Seriously, the easiest chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made. Melted butter, one bowl, no mixer, no chilling. Soft and chewy homemade cookies, every time.
I’ve had a go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe for a long time. Like, since I was 12. This is not that.
This is better.
The thing about homemade chocolate chip cookies is that everyone loves them, but no one can agree on the correct recipe.
For some people, that may not even be a question that’s relevant — i.e., why would you bother arguing about it when we could have scooped pre-made dough out of a Toll House tub and baked it by now — but since you’re reading this, I’m guessing you’re not one of those people.
So let’s talk about it.
What makes a great chocolate chip cookie recipe
I’ve done a fair amount of reading about chocolate chip cookies. They’re deceptively simple, yet they require the building of complex flavor and can be extremely finicky.
Recipe authors have suggested using bread flour because of its higher protein content (and thus better chewiness), adding an extra egg yolk for richer flavor, browning the butter (because ok, brown butter is delicious), chilling the dough for 2 days to build more flavor, using a mixture of super expensive chopped dark chocolate instead of chocolate chips so it melts throughout, adding cornstarch to keep cookies thick, various ratios of brown sugar to white sugar for optimal flavor and softness…I could go on, but doesn’t it seem like a cookie this simple, this classic, should not be so complicated???
The problems don’t stop there, though.
Once you’ve decided on a certain recipe, there is the method, and it must be done correctly or else your cookies may suck.
Creaming soft (but not too soft) butter and sugar. At a certain speed, for a certain time. Adding 1 (or 2??) eggs, which are at room temperature of course (because everyone thinks that far ahead).
Adding just enough flour and not mixing it too much, otherwise you’ll overdevelop the gluten and your cookies will be too dense. Chilling the dough for an hour, or two hours, or two days, depending on your recipe. Scooping and rolling precise little mounds.
Bah!
My other major gripe about most chocolate chip cookie recipes is how MANY cookies they make. I don’t know about you, but I don’t need 3-4 dozen cookies from one recipe, and I resent the fact that I have to keep pulling sheets in and out of the oven for 45 minutes.
When you live in a small apartment, there’s only so many places to put cooling cookies. I admit that it’s not a terrible problem to have, but still.
All of this is to say, that one night I was really, really craving cookies (as one does) and really didn’t want to go through the aforementioned rigamarole. I just wanted soft, melty, chewy cookies, NOW.
So I cut my normal recipe in half, threw caution to the wind and melted the butter, stirred everything together with a fork in one bowl, and hoped for the best. And honestly….they weren’t the best I’d ever had, but they weren’t bad. They spread more than I’d have liked, but certainly didn’t suffer in the way I’d assumed they would.
So I started tinkering.
Like the annoying recipe authors I mentioned before, I tinkered with the brown/white sugar ratio, and added flour to make up for the moisture of the melted butter. I increased the salt because it sets off the chocolate sweetness so well.
And after a couple rounds of testing (poor us), I came up with what I consider to be the easiest homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe there is.
Here’s why these are the easiest chocolate chip cookies:
- You use melted butter – no waiting around for butter to soften.
- You stir everything together in one bowl – no mixer necessary.
- Because you’re stirring by hand, you’re very unlikely to over-mix the dough (a common cookie problem).
- NO CHILLING REQUIRED! Hallelujah.
- The recipe makes only 20 cookies! No waiting around for an hour for all your cookies to be done.
I’ve now made it at least 5 times, in a number of temperature and time circumstances, and it hasn’t failed me yet. That’s more than I can say for most cookie recipes I’ve tried, to be honest.
I gave my friend Colleen a plate of them for her birthday, and her text the next day says it all: “These are the BEST DAMN COOKIES I’VE EVER HAD!!!”
I couldn’t agree more.
Common Questions:
This has everything to do with how you measure your flour, and how little or how much of it there is. I strongly recommend weighing your flour using a kitchen scale, as that will yield the most consistent results. If you don’t want to, however, you can also use the “spoon and level” method to accurately measure flour. Use a spoon to gently place flour into your cup until you reach the top, then level it off with a knife. Don’t pack it in, don’t shake the cup to settle it, don’t scoop the flour directly from the bag with your cup – this will be too much flour and your cookies will not spread correctly!
First, make sure you added the full 1 and 1/2 cups of flour! The dough should be just a touch softer than standard cookie dough. If you think your dough is much more liquid than that, stir in another 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour, then refrigerate the dough for half an hour before scooping and baking. This should fix the problem! Try not to add too much flour, as you don’t want the cookies to be dry.
I mostly use Bob’s Red Mill’s all-purpose flour, but I also like King Arthur Flour. Note that if you use White Lily or a similar soft, lower protein wheat flour, you will need to add more flour a tablespoon at a time (up to 1/4 cup or 30 grams more) until your dough gets to a cookie dough consistency. This is because lower protein wheat flours (designed for light and fluffy biscuits and cakes) absorb less moisture than higher protein, hard wheat flours. Your cookies will still be delicious but just require a little adjustment!
Yes, but I recommend making two separate batches, rather than doubling the ingredients in one bowl. The reason for this is that if you double the ingredients in one bowl, you’re doubling the volume but not the surface area, which means more heat will be retained by the batter and you’ll have flat, spread-out cookies. For this reason, I recommend making two separate batches, but if you must double everything in one bowl, I would recommend chilling the dough for at least an hour before scooping.
The Easiest Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter (113g; 1 stick)
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed (100g)
- ¼ cup granulated (white) sugar (50g)
- 1 large egg (cold or room temperature, both are fine)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (188g – see notes below on how to measure flour correctly without a scale)
- ½ cup chocolate chips (85g; more if desired)
- Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- In a large microwave-safe bowl (or a small saucepan on the stove), heat the butter until just melted. Whisk in the two sugars until thoroughly combined (I like to use a fork as my whisk). Let the mixture cool for a minute, then whisk in the egg and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over top of the mixture and stir in, then add the flour and stir it in until fully combined and a smooth dough is formed. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons (if you have it, a #40 tablespoon cookie scoop is perfect for this) onto cookie sheets, about 2 inches apart. The dough should make approximately 20 cookies worth.
- If desired, sprinkle additional coarse sea salt over top of the cookies (you can also do this after they’re baked). Bake for 9-10 minutes. NOTE: the cookies will look underdone, but they’ll firm up as they sit.
- Let cookies cool on sheet for at least 5 minutes, then cool completely on a rack. Store, tightly covered, at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Notes
Like this recipe? Please rate it and leave a comment or tag me on Instagram @katiebirdbakes, and sign up for my email list to receive my recipes straight to your inbox every time I post!
I haven’t baked in a few years and the batch I just made are the first. They’re delicious! The best cookies I’ve ever made! Thank you so much. I’m going to favorite your site.
Thank you so much, Kara! Welcome back to baking!
So so easy, just gotta remember the trick for measuring flour.
Thank you Megan! Glad you enjoyed it – the flour trick is super important!
Made them Exactly as per the recipe…they came out cakey, not at all resembling the pic your posted. I don’t know how everyone else’s came out perfect, but makes not sense to me.
Hi Shelley, I’m sorry these cookies didn’t turn out the way you expected them to. Please note my instructions in the recipe for not adding too much flour. It may be that you inadvertently packed the flour in the cup too much, which would cause the cookies to not spread and have a cake-like texture. Please let me know if you have any questions! Thank you for the review.
Mine came out cake like to. They were still good but differently not what is was expecting .
Hi Brittney – thanks for the review, sorry they weren’t what you were expecting!
I have made these cookies many times and they’ve turned out perfectly! I just made them today for like the 10th time and the batter was super runny and the cookies spread out to cover the whole pan…what did I do wrong!?!?
Hi Kara – thanks for the review! Sounds like you may not have added enough flour (or any at all). Are you sure you added all of the ingredients as written?
I’m so embarrassed!! Turns out I mis labeled my powdered sugar and flour 😂 🤦♀️ I redid them after figuring out my mistake and they came out perfect 👌
Haha! Happens to the best of us!!
They taste amazing but any tips on how to keep them from spreading so much? I did the whole recipe the same but they turn out kinda flat.
Hi Jamie – try adding a tablespoon or two of flour to the dough if they are spreading too much!
My family loved these and we are cookie-snobs! Great recipe and easy to make. Thank you so much!
Yay! Thank you Sandy!
Waayy too dry. I even used big chunks of chocolate instead of chips and it was still very dry and puffy. I would add an extra egg or just an extra yolk. Super easy to make though.
Sorry it didn’t work for you!
Thank you so much for this recipe!! They truly are the easiest chocolate chip cookies & taste AMAZING. You’re a gem and i hope you have a lovely day!!
Thanks so much Anthea! Glad you enjoyed these!
Hi! I love this recipe and I’ve used it probably 5 times now to make delicious cookies, but this time I decided to melt the butter on the stovetop like you suggested, and the texture came out all wrong. The dough was so gluey I could barely get it on the cookie sheet. I do not recommend this technique if you decide to use this recipe.
Sorry to hear that, Maggie – I’ve never experienced that and would think melted butter would perform the same no matter how it is melted, but I will try that again and see if I have the same result as you. Thanks for letting me know!
Hi. Tried your easy recipe with ingredients we get in India. They turned out great. Everyone is enjoying them. 5*.
Thank you!
SO GOOD! I could eat the whole batch! perfect cookies for anytime you want them. i would recommend this recipe to anyone!!!! Thank you soooo much!!!!
Thank you Hope! I really appreciate the kind review!
I love this recipe! I’ve mad it several times and each time I get perfect results. Sometimes I bake as the recipe states and other times I add chopped pralines, toffee bits, chocolate chip discs and morsels, kinda like a kitchen sink cookie. My family and friends love them, and of course me! Thanks so much for a great recipe!
I love those add-in ideas! So glad you love this recipe!
Why do the cookies in video and the cookies in the photo look like completely different recipes? The ones in the video look terrible. The pictures look awesome. Are the photos of cookies you made? It is very puzzling. I clicked on the recipe because of the photo and after watching the video, I’m not sure I want to make these.
They are the same recipe. If you want the cookies to look more like the picture, just press extra chocolate chips onto the top of each ball of dough before baking.
Ya I was thinking the same thing. Mine came out like the video…like little cakes…no way that picture is the same cookies that she made. It’s probably a stock photo. Many of these bloggers are using stock photos and not photos of their actual recipe. Kind of deceptive IMO.
Hi Shelley – every single photo on this site was taken, with great effort and hard work, by me. Thank you for your feedback.
Just found your recipe because my 4-year-old daughter was sobbing that we didn’t have any chocolate chip cookies, and I needed something fast that didn’t require letting butter soften or chilling the dough. These turned out PERFECT! (My 4-year-old agrees!) This recipe is a keeper, thank you!
Yay! Thank you Erin! I am so glad this recipe worked for your needs 🙂
Sooooo, good ans super quick and easy. I loved how chewy they are, I hate hard ccc. Thanks for sharing bookmarked as favorite.
Karla
Thank you Karla! So glad you enjoyed it!
These cookies are amazing! S am eleven year’s old and they were so simple to make! My family loves them and they are encouraging me to make them all the time. They taste amazing and look amazing. I am definitely going to Make these again and again. Thank you!!!!!!
Thank you so much Ilka! Great job baking these!
These are incredible and SO easy!! They taste almost like cat tongue cookies! They spread a lot, which I was super stoked about because I’m not into cookies that taste too cakey or dense. I took them out at 9 mins just like it says and at first was worried they were underdone, but I waited and they hardened and now my roomates and I have finished the whole batch in a night. Thank you so much Katie for giving me a lifelong cookie recipe!
Thank you so much for the great review, Franny! So glad you and your roommates loved these!
I made these tonight at 10! I was craving cookies and didn’t want to break the mixer out, it’s to loud the baby was sleeping! I doubled the recipe because for some reason 20 didn’t seem like enough for tonight! Lol! The cookies are perfect, so easy to make! I normally make a different recipe every time because I haven’t found the perfect recipe yet. I have now!! Thank you so much! Happy baking!
Thank you Tabbatha! I’m so glad these worked for you!