This post has been 10+ years in the making, would you believe that? It’s a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I started making back when I was in college. And over the years, I’ve been tweaking and editing it to perfect my idea of the best chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe. It needed to be sweet, but not overly sweet, like an adult chocolate chip cookie where it’s multidimensional with notes of butterscotch and a bit of flaked sea salt to tone down the sweetness. Take it from someone who is evidently very picky and not easily satisfied with just any old chocolate chip cookie recipe. This one has it all. It has the perfect amount of sugar, so it’s sweet, but not cloyingly sweet, like so many CC cookies out there. It has a crispy, crunchy outer rim with an extra chewy center. I kid you not, I had to give most of the batch away because otherwise you better believe I. would. have. eaten. every. single. cookie. Yes, I would.
Ingredients for Extra Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies and the roles they play:
Melted Butter: Melting the butter allows you to make the best chewy chocolate chip cookies. Once the butter is melted, we combine it with the sugars and whisk. Whisking and allow the sugar to sit in the butter for a couple of minutes allows the sugar to melt into the butter, creating an even chewier cookie. Also, all of this can be done with a whisk, so you don’t even need a stand mixer for this!Brown sugar: The higher ratio of brown sugar to granulated sugar produces a chewier cookie. It also aids in giving these cookies a deeper more intense butterscotchy flavor. And if you don’t think you’d like that, reserve judgment until you try these! You’ll also notice that I use a lot less sugar than most chocolate chip cookies. Since we’re melting the butter and allow the sugar to melt into it, we can use less sugar while still making these cookies perfectly sweet.Granulated sugar: White sugar gives cookies a chance to spread when they hit the hot oven. It also adds a bit of crispness to the outer edges of these cookies.An egg: eggs are used to add structure to baked goods.An egg yolk: Instead of using two full eggs, my trick is to use an extra egg yolk that will make these cookies dense and chewy. Egg whites add a lot of moisture to a recipe, cutting back on one makes these cookies chewy and fudgy. Vanilla extract: Vanilla just adds to the butterscotch flavor of the chocolate chip cookies.Kosher Salt: I not only use salted butter but also add kosher salt to help flavor these cookies. If you don’t have salted butter, just increase the total amount of kosher salt to a total of ¾ teaspoon. It adds a nice balance to all the sweetness of cookies.Baking soda: aids in helping the cookies rise. You’ll notice that I use a bit more than most cookies that call for 2 cups of flour. That’s because I want these cookies to rise quite a bit and then, I’ll slam the cookie sheet on the counter to knock the air out, making these cookies extra chewy!All-Purpose flour: The all-purpose flour absorbs all the melted butter as we allow the cookie dough to chill and ‘marinate.’ I suggest using unbleached all-purpose flour for this recipe. The method I use when measuring flour for this recipe is the scoop and level method. I use a smaller scoop/measuring cup and add flour to a larger one until it’s heaping full. In this case, I’d use ¼ cup measure to add flour to a 1 cup scoop. Then, use a knife and run it across the top to level it out without adding pressure on the knife. This method works best when baking cookies/cakesChocolate Chips: You can use just about any kind of chocolate chips you like for this recipe, but I like to use bittersweet chocolate chips as I find it makes these cookies the perfect amount of sweet for us. I’ve tried them with semi-sweet chocolate chips but for me, they were still cloyingly sweet.
Why do you let the butter and sugar mixture sit?
Butter provides two essential ingredients to the cookie dough: water and fat. When you melt the butter and let the sugar hang out in a bowl together, the water from the butter allows the sugars to dissolve better into the cookie dough. As you continue to whisk, you are incorporating air into the butter mixture, which not only causes the mixture to become a lighter color but also adds air into the batter which aids in leavening the cookie.
What is the correct chocolate chip to cookie dough ratio in chewy chocolate chip cookies?
This is very subjective! The general rule of thumb for chocolate chip cookies is that you would use 1 cup of chocolate chips for every cup of flour the recipe calls for. Since our recipe uses 2 cups of flour, we would technically use 2 cups of chocolate chips. I find that to be A LOT of chocolate chips, so I like to use 1¼ cups of chocolate chips for every 2 cups of flour. That’s my sweet spot. However, this recipe is developed with everyone in mind, and you can use anywhere from 1 ¼ – 2 cups of chocolate chips in this recipe.
How to make the Best Extra Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies:
Why do you bake the cookies at 375ºF rather than 350ºF?
I’ve made these cookies more times than I can count and I tested them at 325ºF, 350ºF, and 375ºF. After all of that I found the most superior cookie was the one I baked at 375ºF because of a little thing called the Maillard reaction.
Why do you suggest letting the cookie dough refrigerate rather than baking the cookies right away?
Allowing the cookie dough batter to sit in the refrigerator produces cookies that are chewier, thick, and flavorful. I like to think of it as if you’re ‘marinating’ the batter or ‘aging’ the dough. The flour has a chance to absorb the melted butter and leaves you with almost a butterscotch flavor in the cookies.
Why do you bang the pan on the counter when you remove the chocolate chip cookies from the oven?
Banging the pan at the end helps knock the air out of the cookie and creates ridges that will become chewy as the cool. Keep in mind that this method only works when you under bake the cookie. If the cookie is cooked and set, it won’t create ripples. Just a fair warning, the recipe card may look like it’s a lot of directions, however, I wanted to make sure I was as detailed as possible to ensure you get the same (or better) results at home! I hope you love these extra chewy chocolate chip cookies as much as we did! This post was 10 years in the making so needless to say, I can’t wait for you to make them! If you like this recipe you might also like:
for best results, I suggest baking only one sheet pan worth of cookies at a time. Do not overcrowd the pan.Allow the pan to cool completely between batches, or use a second sheet pan to ensure your cookies come out the same. What I do is use two sheet pans, bake one while the second one chills with the dough in the refrigerator, and then I just swap them so there’s no downtime!I use 1 cup of chocolate chips in the cookie dough and use the remaining 1/4 cup to speckle the dough before baking. If you want to use a full 2 cups, I suggest adding 1 3/4 cups to the batch and then using the remaining 1/4 cup to speckle the dough.
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