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!
Can I use a choc baking bar instead of choc chips
Yes, absolutely!
This recipe is the completely foolproof! I love that there is no softening or chilling – you can seriously make them in 30 minutes (especially since there is not a ton of dough that requires countless batches to bake in the oven). Every time I’ve made these cookies, they’ve turned out a bit different but I’m never left disappointed – I credit these variations to subbing gluten free flour at times and any of my measuring imprecision. Overall, I love this recipe and will not ever search for another chocolate chip cookie recipe!
Thank you Naomi! So glad it worked even with the GF sub!
A family favorite requested for every event since the day I made them !!!! Super easy to make for a late night snack with literally one bowl to wash after ! I make them so often I’ve memorized the recipe!!! The cookies are perfectly soft, chewy, and crunchy on the outside I can’t recommend this recipe enough !!!
Thank you so much, Mackenzie! I totally agree, having only one bowl to wash is the best 🙂
I did everything the recipe told me but my mixture was very liquified which was a little disappointing since you said you could use melted or softened butter. So I added almost a whole cup of flour on top of of the 1 1/2 cups. They turned out well but very crumbly. What do you suggest that I do next time? 🙂 my boyfriend says that they are delicious though! 🙂
Hi Elyssa – the dough is softer than a normal cookie dough. If you’re concerned, you can put it in the fridge for a half hour to firm up before you scoop the cookies!
I measured the flour as best as possible, but may have gone slightly under or over. The egg was left out at room temperature for 6-8 hours. I made two batches in the oven, 8 each time, 16 total. The first batch, I poured unmeasured semi sweet chocolate chips in the cookie batter and baked 8 cookies. I took the remainder batter and added white chocolate chips and craisins. I didn’t measure the cookie dough at all before placing it on the sheet and each batch turned out fine and soft. The second batch of each cookie was probably 3 tbsp big. We also used light brown sugar since that’s what we had in our pantry. We enjoyed them and there are only 4 left!
Thanks for the feedback Jennifer- so glad you enjoyed these with your mix ins!
Such an amazing recipe! Thank you <3 My Boyfriend loooved them
Thank you Barb! So glad you enjoyed it!
I followed the recipe exactly EXCEPT I substituted mini m&m’s for chocolate chips. They were fast! They were easy! They were delicious! I will definitely be making these yummy cookies again. Thanks for sharing! I’m excited to try some of your other recipes.
Yay!! Thank you so much!
A great recipe! They taste really good if you double the chocolate and vanilla you put in it. It does make 28-32 doubling the chocolate. I still did 1 TBS drops of cookies
Thanks so much for that info, Brianna! So glad you enjoy these.
Its 3 AM here. And i get these urges you know. Never made these American style chocolate chip cookies before but this really made it easy and fast to satisfy my cravings. Thank you!
Yay! So glad you enjoyed them when the craving struck 😉
I just made these because I wanted cookies and I didn’t want to wait and didn’t want a difficult recipe. They were indeed easy, but they taste pretty bad. Like dry and baking soda-y and no flavor. I won’t be making these again. I guess for good cookies I need to do it the hard way. Thanks for posting anyway. Hopefully others have better luck.
Hi Jen – I’m sorry to hear this didn’t turn out well for you. Are you sure you measured your ingredients correctly? It sounds like your flour may have been packed too tightly. Please refer to my instructions re: spoon and level with the flour. And if not, I hope you find another recipe you enjoy!
This is a perfect coronavirus shut in at home but craving sweets recipe. I had a few squares of leftover candy bars, so I just chopped them up and added some chopped pecans so I could say the cookies have protein. I made them as a side project while cooking dinner – they’re that easy to make. They were wonderful! We had enough for a few days and they were delicious microwaved just a bit to re-soften the chocolate. I’m making more tonight.
Yay! Thank you Jona – I love those additions.
Just made these and they are by far the best chocolate chip recipe I have found.
Thank you Sandy!
Agreed! Mine took closer to 15m, but they came out great. Soft and chewy. Perfect basic recipe! I can throw out the others.
This was my very first try and baking chocolate cookies from scratch and they came out perfect!! Thank you!
God bless
Thank you so much Esmeralda!
I may be able to help those who are getting “cakey” cookies. I couldn’t take mine out at 10 minutes because the batter was still pretty liquid (ovens vary), but the cookies were puffing up on the second tray I made. Around the 8-10 minute mark, I took the tray out of the oven and dropped it flat onto the stovetop from about 8” high. The smash flattened the cookies and produced a chewier, less cakey version on the second tray (same batter and oven).
Great tip Keeli! Thanks!
Oh.My.God.
I can’t bake to save my life but with a five year old super into experimenting, I looked for something with minimal room for disaster. And boy, did I find the BEST COOKIE RECIPE EVER. I kid you not, I could have destroyed this too if only it wasn’t so fool proof and amazing!!!
Thank you SO much for giving us such an easy recipe!! Can make this any time! On the flip side, little Mr E. has decided to make them every week!
This is such an amazing review. THANK YOU Saman! So glad these turned out well for you 🙂
I don’t know what an underbaked cookie looks like but mine were beautiful. AND OMG… the taste is … indescribable ! It has a nutty flavour, so rich, dense, deep and perfect ! And the cookie is crusty on the edges but also chewy in the middle. I LOVE this combo-texture. (I don’t like these dry cookies which leave crumbs.) They are not too sweet and perfectly balanced. I will soon post a picture of these of my Instagram account (@bakeandbreak), I hope you sneak a peek 😉 .
Thank you so much Katie !
Thanks so much for the amazing review, Emilie!