Best Big Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

When my girls were little, they always pined for those giant chocolate chip cookies we’d see at bakeries and restaurants but could never have because of their nut allergies. I tried so many times to make them myself but they always turned out big and super flat. Sad face emoji. But I was determined to make them the best big chewy chocolate chip cookies one way or another!

Then, I ran across a great recipe for big cookies from Allrecipes and we were all SO excited! FINALLY, giant bakery-style cookies my girls could enjoy! Since then, I’ve made these cookies a countless number of times, tweaking the recipe along to the way to make it even easier to make AND a little healthier. Nobody ever notices the difference, either, hee hee.

JUMP TO MY RECIPE

What Makes These Cookies the BEST?

• The taste. You just have to try it!
• The texture. Just sink your teeth into one. You’ll see. They’re just the right crispy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside!
• The size and thickness: Bakery-sized BIG, CHEWY and THICK!
• Easy to make. One pot. Less mess!

Tips for Making THICK Cookies

Melted Butter?

Though I am not a cooking scientist, I’ve made many a cookie in my day. I’ve tried making BIG cookies with various regular recipes using softened butter but they just never worked out. I think the trick to this recipe is melted butter but this is contrary to most everything I’ve read online about softened vs. melted butter in cookies! I also thought refrigerating the dough before baking was the trick but that didn’t seem to make a huge difference unless I pre-rolled and froze them. With THIS cookie dough, you don’t have to refrigerate it and it STILL comes out BIG, CHEWY and THICK!

Note: Using melted butter does give this dough a different consistency. It’s fairly dense and has a greasiness to it which makes it a little harder to mix in those chocolate chips at the end. That’s why I add them in with the dry ingredients. It saves my arm some work, too. You can always use a mixer, but that’s just more to clean. <winky face>

Dough thickness.

Form dough into balls using your hands or a cookie/ice cream scoop or dump them right out of your 1/4 cup measuring cup. Don’t flatten them! Unless you’re making Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches, in which case, do flatten them some!

Note: Using a 2 3/8″ round, 3/4″ deep 1/4 cup measuring cup typically yields a 3 1/2″ round cookie that’s about 1/2″ thick.

Use a silicone mat.

It also helps to use a silicone mat over parchment paper. I’ve noticed time and time again that cookies made on my silpat mat come out thicker than cookies on parchment paper. If you take a close look at my pictures, you can actually SEE the difference. But as you can also see, if you don’t have a silicone mat, the cookies baked on parchment paper are still thick and just as delicious!

Cool on wire rack.

Once you take the cookies out of the oven, carefully transfer them over to your wire rack immediately. Be careful, though, because the cookies will still be a bit delicate. Leaving them on the hot cookie sheet for too long will cause them to spread out.

Cookie Variations

This dough is so versatile! It makes amazing tasting chocolate chip cookies. But with just some minor tweaks, you can turn it into other amazing cookies. This is just another reason why these are the Best Big Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies!

• Sugar Cookies: This makes a delicious sugar cookie with just one change – leave out the chocolate chips! My girls often prefer it this way. I like to dip the top in some sprinkles to make them fun and pretty. Kids of all ages love sprinkles!
• m&m Cookies: These are my FAVORITE. Simply replace the chocolate chip cookies with m&ms. You can mix them into the batter like you do with the chocolate chips. But I actually prefer to place 6 or 7 of them on top of my cookies before baking. That way, they’re evenly distributed and look really nice too. They will be crowded on top of the dough but will spread out evenly while baking. You can do it both ways or just one, depending on how many m&m’s you’d like in your cookie!
• Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Cookies: Take individually wrapped bite-sized cups, cut them into quarters and push them on top of the dough just like with the m&m’s. In this case, you can flatten the dough a little to help make the peanut butter cups fit better.
• Oreo Cookies: Just chop up about 16 Oreo cookies and mix them into the batter. Save bigger chunks to stick on top to make them look fancier!
• The possibilities are endless!! Let me know what you end up putting in them! 😉

Troubleshooting

Ok, I’ve made these cookies SO many times and each time, they’ve turned out exactly the same, with that super thick greasy-ish dough – which is totally want you want. When you scoop it with a measuring cup, it pretty much just plops right out, just as I would expect!

But lately, like my last 10 batches, the dough has been coming out sticky, like when you make dough using butter at room temperature and not melted. This happened to me just yesterday when I made SIX batches for a soccer team banquet. I panicked! I can’t for the life of me figure out why that happened as I’ve been doing everything the same. When I did a test cookie, it was flat. SO flat! That’s when I really panicked! But amazingly enough, I was able to salvage them AND still got rave reviews! Whew. So if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, STAY CALM and BAKE ON! They will still taste amazing (unless you left out sometime major, like sugar, lol). Here’ are some trouble shooting techniques to try should your cookies come out flat:

• Bake a test cookie: This may take a little extra time but I highly recommend doing this, especially if your dough doesn’t seem quite right. Plus, it’s a great way to figure out your cookie size. This way, you know what you’re dealing with. Hopefully, you’ll find that it turns out just the way you hoped!
• Shape dough in rounded balls: Even if you’re using a 1/4 measuring cup, ball them up, don’t flatten them at all and then bake.
• Refrigerate your dough: If the batter is too sticky and your test cookie is coming out flat, refrigerate or even freeze your dough your dough in smaller batches for an hour or so. You can pre-roll them into balls before refrigerating/freezing for even less spreading.
• Re-size your cookies as they bake: Believe it or not, flat cookies can be salvaged by using a spatula to push the edges back towards the center at about halfway into your baking time. Keep checking your cookies every few minutes and repeat until they take the size and thickness you desire. This will add several minutes to your bake time, so be vigilant in checking them.
• Switch to a silicone mat if you’re using parchment paper. If you don’t have one, try tripling up on your parchment paper layers. And then invest in a silicone mat for next time. Parchment paper cookies definitely come out flatter than ones baked on silicone so save yourself some trouble next time and invest in one asap.

I will definitely update this post if I ever figure out what is going on – and I really hope I do, but I am PERPLEXED!

Update 7/3/23: I’m still having some trouble but I do think I was letting the butter cool too much before mixing in the the rest of the ingredients. So I’ve updated the recipe to cool just before adding the chocolate chips in.

Update 10/1/23: I believe the mystery has been finally solved – mostly. It was indeed because I was letting the butter cool too much before mixing sugar into it. When I add the sugars, they should not be able to mix completely into the butter – ie there should still be melted butter that just won’t incorporate. I’ve learned that this is a good sign. So just add the sugars right after melting the butter and then proceed with the recipe up until but not including the chocolate chips. The dough is still way thinner and stickier than it used to be – not dense and greasy as expected – but we can work around that. Let the sticky dough cool for about 5-10 minutes before mixing in the chocolate chips so they don’t melt. Do a test chip to make sure.

THEN, let the finished dough with chocolate chips included sit at room temperature for about 15-30 minutes or until the dough becomes more elastic and won’t stick to your finger when you poke the dough. That’s another good sign! Follow these steps and the cookies will come out amazing as expected without having to refrigerate or re-form the cookies as you bake. But DO bake a test cookie! DO IT!

Update: 1/23/24: Ok, here’s the final update. Do NOT let the butter cool. Mix in the sugar right away. The ingredients won’t fully mix together but that’s ok. Once you add in the eggs and vanilla, it will. Also, I’ve since reduced the egg amount from 2 eggs to 1 egg and 1 egg yolk, like the original recipe. I hate waste because I don’t always use the left over egg whites, so I tried using 2 whole eggs. It’s fine if you do, but the cookies will turn out a little more “cakey” than buttery/crispy/chewy. They’re still just as DELICIOUS, though!

Now without further ado, here’s my BEST Big Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe!

Freeze Some for Later!

I LOVE to have freshly baked cookies on hand for last-minute visitors or when I just NEED a warm cookie but don’t want the hassle of making them from scratch. So, I often make a double batch to save for later.

This dough (as well as just about any other cookie I make) freezes GREAT. After scooping the dough, flatten it a bit because frozen dough won’t spread out nearly as much during baking and will turn out smaller and thicker. Place it on a plate or other flat surface lined with parchment paper. Put them in the freezer until balls are frozen enough and won’t stick together (about an hour). Then place them all into a plastic freezer bag or container for later use.

To bake from frozen, simply pre-heat oven to 325 and bake for about 17 to 20 minutes (or until golden brown). If the cookies are too thick, press down on dough using the back of a spoon about 10 minutes into baking to flatten them more.

Another delicious way to eat the Best Big Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies is to slap some ice cream in between! Be sure to check out my Homemade Cookie Sandwich recipe. You won’t be sorry!

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Christine, aka happyvballgirl : )

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• Silpat Baking Mat
• Chicago Metallic Jelly Roll Pan
• Jenaluca Cookie Scoop
• Le Creuset Enameled Cast Iron Signature Round Dutch Oven, 5.5 qt., Flame

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