Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are always a hit in our family. But how do you ensure soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies that melt in your mouth?

I’ve listed a number of tips and tricks below for making the perfect chocolate chip cookie. But I’ll give you a preview on one of the best secrets.

Include an extra egg yolk in the batter.

Doing so practically guarantees that oh so gooey chewy chocolate chip texture.

Also – using more brown sugar than white makes your cookies extra soft and chewy.

Save this recipe for soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies and you’ll likely be the most popular person at your next family get-together.

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies Ingredients

Homemade baking often takes a lot of time and a ton of ingredients. Fortunately, that’s not the case for these yummy chocolate chip cookies.

You’ll need only nine things:

• Flour. I typically stick to all-purpose flour. But you can use gluten-free or another type to suit your dietary needs.

• Baking soda. This ingredient will help the cookies rise.

• Salt. Salt is a simple flavor enhancer.

• Butter. Unsalted butter works best. It allows you to control the amount of salt by adding it yourself.

• Sugars. You’ll use both packed brown sugar and white sugar for these cookies. Using more brown sugar than white will contribute to their soft chewiness.

• Vanilla extract. Vanilla adds an extra bit of warmth and richness. It also enhances the flavor of the other ingredients.

• Egg + an extra egg yolk. As mentioned, the extra yolk is the secret ingredient to making the cookies as soft and chewy as possible. The egg also acts as a leavening agent and helps plump up the dough.

• Semisweet chocolate chips. If you prefer dark or white chocolate, you could use those instead. Semisweet works well in the recipe, though.

How to Make Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

In the next section, I’ve outlined some of the best secrets I have for making chewy chocolate chip cookies.

For now, here’s a brief overview of the steps for making and baking the cookies:

1. Prepare. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, grease or line your cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Make the batter. Sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, and salt) first. Then, set that bowl aside and grab another.

In it, you’ll combine melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar. Then, beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk. The mixture should be creamy and light.

Once it is, add the dry ingredients to the larger mixture.

Gently mix until everything is just barely incorporated. Then, add the chocolate chips. Gently stir them in with a wooden spoon.

3. Bake. Transfer balls of cookie dough to the cookie sheets, leaving 3 inches between them. Bake at 325 for 15 to 17 minutes.

4. Cool. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven, and let the cookies cool on them for 3-5 minutes.

Then, remove the cookies from the cookie sheets and place them on wire racks to cool completely.

Then, serve and enjoy!

Tips & Tricks: The Secrets to Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here are my best tips for ensuring your cookies are as chewy as possible:

• Egg-related tips. First, use room temperature eggs as these will help your cookies rise. Secondly, don’t overbeat them. Finally, don’t skip the extra egg yolk. It’s the secret to extra chewy cookies!

• Add powdered milk. I’m not sure about the science behind this hack, but it works. Add 1-2 teaspoons and see the difference it makes in the texture!

• Use more brown sugar than white. Brown sugar has more leavening power and will make the cookies softer and fluffier.

• Chill the dough. Avoid flat cookies by placing your cookie dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. The longer it stays in the fridge, the more likely you are to get nice thick cookies. If you need to speed things up, place the dough in the freezer instead.

• Form the cookies by hand. Sure, you can use a spoon or a cookie dough scoop. However, you’ll be able to control the shape and size better if you use your hands.

• Don’t overbake! Take the cookies out of the oven as soon as the edges brown. The center might look undone – but don’t worry. That’s how they’re supposed to look. They’ll continue to cook while outside the oven. If you overcook them in the oven, they’ll be hard and dry.

• Store them properly. Store your cookies in an airtight container to keep them soft and fresh.

For those of you who prefer crispy cookies, I have a tip for you, too:

• Add more white than brown sugar. If you like your cookies thin and crispy, add more white than brown sugar. As mentioned, brown sugar has more leavening power, so you must use less of it if you don’t want your cookies to rise as much. 

Finally, here are a few variations to try:

• Use at least two kinds of chocolate chips. Doing so will give you more texture and flavor. Also, place the chocolate chips strategically, such that the big chunks are on top.

• Make them crunchy. Apart from chocolate chips, you may also add chopped nuts for more crunch. Broken pretzel pieces would also suffice.

• Make them less sweet. Balance out the sweetness of the cookies by sprinkling them with a bit of salt.

What Makes Cookies Chewy or Crispy?

Two things contribute to the texture of a cookie: sugar and butter.

For softer cookies, you’ll use less butter, less white sugar, and more brown sugar. The ratio of brown sugar to white sugar should be 2:1. That means you’ll use twice as much brown sugar as white.

For crispy cookies, you’ll add more butter, more white sugar, and less brown sugar. The ratio in these cookies isn’t quite as clean, though.

In most recipes, crispy cookies need about 1-3/4 cups of white sugar and only 3/4 cups of brown.

More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes

Here are a few of my other favorite chocolate chip cookie recipes:

• Easy Hershey’s Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Crisco Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Soft Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies