Looking for the best chocolate chip cookies EVER? you’re in the right place. These cookies are BIG, soft, chewy, and totally divine.
Chocolate chip cookies are my weakness. If I were ever stranded on a deserted island, I could be happy with a steady supply of homemade chocolate chip cookies.
I swiped this recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies from my mom, and now I want to share it with all of you. You don’t want to keep going through life not knowing what’s in the best chocolate chip cookies EVER, do you?
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Well, these wonderful homemade cookies are loaded with some incredible ingredients.
Butter, sugar, vanilla and semisweet chocolate chips are among the usual suspects.
But this isn’t your average chocolate chip cookies recipe! Y’all, this recipe produces some pretty perfect cookies.
How to Make Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Mix together the flour, baking soda, and the salt
- In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, sugars, vanilla extract, and the vinegar until smooth.
- Beat in the egg just until combined.
- Mix the flour mixture into the wet mixture just until combined. Stir in the chips.
- Drop cookies 2 inches apart onto your prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake and enjoy!
TIP: In the recipe, I make a note about “barely melted” butter. You want to melt it, but not over melt it, and be sure to let it COOL a bit before putting in with the other ingredients.
Here’s a picture of what your butter should look like!
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
The debate on soft vs. crispy chocolate chip cookies is a no-brainer in my book.
I do favor soft and chewy, but these cookies give you the best of both worlds.
The middle of the cookie is nice and soft, and the outer edge has a little crispiness.
And that sea salt on top? Just, wow.
How to Store Chocolate Chip Cookies
A wonderful tip that I picked up a few years ago was to store cookies in an airtight container with one slice of white bread.
The cookies utilize the moisture in the bread and it helps prevent them from drying out. Give it a try, you’ll love the results.
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
People always ask me if they can freeze my cookie recipes. In this case, yes, you can definitely freeze this chocolate chip cookie dough. Here’s how to do it.
- Make the cookie dough as instructed below.
- Scoop and place cookies on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Just make sure the sheet will fit in your freezer.
- Freeze the balls until solid. Usually, 1-2 hours will suffice.
- Remove the cookie balls to a large ziptop bag and carefully labeled with the date and baking instructions.
- Freeze up to 6 weeks.
How to Bake Frozen Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
To bake your amazing cookies, you can allow the dough to defrost overnight in the refrigerator or a couple hours at room temperature, then just bake as usual.
If you want to bake them from frozen, just let them sit out on a parchment-lined baking sheet while your oven preheats, and then bake as usual adding 1-3 minutes to the baking time.
You’ll just need to keep an eye on your oven to make sure you don’t let them go too long over the original bake time.
Don’t forget, as my instructions note below you don’t want to overbake these cookies. They will look a little underdone in the center but they will continue to cook once you take them out of the oven as you allow them to cool on the baking sheet an additional 10 minutes.
I think you’ll agree that these truly are the BEST chocolate chip cookies!
More Great Desserts
- Pumpkin Cookies
- Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
- Raspberry Almond Shortbread Cookies
- Monster Cookies
- Fantasy Fudge
- 3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
Best Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup butter barely melted but not too hot (see photo above)
- ¾ cup light brown sugar packed
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips I used half chips and half chunks, but either is fine
- Coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking soda and the salt: Set aside.
- In a large bowl beat together the butter, sugars, vanilla extract and the vinegar until smooth. Beat in the egg just until combined.
- Mix the flour mixture into the wet mixture just until combined. Stir in the chips.
- Using a large cookie scoop (about 2 rounded tablespoons) drop about 3 inches apart onto cookie sheet.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, they will look light brown around the edges and will look underdone in the center. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle each cookie with a little sea salt. Allow to sit on the sheet for 10 minutes before moving to a rack to cool.
Notes
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Nutrition
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The best chocolate cookies I’ve ever made. I take them from the oven and bang the cookie sheet on the counter a few times to help flatten them a bit. Helps the middle cook a bit more since they are a bit puffy and underdone in the center.
Made with Kirkland chocolate chips from Costco
Soooo good. Thank you for the recipe
Caroline from BC Canada
Yours are puffy when they come out? Mine are thin. Wish they were thicker. Do you do something different with the recipe?
Just wanted to chime in to agree with the comments that this is my all time favorite chocolate chip recipe and the only one I’ll make any more. My pandemic project was finding a chocolate chip cookie recipe that struck the prefect balance of being simple to make but tasted amazing. This recipe totally blew all the others I tried out of the water. I’ve been making it for years at this point and I imagine this will be my ride of die chocolate chip cookie recipe till the bitter end. I’m at high altitude and I’ve still never had issues getting good results. Truly phenomenal work on this recipe!
I absolutely love the taste of these cookies! I follow the recipe to a T, but mine come out paper thin every single time and I can’t figure out why. I suspect it has to do with the butter? No matter what I do their flat as a pancake. They taste amazing, just wish I could get them to look like the pics!
I love these cookies but mine are too thin as well. Tried refrigerating dough, adding a little more flour, not melting butter as much, etc. The only flaw with this recipe. Mine don’t look like th pic but they are still delicious.
Try refrigerating the dough for 30 minutes before baking.
Same!!! My cookies are square and paper thin.
There’s are far from being the best cookies ever!
Try 325 oven temp with 2-3 mins additional time. That worked for me. 350 is much too hot for a melted butter recipe.
Can you substitute white vinegar for the apple cider vinegar? Is there a difference?
These are so delicious but I recently went dairy free. Has anyone tried making these with dairy free butter? If so, how did they turn out? What type of dairy free butter did you use?
Hi Lori. I used dairy free butter. Turned out great!
I would just use oil
I’ve made with coconut oil instead of butter and turned out pretty good . I’m sure you can use olive oil as well but reduce the oil amount by some
Absolutely the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made ,Hands down, I highly itecommend you try this recipe you will love it, thank you crissy
Oh my!!! These cookies I’ve been making them for ever!! They are truly the best chocolate chip cookies ever, and (LOL) I already have this entire recipe MEMORIZED!!🤣 I was just starting to bake them, and realized that I didn’t even peek at the recipe!!😅 These cookies are the best, and everyone that I shared these cookies with- LOVED them!! Thank you so much!!!❤️ xoxo
PS: I love Jesus, also!! God bless you, Crissy!
Do I need to use a mixer or just by hand?
Either works but I might be a bit more work on the arms if you do it by hang
I use a mixer for all except chocolate chips.
I’ve been making these cookies for probably a year and they are hands down the BEST chocolate chip cookies. The recipe is easy, delicious, and freezes really well. I’ve made them for so many people and they always ask me where I got the recipe! I also switch out the chocolate chips for dark chocolate chips sometimes and that’s delicious, too!
Really are the BEST choc-chip cookies ever! Every time I make these they’re gone almost immediately. If you’re a peanut butter fan, try 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 cup of Reese’s PB chips. ABSOLUTE GAME CHANGER!!!