Over the years, I’ve made SO MANY different chocolate chip cookie recipes. I have one on my blog that was the recipe my mom made growing up that I loved, but it still wasn’t my perfect chocolate chip cookie. I’ve made recipe after recipe looking for the perfect one. I have officially cracked my own code! This is MY ideal chocolate chip cookie, and it just might be yours too! Crispy on the edges, soft in the middle, loaded with chocolate, and sprinkled with sea salt to bring out the best flavor!
Thomas literally told me to never make another cookie haha, so that’s basically the best compliment I’ve ever gotten. Okay, here’s the recipe and all the tips and tricks I’ve learned!
Ingredients:
-1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature (required)
-1 cup cane sugar (or white sugar)
-1/2 cup brown sugar (light or dark)
-2 eggs, room temperature (required)
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
-1 tsp sea salt
-1 tsp baking soda
-2 cups semi- sweet chocolate chips (feel free to sub dark chocolate or your preferred chocolate)
Directions:
In a large mixing bowl, beat butter & sugar with a hand mixer until smooth & incorporated. Add in the eggs & vanilla extract & mix until combined. Add in the flour, salt, & baking soda. Mix until everything is well combined. Sprinkle in the chocolate chips (use can reserve some for topping or just add more). Using a spatula, mix in the chocolate chips. The batter should be thick and sticky. Form the dough into 12-14 large balls! They seem huge, but trust me on this one. This is how they get the perfect crispy to soft/ chewy ratio. They are supposed to be a bakery style/ size cookie. If you don’t like big cookies, just eat half, but good luck haha! You can make them smaller, but I promise making them this size is part of what makes them!
From here, you have three options. You can bake right away, refrigerate, or freeze the dough. If you want to bake them right away, you will still get a fabulous cookie, it just won’t be very crispy on the bottom. It will be most soft throughout. If that’s what you want to do, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Place your cookies on a lined baking sheet. You will probably have to do 2 batches. If you want, you can top the cookies with extra chocolate chips. This also gives that bakery style look. Bake for 8-10 minutes until cooked but still soft in the center. When they are done, sprinkle with sea salt (I prefer fleur de sel or maldon sea salt) and let cool on the baking sheet! Make sure not to over bake, that would be tragic.
For refrigerated cookies, which is my ideal method, you can form your dough balls and refrigerate right on your baking sheet for at least an hour. You can also leave them in the fridge for up to 2 days and you’ll just bake them directly from the fridge. If you do them in the fridge for more than a few hours, I’d go ahead and store them in an airtight container. This step always seems like it takes too long, but Im telling you IT IS SO WORTH IT! Letting the dough sit for an hour or overnight lets the flavors come together & brings them out even more when baking them. It also creates the perfect cookie that’s crispy & caramelized on the edges and soft and doughy on the inside. It’s perfection! When you bake them, preheat your oven to 375F degrees. Take the cookies straight from the fridge to a lined baking sheet (if they aren’t on there already), and bake for 12-15 minutes until your cookies are crispy on the edges and still soft in the middle. They should have a little golden on the edges! Remove from oven, sprinkle with sea salt & let cool!
For the freezer version, all you have to do is store the dough balls in the freezer bag or you can just freeze some if you don’t want to cook all 12 at once! When you’re ready to bake, preheat your oven to 375F degrees. Once the oven is ready, place your cookies on a lined baking sheet and bake for 15-17 minutes until cookies are crispy on the edges and soft in the middle. This version will give you the crispiest edges with a super soft middle! They’re amazing! Sprinkle with sea salt and let cool on your baking sheet!
So that’s all the ways you can make the cookies! I froze a bunch so now we have cookie dough balls in the fridge to pull out and bake whenever we want to just make 1 or 2 cookies rather than a whole batch! Below are also some tips I’ve learned about the chocolate chip cookies as well as explaining why some things are done this certain way!
Cookie Tips:
-Baking at 375 degrees will make the cookies melt faster & get those crispy edges with a soft center AKA the ultimate cookie.
-Refrigerating the dough will help the flavors really come together! It also makes all the difference in baking to get that caramelization.
-Topping with sea salt will help bring out the flavor of the cookie without making it salty. It just basically enhances the flavor in your mouth!
-Making giant cookies will really give you those bakery style cookies! It’ll also make it so that the cookies are perfectly soft in the middle and crispy on the outside.
-Last thing that I didn’t have on hand but would do, 2 different types of chocolate! Like mixing 1 cup of dark chocolate & 1 cup of semi-sweet or milk chocolate. As well as using chocolate chunks (which I didn’t have) but will help to get bigger chocolate pockets!
I hope you guys enjoy these cookies! As you can tell, I am VERY passionate about them! Tag me on IG in your stories or posts if you make them! I want to hear what you think 🙂
Xoxo,
Lex
I can’t wait to try this recipe!
I don’t have any cane sugar though. Can it be replaced with white sugar?
Yay! Can’t wait to hear what you think! Yes it can!
Hi! If I only have salted butter on hand, can I still make these? Thanks!!
Yes for sure! Just decrease the salt in the recipe to 1/2 tsp and then still sprinkle with flaky salt at the end!
How do you get the cookies so flat and brown? Mine are super thick (high not flat) and not brown, super pale. Do you flatten them before putting in and use dark brown sugar? Regardless — delish!
Hi! Glad you like them! When you measure the flour, make sure to spoon and level because sometimes the flour gets too packed into the measuring spoon making them so they don’t flatten better. Also, make sure you’re using 2 sticks of butter (1 cup)! As far as sugar, I just used Trader Joe’s regular brown sugar but you should be able to use light or dark. Having the measurements right should make them be able to brown correctly and they do the best straight from the fridge!
SO delicious! Thanks for sharing!
Yay you’re so welcome!!!!
Hi Lex! I wanted to let you know I made these for the first time today and they were incredible. All time favorite cookie (with Maldon on top!!) Thomas sure was right! And also, I made your no churn ice and strong-armed it with a whisk and it also turned out wonderful. You have the best recipes! Thank you so much!!
Yay that makes me so happy!! So glad you loved everything 🙂
Made my dough last night and preheating my oven now! Can’t wait!!
I hope you love it!!!!!
How do you get a big cookie though? I tried a dozen of these recipes and cannot figure out how to get them to expand in the oven like this?
Hi!! I measure them into 12 balls and then cook high at 375 degrees! It should have all the steps to make them work. It has been seeming to work for others! Have you tried the recipe out yet?
Not yet! I am doing them tomorrow evening as part of my dessert tray for my daughters 1st birthday! I am SOOO excited though because I saw you post on your IG stories and they looked heavenly!
So fun! Hope everyone loves them 🙂
I made them today for the family and the words of my husband “there dangerous”. 😋 This will now be my go to chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Yay, this is the best review ever! So happy to hear that the whole family loves them 🙂
Wow. This recipe is amazing. The cookies came out so good. This will now be my go to cookie recipe. Thank you so much. 5 stars!!!
Yay! Best review ever! So happy you love them😊
How many cookies does this make?
Hi! It makes 12-14 very large cookies!🥰
These are by far the BEST chocolate chip cookie recipe I’ve ever made or tasted!!!! My 18mo old helped me bake them and my husband was so impressed! I am so excited to have these be our family chocolate chip cookie for years to come! Thank you so much for the time you put into creating and perfecting these! I followed the instructions to a T and did the refrigeration method. MIND. BLOWN. Xoxo
Oh my goodness, this makes me so so happy!!!!! Seriously so honored to have them be your go to family recipe! Nothing makes me happier🥰 The fridge method is my FAV!!!!!!
She is so right, the BEST chocolate chip cookies ever! I refrigerated them overnight and baked 6 of them for 15 minutes. Absolute perfection. So fluffy, crispy bottom, pillow middle. Ah-mazing.
Eek yay! So glad you loved them! Seriously our favorite 🙂
Can you like the pan with foil? Afraid to use spray on the foil in case it makes them spread too much? Do you think they’ll stick? I don’t have parchment paper or silpat.
Hi Lisa!! I actually haven’t tried foil, but I’d just cook on your pan and spray it instead!
these are the best choc chip cookies i’ve ever made!! I like to call them the tiffs treats cookies because they are so similar 😱
I’m so happy to hear you love them!! They are one of our absolute favorites 🙂
I made your chocolate chip cookies today and they are AMAZING! Thank you for sharing!
Yay, that makes me so happy! I’m glad you enjoyed them 🙂
Can you replace the flour with gluten free all purpose?!
Hi! I haven’t tried it myself, but I’ve had people try it out and it work great!!! So any 1:1 GF all-purpose flour should work!
Hello! I am getting ready to bake the cookies now, would it be ok if I froze some after they have already been baked?
Hi! You definitely could but then won’t be AS good! I suggest freezing the dough and then just baking it whenever you want a cookie (explained in the bottom of the recipe)! But you can freeze them baked, they just aren’t as delish!
Hey Lex, would cake flour be an acceptable substitute for the flour used in your recipe? Also, if I’m only wanting to bake 3 after I make the 12 balls, should I still cook them at 375 for 15 minutes?
Hi Katelyn! So cake flour is actually different so I am not positive if it will substitute with the exact same measurements but you can try! It’s usually closer to 17-20 min from frozen but it really depends on how gooey you prefer yours!
Any high altitude suggestions? I really want to make these!
Can you specify if the brown sugar is packed? I packed it hoping that it needed to be. Mine are baking now! Can’t wait!
Hi Lesley! Yes, the brown sugar is packed, hope you enjoy 🙂
YOU ARE THE BEST!!!