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Bake chocolate chip cookies with the BEST homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe. Brown butter and vanilla extract in the chocolate chip cookie dough creates extra flavorful chocolate chip cookies! No need to chill the dough before baking, but you can freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months! These cookies are golden brown, soft and chewy, and so delish!
The BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe?
Like many bakers, I’ve been searching for the best chocolate chip cookie recipe for years! I learned how to make chocolate chip cookies when I was 6… and have probably baked 1,290,987 batches of cookies since. Crazy how many different ways you can combine flour, baking soda, salt, butter, and granulated sugar!
But after months of testing, tweaking, and eating chocolate chip cookie dough for dinner… my search is finally over! Because these cookies are heaven on a baking sheet!
What Makes these the Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe?
- The chocolate chip cookie dough comes together in less than 30 minutes! No fancy method or extensive baking skills required.
- Soft and chewy, but crispy at the edges, these cookies are the perfect texture.
- Tons of gooey chocolate chips in every bite of this chocolate chip cookie recipe. What’s a chocolate chip cookies without lots of chocolate flavor?
- Vanilla extract, golden brown butter, and a combination of sugars creates extra flavorful cookies.
- Made with basic ingredients most people have in their kitchens all the time. No crazy expensive or hard to find ingredients for this recipe!
- The baking method is straightforward. Meaning bakers of all levels can bake these cookies!
- No need to chill the dough before baking. You do have to chill the brown butter until it comes back to room temperature. But once you do that, you can simply roll the cookie dough and bake it!
- The daintiest hint of sea salt gives enough pop for developed palates but doesn’t freak out toddlers and teens.
How to Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe: Ingredients
- Butter: Unlike many recipes, salted or unsalted butter will work here. If you use unsalted butter, just add an extra pinch of salt to the dry ingredients. I suggest a 1/4 teaspoon. You’ll brown the butter before use.
- All-Purpose Flour: For best results, use a digital scale to weigh your flour. If using measuring cups, be sure not to pack the flour into the measuring cup. To make these cookies gluten free, a 1-for-1 gluten free flour substitute works well. I don’t suggest using any other variety of flour in this recipe!
- Baking Soda: This chemical leavening agent helps the cookies spread out into a round circle. Please make sure your baking soda is fresh and do not sub baking soda for baking powder! Baking powder will puff the cookies up, and they won’t spread.
- Sea Salt: A small amount of salt helps balance the sweetness in the cookies. It also enhances all the other flavors in the chocolate chip cookie dough. If you don’t have sea salt, table salt will work just fine.
- Sugar: A combination of granulated sugar and brown sugar gives these cookies the perfect taste and texture. Brown sugar helps make the cookies moist and chewy. While the granulated sugar helps the cookies spread. I do prefer using dark brown sugar, which adds more flavor, but light brown sugar will work.
- Vanilla Extract: Adds rich vanilla flavor and enhances all the other flavors in the cookies. I highly suggest using real vanilla extract, not artificial vanilla extract.
- Eggs: Use large sized eggs. These add flavor, structure, and height to the chocolate chip cookie dough. Make sure your eggs are at room temperature before adding them to the cookie dough.
- Chocolate Chips: I suggest a combination of milk chocolate, semi-sweet chocolate, and dark chocolate chips. But you can play around here or just use all one variety. I’ve even added white chocolate and peanut butter chips!
If you prefer chocolate chunks, you can use them instead of chocolate chips! Or try my best ever chocolate chunk cookie recipe!
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Brown the Butter: Browning butter is as easy as melting the butter, then continuing to cook it until brown. It’ll look amber, with light brown flecks on the bottom of the pan. And it will smell delightfully nutty.
- Brown Butter Tip: The butter will continue to cook as long as it’s in the pan. So be sure to remove the pan from heat and scrape it into a large bowl. We want brown butter chocolate chip cookie dough, we don’t want burnt butter!
- Cool the Butter: Place the bowl in the refrigerator and bring the butter back to room temperature. You want it solid, but soft enough that when you gently press it with your finger it leaves an indentation. Your butter must be at the proper temperature before you begin baking. If it’s too warm, your cookies will bake up flat and spread all over the pan.
- Preheat the Oven: When your butter reaches room temperature, it’s time to make your chocolate chip cookie dough. Prepare by preheating then oven. Unlike most recipes where you preheat oven to 350, you’ll actually want to preheat the oven to 375 degrees (F).
- Prep Baking Sheets: Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set them aside.
- Make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the brown butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and eggs. Then turn the mixer off and fold in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips.
Roll the Dough Into Balls and Bake
- Roll the Cookie Dough: I like to make the cookie dough balls about 3 or 4 tablespoons in size. But you can make them any size you want. Just adjust the time according to the size of your cookies. Larger cookies will need more time to bake, while smaller cookies will need less time to bake.
- Bake the Cookies: Place them on the prepared baking sheet and bake! They should be golden brown at the edges but a little soft in the middle.
- Cool: Let the chocolate chip cookies cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire racks to cool completely.
- Store the Cookies: Store these chocolate chip cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Decorate Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies
- If you’d like your chocolate chip cookies to look like the ones you see in my photos, press extra chocolate chips on top of each cookie. Do this right after they come out of the oven, while they’re still soft.
- You can also sprinkle them with sea salt! I love Maldon sea salt because it’s flaky and delish.
- For a super gooey look, try pressing large chocolate chunks on top of the chocolate chip cookies instead.
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
- Make the chocolate chip cookie dough as directed.
- Line baking sheet or cake pan with parchment paper. Make sure this pan will fit inside your freezer.
- Scoop out the cookie and roll it into balls. Place the cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet. You can place them side by side, and pack as many as you can onto the baking sheet.
- Place the baking sheet in the freezer, on a level surface, for about 1 hour. Or until the chocolate chip cookie dough balls are solid to the touch.
- Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and transfer the cookie dough balls into a freezer bag or airtight container. Press out as much air from the bag as possible before sealing.
- Label the bags and place them in the freezer for up to 2 months.
- When you’re ready to bake, place the cookie dough in the fridge and and let it thaw for at least 2 hours before baking. The cookie dough balls will keep in the fridge for 48 hours.
You may need to add 1 to 2 minutes onto the bake time when baking extremely cold cookie dough.
We brought these chocolate chip cookies to our beach house a few weeks ago and the kids (and adults!) finished them in a matter of hours. These chocolate chip cookies are teenager, toddler, and mother-in-law approved… and that is, well, that’s saying a lot! They’re so good with a big glass of milk! But you can also use them to make homemade ice cream sandwiches!
More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
- The Most Wonderful Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever
- S’mores Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Bite-Sized Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Soft Batch Double Chocolate Fudge Cookies
- Soft Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
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Everyday Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bake chocolate chip cookies with the BEST homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe! Make the chocolate chip cookie dough with brown butter, which creates golden brown, soft and chewy and extra flavorful cookies! No need to chill the dough before baking. But you can freeze the cookie dough for up to 2 months!
Ingredients
- 14 tablespoons (196g) salted butter
- 2 and 1/2 (300g) cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon flaky sea salt
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons (237g) dark brown sugar packed
- 1/2 cup (99g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup milk chocolate chips
- 1 cup dark chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
Instructions
- Place the butter in a small sauce pan over medium-high heat and cook for about 2 minutes – stirring almost constantly – until the butter has completely melted and lightly browned.
- Remove from heat and scrape butter (and any brown specks) into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and bring the butter back to room temperature; this will take about an hour to an hour and a half.
- Once the butter is at room temperature…
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees (F). Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium sized bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the chilled brown butter and both sugars; beat on medium speed for about 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla and beat smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Turn the mixer off.
- Gently fold in the flour mixture with a wooden spoon, stirring only until the flour begins to disappear. Fold in chocolate chips.
- Roll 3 tablespoon sized balls of dough between your palms to form a ball (they should be big; almost a 1/4 cup), then place on prepared sheet (make sure to leave enough room in between each cookie for inevitable spreading). Continue this process until all the dough has been rolled. Place baking sheets in preheated oven – one at a time – and bake for 11 minutes, or until golden at the edges but still soft in the middle.
- Let cookies cool for 10 minutes on the sheet before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely.
Tried it and loved it?Snap a picture and share it with me on Instagram @Bakerbynature and by using the hashtag #BakerByNature
A fantastic cookie recipe! 5 star taste and texture, and they look pretty, too.
mine turned out like bread cookies. it rose and i didnt get the gooeiness that i was expecting. i gave it ffve stars still for the flavor
The problem here is temperature. You need put your oven to 350 °F. Any oven is different.
Wow! These are fantastic!
very good
I loved these! Super easy and you can freeze the cookie dough. I do need to add 2 minutes for extra baking.
My favorite ccc recipe! The brown butter definitely makes these special but even without it they’re pretty great. Don’t skimp on the vanilla!
I try a new browned butter chocolate chip recipe every few weeks. Looking for a recipe that doesn’t require chilling and resting the dough multiple times. This is it. Soft and chewy with delicious toffee flavored butter.