Tried and True Chocolate Chip Cookies

Picture this: the moment you break off a piece of these chocolate chip cookies, the edges are perfectly crisp, while the center melts in your mouth. The perfect cookie.

These aren’t your average cookies—I developed this recipe with a lot of food science and perfected it with a special technique that guarantees the ultimate chocolate chip cookie experience.

Whether you’re enjoying them solo with a cup of milk or sharing them at a gathering (though you might not want to), or eating them fresh out of the oven, or even several days later, these cookies are a guaranteed crowd-pleaser—and they’ll have everyone asking for the secret to making them! You’re about to take your cookie game to the next level.

Friends, I’ve spent the last 4 months of my life making at least 1 batch of chocolate chip cookies every week. Why? Because I wanted to make the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. Every week I read a new food science article and tried a new addition or subtraction to the recipe. I feel like I could have won the 4th grade science fair with this science project of mine.

My husband told me I chose the wrong time in life for this project because you cannot buy a normal size bag of chocolate chips here in Finland. They are sold in bags that are like half a cup in quantity and are insanely expensive. Think $3 for that tiny bag.

You also can’t buy a normal American style brown sugar. The brown sugar here has sugar granules that are very coarse and big and it is more of a dark brown sugar flavor rather than the traditional light brown sugar most people use in chocolate chip cookies. When I tried to make cookie recipes with the brown sugar sold here, it did not taste the same. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t taste the same.

So how did I accomplish this task? I literally brought back 2, 50 pound checked bags worth of American baking things and a 35-pound carry-on bag of chocolate chips so they didn’t melt in the suitcase on the airport tarmac in the hot summer weather. I’m telling you, I have been dedicated to this project. This recipe right here is one I hope my great-great-grandchildren will still be making.

This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you’ll need and this is why I decided this was the recipe worth posting first on my new blog. This is where acupofcream starts!

I’m proud of my recipes, and I promise everything on my blog will be high-quality, tried and true recipes. But this chocolate chip recipe will always be special. I hope you will think so too.

I’m also very pleased to say that unlike some, these chocolate chip cookies taste great and remain soft for days and days. I of course love them warm and fresh, but I find them just as yummy the following days too.

Please comment and let me know what you think of these tried and true chocolate chip cookies, and then share it with all your friends and family if you loved it!

Originally posted 10/5/2019 and updated 1/9/24 with new pictures and more instructions with weight measurements. 

Tried and True Chocolate Chip Cookies

Print Recipe

These chocolate chip cookies are the perfect blend of soft centers and crispy edges, packed with rich, gooey chocolate in every bite. Developed with lots of food science and a unique technique, they deliver the ultimate cookie experience that will leave you craving more after every bite!

• Prep Time: 25 minutes active, 1 hour + inactive chilling time
• Cook Time: 8 minutes
• Total Time: 33 minutes active + chilling time
• Yield: about 3 dozen cookies 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

1 cup of butter, slightly cold still (226 g)

¾ cup white sugar (150 g)

1 cup packed brown sugar (220 g)

2 eggs, refrigerated

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 ¼ – 3 ¾ cups flour (455 g – 525 g)

¾ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

2 cups chocolate chips (I suggest semi sweet, dark chocolate or a mix)

Instructions

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment (or with a hand mixer), cream together the butter and sugars until combined, scraping down the edges as needed. Cream for about 1-2 minutes.

Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until just combined again.

In a separate bowl mix all the dry ingredients minus the chocolate chips together.

Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until no flour streaks remain. Scrape down the sides as needed. Add the chocolate chips and mix until combined.

Refrigerate at least 60 minutes before baking.

Rather than the using a traditional cookie scoop, make “dough cylinders”. Trust me, this is a game changer!

Make a “dough cylinder” by grabbing a small fist full of dough and shape into more of a cylinder shape rather than a traditional cookie dough ball. Place the “dough cylinders” on parchment paper or a silipat mat so they’re standing up tall instead of wide. (see pictures for visual)

Bake at 375 F degrees for ~7.5 minutes. Do not overcook.

Let cool on the baking sheet for about 3-5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to finish cooling.

Or lets be honest, go ahead and eat them right off the baking sheet!

Notes

Here’s where some of the food science comes in!:

Use slightly chilled butter. Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before starting or microwave for 10 seconds.

Use cold eggs or the cookies dough may need to be in the fridge a bit longer.

Don’t over mix your dough or the butter won’t be as cold and will result in flatter cookies.

For my kitchen in Helsinki 3 ¼ cups of flour is perfect. You don’t want the dough to be sticky but too dry is not good either. (Updated for my humid kitchen climate in Alabama: I need more like 3 ½ cups of flour) If you grab a pinch it should not stick to your fingers but should still look wet and not dry. Adding too much flour will make your cookies end up more cake-y in the end. Not adding enough flour yields a flatter cookie.

I typically use 1 cup dark chocolate chips and 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips but this recipe tastes wonderful with any kind of chocolate chips.

Oven temperatures vary so bake until you can start to see a tiny bit of golden around the bottom edge and very top of your cookie. My oven in Helsinki bakes these cookies perfectly in 7.5 minutes, at sea level. (In Alabama it is more like 8.5 minutes! My tiny European oven cooked things fast!)

If you are impatient with chilling your dough. You can cut the first batch of chilling time down if you make your dough cylinders, place on the tray and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Because they are smaller in size they will chill faster than an entire bowl of cookie dough. By the time the first 2 trays are done baking the rest of your dough will be ready to be formed and go in the oven. My preferred refrigeration time is overnight. Enjoy some dough after you make this and make the cookies the next day!

If you need instant gratification and can’t wait to bake them and don’t want to chill your dough then bake at 350 F for about 8 minutes. (But I promise that it is worth the wait to chill!)

Keywords: Chocolate Chip Cookies, Cookie recipe, Tried and True, Best cookie, perfect cookie

Frequently Asked Questions – Tried and True Chocolate Chip Cookies