Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These classic chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy with perfectly crisp edges. This recipe is completely dairy-free using good quality dark chocolate making it the perfect cookie recipe to make at home for everyone to enjoy. Yes you have to chill the cookie dough, but let me tell you why it’s worth it!

Chewy chocolate chip cookies are one of life’s greatest gifts. They are classic and simple and just so good. Everyone loves a chocolate chip cookie right?

While I have other cookie recipes on this site such as white chocolate and macadamia cookies, and dark chocolate chunk cookies, I was yet to publish a recipe for this ultimate in classic baking. And honestly, if you ask me, you really can’t beat the humble chocolate chip cookie.

These cookies don’t use any fancy ingredients and come together quite quickly, you just need to plan a little in advance so you can ensure enough time to chill the dough.

How to make chocolate chip cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are actually really easy to make with everything coming together in the same bowl. I like to use my stand mixer because it makes easy work of incorporating all of the ingredients into a soft dough, however you can also just use a wooden spoon if that is what’s available to you.

Start by mixing together the sugars and the melted butter. We use both brown and white sugar in this recipe as they are going to do different jobs. The brown sugar adds chewiness and a little caramel flavour while the white sugar ensures that we get that little bit of crispiness on the edges. It’s also important we use cooled melted butter, we don’t want to add it too hot, but we also want to make sure it has been melted as this is the key to a soft, chewy texture of your cookies.

Next you want to add your eggs and vanilla. In this recipe we are using 1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk. Save the white and add it to your scrambled eggs for breakfast the next morning – that’s what I usually do! The extra yolk here again aids us in our quest for a soft and chewy middle without throwing out the ratio of wet to try ingredients.

Add in your flour, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) and salt and mix through until you have a delicious soft cookie dough.

Finally add in your chocolate chips. I don’t really like any of the dairy-free chocolate chip options available so I usually just grab a block of my favourite good quality dark chocolate and chop this up into chunks and mix through. Set aside a few chunks of chocolate to press into the cookie dough balls right before baking as well.

Now at this stage the temptation to eat the cookie dough is real and I am not going to lie and tell you that I don’t sample a little myself juuusst to make sure I remembered all the ingredients and it’s tasting delicious 😉

But the self control is really tested when I tell you that your going to put plastic wrap over your bowl and put the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours but preferably overnight.

Chilling the cookie dough

Letting the dough rest and chill is essential as it’s going to give the dough time to set. Because we used melted butter, if we baked the cookies immediately they would just spread into a thin mess and that’s not what we want to achieve here with these thick and chewy cookies.

The benefit of letting the cookies rest overnight rather than just a few hours is that in that time the flour starts to really absorb all the liquid in the dough which results in the cookies baking more evenly, having a better texture and creating a more pronounced flavour.

Sure these cookies will taste just fine with a shorter chilling time, but all that will do is firm up the fat in the cookies (the butter) and prevent that spreading in the oven. To let the flavour of these cookies really shine, you are going to want to leave the dough overnight.

The next day when you go to bake them, you will need to let the cookie dough rest again on the bench to come back to room temperature before rolling into balls and baking. You’ll find the dough is quite firm and we just need to let this warm up slightly to ensure we end up with evenly baked cookies.

The length of time you bake your cookies comes down to two main factors, personal preference and your individual oven. I like mine baked for 10 minutes which leaves the centres just slightly underbaked and super soft and chewy. But maybe you want them a little more cooked, so try 12 minutes.

My biggest tip is to cook just one or two first to make sure you get that cook time correct before you put the full batch in the oven as you don’t want to have spent 2 days waiting for cookies only to end up overcooking them.

When the cookies come out of the oven, they will still be soft. Let them cool on the tray for 5-10 minutes to firm up before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy the cookies warm to indulge in the melty pools of dark chocolate, and store the rest in an airtight container for later (around 4 days).

These classic chewy chocolate chip cookies are one of my all time favourite sweet treats and are perfect for weekend baking. Plus you then have chocolate chip cookies to enjoy for morning tea during the week!

If you do make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and rating below! And tag any of your creations on Instagram with #eightforestlane as I would love to see.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

These classic chocolate chip cookies are soft and chewy with perfectly crisp edges. This recipe is completely dairy-free using good quality dark chocolate making it the perfect cookie recipe to make at home for everyone to enjoy.

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Chilling Time: 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes

Servings: 16 cookies (approx)

Author: Sally

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Ingredients

• 2 cups plain flour
• ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup (125 grams) butter melted & cooled
• ¾ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 egg + 1 egg yolk room temperature
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 cup chocolate chips/chunks

Instructions

• In a large mixing bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer, add the melted butter (making sure that it’s not hot), vanilla and the brown and white sugars. Mix with the paddle attachment of your stand mixer or with a wooden spoon. Add in the egg and extra egg yolk and continue to mix until smooth.
• Add flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix until a soft cookie dough forms. Mix through most of the chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate saving a few pieces to press into the top of the cookies before baking, and stir through to combine.
• Cover and chill the cookie dough in the fridge for 1-2 hours minimum but ideally overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 180°C and remove the cookie dough from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
• Using your hands, roll balls of cookie dough using approximately 1.5-2 tablespoons of the mixture and place the balls on the prepared baking trays leaving space between each cookie for them to flatten out. Press a few extra chocolate chips or pieces into the top of the cookie balls.
• Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the tray to firm up before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Notes

I use Nuttelex to replace butter in most of my recipes as it is vegan and gives a 'buttery' flavour without being greasy. As this is an Australian product, the closest US alternative I believe is Earth Balance. Otherwise any dairy-free spread will work.

Nutrition

Calories: 235kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 26mg | Sodium: 162mg | Potassium: 69mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 23g | Vitamin A: 200IU | Calcium: 22mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutritional information is provided as a guide only and is calculated using automated online tools, therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy. We encourage you to make your own calculations based on the actual ingredients used in your recipe.

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