp edges, and oodles of melty chocolate chips in each glorious bite. The dough needs to chill for at least 3 hours, but you can make it ahead of time and refrigerate overnight.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2/3 cup (55g) natural unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk (any kind, dairy or non)
- 1 and 1/4 cups (225g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus a few more for optional topping*
Instructions
- Preliminary note: This cookie dough requires at least 3 hours of chilling, but I prefer to chill the dough overnight. The colder the dough, the thicker the cookies.
- In a large bowl using a hand-held or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium high speed until fluffy and light in color, about 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Add the egg and vanilla extract, and then beat on high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together until combined. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly pour into the wet ingredients. Beat on low until combined. The cookie dough will be quite thick. Switch to high speed and beat in the milk, then the chocolate chips. The cookie dough will be sticky and tacky. Cover dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Chilling is mandatory for this sticky cookie dough.
- Remove cookie dough from the refrigerator and allow to sit at room temperature for 10 minutes. If the cookie dough chilled longer than 3 hours, let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. This makes the chilled cookie dough easier to scoop and roll.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. (Always recommended for cookies.) Set aside.
- Scoop and roll dough, a heaping 1.5 Tablespoons (about 35-40g; I like to use this medium cookie scoop) in size, into balls. To ensure a thicker cookie, make the balls taller than they are wide (almost like a cylinder or column). Arrange 2-3 inches apart on the baking sheets. The cookie dough is certainly sticky, so wipe your hands clean after every few balls of dough you shape.
- Bake the cookies for 11-12 minutes or until the edges appear set and the centers still look soft. Tip: If they aren’t really spreading by minute 9, remove them from the oven and lightly bang the baking sheet on the counter 2-3x. This helps initiate that spread. Return to the oven to continue baking.
- Cool cookies for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. During this time, I like to press a few more chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. (This is optional and only for looks.) Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will slightly deflate as they cool.
- Cover leftover cookies tightly and store 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 days (step 3). 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. Check out my tips + tricks for how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Stand Mixer or Handheld) | Medium Cookie Scoop | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats | Cooling Rack
- Larger Batch: The recipe is easy to double in 1 mixing bowl without overwhelming your mixer. Simply double all of the cookie dough ingredients. Dough chill time remains the same.
- Natural Cocoa Powder: Do you know the difference between natural cocoa powder and dutch-process cocoa powder? Use natural in this dough.
- Other Add-Ins: Instead of chocolate chips in the dough, you can use the same amount of peanut butter chips, white chocolate chips, M&Ms, chopped nuts, or butterscotch chips.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking success tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Cookies were very tasty, but they did not spread enough to be cookie like and were lumpy. I read the recipe more than twice and did follow directions. I even banged the pan to help the cookies crinkle. Taste is much better than appearance. May try again and use my scale.
We do recommend using a scale to measure for best results, Lara! It is easy to over-measure with cups.
I am obsessed with these cookies. They are rich and chocolatey without being too much. They have a perfect chewy, soft texture. I wake up in the middle of the night craving these cookies. My family asks me to make them for every get together. l cannot say enough good things
I had absolutely zero desire to wait 3 hours for cookies. Instead dumped it into 2 6″ cast iron pans and cooked for about 15 minutes…throw some vanilla on there and I tell ya….trust me
If you are a chocolate lover, this is the receipt for you. Cookies came out chewy inside crispy outside and not to sweet. Recommend using high-quality chocolate like Ghirardelli chips. These are amazing, can’t wait to receive more receipts. My family and co-workers tell me I should open a bakery. Thanks again!
Delicious, chocolatey, soft, thick, chewy, cookies! I added peanut butter chips along with the chocolate chips because I had some leftover from another bake I recently did. However, I used the “reverse creaming“ method as a shortcut. Many bakers are doing this now when they want the thick, chewy cookies. It saves the time not having to wait for the butter to soften.
You cut cold butter into cubes and add it to the dry ingredients then mix it until it is the consistency of sand. Then add the wet ingredients. Some of these cookie recipes are very time-consuming because you have to soften butter, bring cold ingredients to room temperature, chill the dough several hours, then wait several minutes after taking them out of the fridge before baking, etc. A lot of people don’t have that kind of time. This is a great breakthrough for bakers when making cookies. I don’t know how it works for cakes or other baked goods but if you want the soft, thick, chewy cookies and don’t have a lot of time to spare, try it.
I wish you could edit these posts! I just wanted to add that even though I used an alternate method making the cookies I still chilled the dough in the fridge for three hours per Sally’s instructions.
Winner of a recipe! I added 110 grams sourdough discard to the wet ingredients, right before adding the dry. This was an attempt to not discard my discard. Results were stellar!
Such a great soft, thick, chewy cookie complete with crinkles – came out perfect with overnight chill. Not too sweet so the chocolate really shines. So good these can even be a great dessert bite after dinner with cup of decaf coffee. This recipe is a keeper!
Love this recipe ! Thank you for sharing :))
Question- could this be turned into a cookie cake?
I know I could test it out but wanted to ask first since everything just cost so much right now! Thank you again for your time and baking love
Hi Ashley, absolutely! You can use this dough and follow the baking time and instructions for our chocolate chip cookie cake. Enjoy!
Tried this recipe, the cookies turned out absolutely amazing and delicious! Thank you, Sally for the recipe!
I loved this recipe! I did mess up though, I browned the amount of butter stated in the recipe and when I noticed it decreased in weight, so I topped it off with regular butter :’) put the butter in the fridge and then took it out and waited until it was soft to use! It resulted to the cookies spreading too much they weren’t as chunky as the ones in the pics because it might’ve been too much butter!!! Still delicious though
I have absolutely no access to natural cocoa powder! I’ve made these with Dutch process and something’s off. How can I adjust the baking soda to make it better? Add baking powder leave out soda? I’ve read the guides…my math isn’t working though!
Hi Nisha, we recommend these death by chocolate peanut butter cookies instead, as you can use Dutch process cocoa there!
Thank you!!! I have valentines m&ms from the USA to use. That should work in place of peanut butter chips right?
Absolutely!
These were so easy and delicious. I used a whole 12 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. I will be saving this recipe to make again.
These are the best cookies I’ve ever had, hands down. I’ve made them several times and they’re always a hit!
These are so good! I made them with the plan to coat the bottoms with some Guitarrd mint chips I had, in a sort of Jacques Torres-chocolate dipped chocolate chip cookie way, but mint chocolate style. I halved the chocolate chips to add in and once the cookies were cooled, I melted 10 oz of the mint chips, coated the bottoms, and they tasted like thin mints! Great cookies even on their own that I’ll continue to make!!
These are insanely good.
I love these cookies. I have been trying to “copy” a cherry chocolate cookie for a year. Finally, success. Added a 1/2 c of chopped dried cherries and 1/2 c of chopped walnuts. OM!!!! Thank you
Making now as your choc chip cookie is my fav ive ever made and im a baker. only dif is i froz nutella balls to stuff these cookies yum yum
OMGG these cookies turned out crumb-licking good! Perfectly chocolatey, with crisp edges and a brownie-like centre. I used chocolate chunks instead of chips, so I had pools of chocolate throughout my cookies. Simply fabulous! ❤️
I have Meade these several times and they are always a hit. I decided to change it up a little and used caramel chips and they turned out great as well! I also chill them for the 20 minutes, then scoop them into balls and put in my silicone “meatball” holder overnight before I bake which works well for me.
Has anyone made this into a cookie cake– thinking it would require the same cooking time as the chocolate chip cookie cake? 350 degrees for 22–26 minutes… seems right to me but thought I’d check as I’m not the pro here. <3
Hi Samantha, absolutely, you can use this dough and follow the baking time and instructions for our chocolate chip cookie cake. Enjoy!
These are honestly the best cookies I’ve ever had! I have never left a review on a recipe before, but I just had to for these. My family is begging me to make them again – and that’s after I doubled the batch to begin with! Needless to say, these crispy, gooey, chocolatey marvels will be a staple in my rotation
Hiya! Would I need to change anything if I wanted to add a tsp of espresso powder? 🙂
Hi Sammie, you can definitely add a teaspoon of espresso powder to this dough—no other changes needed. Enjoy!
I’ve made these 3 times now and they always turn out great!! This last time I added mint chocolate chips and peppermint candy for the holidays and highly highly recommend! Will be coming back to this recipe and many more from this site 🙂
Fantastic recipe – the best cookies I’ve ever made. Is there any reason why you couldn’t shape the dough into balls _before_ you chill them? That would be much easier.
We find the dough to be too sticky but you certainly can if you prefer!
Hi, so I wanna try baking for the first time. I was wondering what kind of unsweetened cocoa powder should I use for the double chocolate chips cookies?
Hi Jackie! You need natural unsweetened cocoa powder for this recipe (not Dutch process or alkalized).
These were a big hit! I also did them with peppermint candy and white chocolate for Xmas. However I couldn’t seem to get rid of a vaguely gritty texture. It was also difficult to scoop after chilling. Not sure what I’m doing wrong!
I used an ice cream scooper for mine! Made it so much easier and I didn’t have to do any shaping.