Chocolate Chunk Cookies — These chocolate chunk cookies are made with both chocolate chunks AND chips. These are hands down the BEST chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made!
Table of Contents
Best Ever Cookies … with Chocolate Chunks!
I’ve been on the quest to find the perfect end-all be-all chocolate chip cookie recipe. And this recipe is as close as I’ve come.
These chunky chocolate chip cookies are so soft, similar to Keebler Soft-Batch Cookies, minus the store-bought taste. And they bake up with the perfect height; not too thick or overly domed and not too thin like flat pancakes.
I stuffed these cookies to the max with both chocolate chips and chocolate chunks. As the cookies bake, the chips retain their shape more than the chunks, which turn into oozing luxurious puddles.
What Makes These Chocolate Chunk Cookies “The Best?”
If you’re looking for an easy, straightforward, chocolate chunk cookie recipe that yields fantastic results, I encourage you to give this one a try. These cookies are as close to my definition of The Perfect Cookie as I’ve come and here are the highlights why I love the recipe:
- No two-day waiting period between making the dough and baking the cookies — and dough chilling is optional.
- No egg plus yolk situation to contend with so nothing is wasted.
- The overall batch size is manageable, about two dozen.
- Each cookie is decent-sized, but not ginormous.
- The cookies get softer, not harder or drier, the next day and continue to stay soft for up to a week.
- The holy grail of cookie qualities are present — thick, puffy, soft, and chewy.
And let’s not forget, there are two kinds of chocolate in every bite! The more the merrier.
Ingredients in Chocolate Chunk Cookies
To make this chocolate chunk cookie recipe, you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Bread flour
- Cornstarch
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Bittersweet chocolate
How to Make Chocolate Chunk Cookies
The double chocolate chunk cookies come together quickly, although you do have to chill the dough before baking it (no way around it, sorry!). Let’s review how the cookies loaded with chocolate chunks are prepared:
- Cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add in the egg and vanilla, then stir in the dry ingredients.
- Add the chocolate chunks and chips last, then scoop the dough into balls.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough balls for about 2 hours before baking them.
- Bake until barely golden brown around the edges, even if slightly undercooked in the center.
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
How Long Should You Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies?
I recommend baking 8 to 9 minutes, and not more than 10 minutes, period. I found given the size of my dough mounds, my oven, and my taste preferences, 9 minutes is the magic number for me. Even though the centers will seem underdone at 8 or 9 minutes, as the cookies cool out of the oven, they firm up.
If you wait to pull the cookies until they look done, as they cool they will set up far too firm and crumbly and won’t stay soft and chewy. Don’t overbake.
Cookie Baking FAQs
I used two types of flour in these chocolate chunk cookies, both bread and all-purpose flour. The original recipe just calls for all-purpose but because bread flour adds extra chewiness and since my dream cookie is one with a high degree of chewiness, I utilized a combination of bread flour and all-purpose.
If you don’t have bread flour, solely using all-purpose is fine. Your cookies may not be quite as chewy nor as thick, since bread flour also lends increased structure to baked goods, but they’ll still be plenty good.
Unbaked cookie dough may be refrigerated for up to 5 days prior to baking it, or frozen for up to 3 months
The chewiness comes from the bread flour in this particular recipe (see above for my answer to that FAQ).
To create a soft cookie, you need to use larger amounts of dough. I used about 2.25 ounces dough per cookie. I weighed each mound of dough, but if you don’t have a scale or don’t want to be bothered, that translates to two heaping tablespoons of dough, and with the chocolate pieces dangling off, possibly 3 tablespoons.
I learned when I made those cookies that a larger mass of dough allows the cookie center to remain soft and tender since it never gets the chance to dry out or overbake while the edges crisp up.
I chilled the cookie dough before baking it and always advocate doing so because as dough chills, the flavors marry and cold dough spreads less during baking, resulting in puffier and thicker cookies.
Brown sugar helps cookies stay softer and gives them a richer flavor profile since brown sugar has more depth of flavor than granulated sugar does. Ironically, cookies made with more brown than granulated sugar become softer over time as they absorb atmospheric moisture, rather than drying out.
Where this chocolate chunk cookie recipe veers way off the path compared to any other cookie recipe I’ve ever tried is that it uses cornstarch, and just two mere teaspoons, but enough to work its softening magic. Cornstarch is not only a softening agent, but it’s also a thickening agent. Just as it thickens gravy or soup, it helps to create thick and puffy cookies.
Nope! You may use one or the other, if desired. I was going to make the cookies exclusively using semi-sweet chocolate chips, but I enjoy having a variety of textures and flavors in my cookies, especially when those textures and flavors are of the chocolate variety. I opted to use both semi-sweet chocolate chips and bittersweet chocolate chunks, courtesy of a Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus bar.
Recipe Variations to Try
It’s easy to customize this recipe for chocolate chip chunk cookies! You may add up to 12 ounces (roughly 2 cups, but no more) of mix-ins, such as:
- Chopped nuts
- White chocolate chips
- Butterscotch chips
- Diced candy bar pieces
- Dried fruit
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Chocolate Chip and Chunk Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
- ¾ cup brown sugar, packed (I use light)
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup bread flour or all-purpose flour*, See Notes
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 6 ounces 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 6 ounces bittersweet or dark baking chocolate, chopped into bite-sized chunks (I use Trader Joe’s 72% Pound Plus bar)
Instructions
- To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on low speed until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add the sugars and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 3 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the egg, vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flours, corn starch, baking soda, salt, and mix until just combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the chocolate chips and chunks, and either fold in by hand or beat for a few seconds on low speed.
- Using a 2-ounce cookie scoop, form heaping mounds weighing 2 1/4-ounces each (weighed on a scale, which is approximately a scant 1/4-cup measure. Dough mounds will look large for their weight because there’s lots of chocolate pieces adding bulk).
- Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 5 days.
- Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking sheet with a Silpat Non-Stick Baking Mat, parchment, or spray with cooking spray. Place dough mounds on the baking sheet, spaced at least 2 inches apart; I bake 8 cookies per sheet.
- Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges, even if slightly undercooked in the center, noting the tops will not be browned and will be pale. Do not cook longer than ten minutes as cookies will darken and firm up as they cool (The cookies shown in the photos were baked for 8 minutes, rotated once midway through baking, and have chewy edges with soft pillowy centers).
- Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing and transferring to a rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- *Edited to add May 2013 – I prefer these cookies using exclusively all-purpose flour and have stopped baking them with a combination of all-purpose and bread flour. I am leaving the recipe up as I wrote it back in 2012, but note that I prefer all-purpose because the cookies are softer, more tender, and more moist.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Alternatively, unbaked cookie dough can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, so consider baking only as many cookies as desired and save the remaining dough to be baked in the future when desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipes:
You can check out all of my chocolate chip cookie recipes HERE.
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Wow! this is so yummy, Averie that I wanna eat get them in the monitor right now to it. I should try baking this cookies. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Margaret!
I’m literally mesmerized by these cookies!! They are Perfect…perfect height, perfect ratio of chocolate-to-dough, and they have that irresistible wrinkly-ness. :D
I didn’t know that brown sugar helped to preserve a cookies softness! Thanks for the tip. Now I’m going to go daydream about chocolate chip cookies… (luckily I have cornstarch!). :)
Yes it does preserve softness in such a great way – which is why the Cooks Illustrated recipes always tend to stay softer, and this one too – compared to ones that have equal white and brown ratios.
And I am glad I have you mesmerized :) Thanks for the pin!
Looking at this post reminds me of cookie heaven your cookies look amazing!! I never would have thought about putting cornstarch in cookies I hope it wont alter the taste. I am loving the skillet cookie it looks so good..
No it’s just starch, two little teaspoons in an entire big batch of cookies, so no effect on taste – just a positive effect on results!
There is nothing better than fresh chocolate chip cookies right out of the oven. Those pictures with the melted chocolate chips=heaven!
Those really melty ones are the chunks – they melt so beautifully and ooze like that :)
I saw you and Sally’s comment conversation about adding cornstarch to cookies and I have to say I am quite intrigued by the idea. I need to try it. These are studded with chocolate so I know I would love them!
I know you love the CI recipe but honestly, you have GOT To try this one. I think it will give your beloved recipe a run for it’s money – sure did for me!
It’s definitely that time of year – cookie baking season! These look awesome. I bet the cornstarch makes them extra chewy and delicious. I love the gooey chocolate oozing out of these in the photos! Drool-worthy!
I love the oozing chocolate too and yes the cornstarch just works a little miracle – two mere teaspoons in a whole batch, but it’s a great little trick and I loved these!
I haven’t made cookies with cornstarch but after reading about what it does for them, I’m very tempted to try it. I dug out an old toaster oven to get by with for a while, so I think I could pull off half a batch of these. I love the chips and chunks of chocolate in there too. My usual standby has just been Nestlé Tollhouse, so I think I just found a replacement for it in this recipe!
You will never go back to that recipe I don’t think after this – or try the Cooks Illustrated that I linked. But these honestly are the softest and the chewiest, and just the best overall CCC recipe I’ve tried pretty much ever. And that oven of yours – gah! LMK how it’s going and what you decide on getting!
Ok Averie, between these and the molasses ones you posted a little bit ago, it’s becoming realllllly hard to not just want to say screw it to the paleo thing and bake them all up! I’m thinking both recipes need to be tried for the holidays though at some point, they look perfect! :)
These and the molassses ones are both two new faves – and if I do say so, worthy of screwing the paleo thing for awhile for! Although your pumpkin bars do look crazy good!
Get in my belly. I want to live next door to you so I can smell the amazingness all day long, every day. And just “happen” to stop by when you’ve got these cookies (or the molasses choco chip, or the super-vanilla, or….) coming out of the oven. DANG.
This post is basically cookie heaven! Love it! Plus I always feel like I”m on the lookout for the perfect choc chip cookie…definitely need to try these!
They are my new fave CCC recipe and I am *extremely* picky and give this one the high honors. I bet you’d love them!
Two kinds of chocolate in a soft, puffy cookie…sounds like my kind of cookie for sure! I really do need to jump on this corn starch band wagon! Now I know why I enjoy those pudding cookies so much though…the good starch quality that keeps them so soft and chewy!!!
When I put two and two together with pudding cookies and cornstarch, I realized that ah-hah! THAT’S why they’re so soft. And now no need for pudding mix – I know you love your pudding cookies and I KNOW if you make these you’ll be in heaven!
I love the idea of two different kinds of chocolate! These look phenomenal.
I adore your posts. I always learn something new. Thank you for that!
I am glad that you feel like you always learn something – I try to share what I know and it’s nice to know people learn things!
These look and sound absolutely amazing! These sound like something my husband would just dream about! I’ll try this out sometime this week! Thanks Averie!
If you do try them, please LMK how they go over!
They look incredible Averie! I adore this cookie recipe, as you know. So happy you got the chance to make them and are now convinced! I use baking soda when I make the recipe myself as well. Never tried using bread flour though, although I did plan to get it over the weekend and I didn’t! The combination of chips and chunks- perfection! They remind me of your oozing chocolate molasses cookies! There are so many wonderful qualities about this recipe – it’s straightforward, it’s quick, it’s easy. Each time I bake them, the centers do appear undone but they firm up as they rest coming out of the oven. And you are right – they get softer on day 2! i have some day 2 cornstarch cookies right here in the kitchen – soft as ever! Yours look so doughy, which I love. :) Great job with these!!!
They were so oozing with chocolate – chips and chunks – and it was perfect :) And I am glad I finally tried them too and now I understand why you love them so much!
These look mighty tasty, and the consistency is what I am always after in my perfect cookie! YUM!
Thanks, Liz! And I have been ‘following’ you; commenting on like 6 blogs that you were just at, minutes before me :) Great minds apparently think alike and read the same blogs :)