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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Softbatch Cream Cheese Chocolate Chip Cookies — These soft batch cookies are made with a combination of butter and cream cheese, which makes them extra rich and delicious!
Mrs. Field’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (Copycat) — If you’ve always wanted to recreate Mrs. Fields cookies at home, this recipe works beautifully and will save you a trip to the mall.
Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — These cookies are soft, moist, and oh-so chewy. They taste like banana bread and chocolate chip cookies rolled into one dessert!
The Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies — Soft, chewy, loaded with chocolate, and they turn out perfectly every time! Totally irresistible!!
The Best Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies — One of my absolute favorite recipes for chocolate chip cookies thanks to a special ingredient! Just one bite and I think you’ll agree!!
Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Chip Cookies – Super soft, perfectly chewy, BROWNED BUTTER cookies that are LOADED with two kinds of chips!! An EASY one-bowl, no-mixer recipe for irresistibly DELISH cookies!!
I had to try these right away. I made them with my kids last night and they were amazing!
That’s awesome, Jessica! Thank you so much for trying them right away and glad you had amazing results and they were kid-approved, too! :)
the melted chocolate is making my mouth water!
Oh my goodness! These look so wonderful Averie! I wanted to try the New York Times cookies that you posted, but I may just try these instead. I love soft cookies and lots of chocolate, so I’m certain that these would be a hit!
In my humble opinion, these blow the pants off the NYT cookies and are much less ‘fussy’-feeling to make. LMK if you end up making either of them!
All these cookies look amazing!!
Thanks & I love the name of your blog!
Another one of your recipes pinned. I so want to try these. You are trying to kill me with all these delicious recipes.
Thanks for the pin, Julie! and these are the cookies to try if you’re going to try some!
It’s funnny that something as basic as a cookie can go so wrong when baking, I’ve had to go through so many batches to perfect my cookies and what makes it difficult is that everyone has their different preferences. These look so incredibly tasty!! X
It is amazing to me, yes, that something as simple as butter, sugar, eggs, and flour in little ball shapes can go so horribly wrong but it sure can – and I’ve tested hundreds of recipes to prove it :) And yes, taste preferences – another variable!
I wrote more extensively about in the New York Times cookies post, which I linked to in this one. And that there are so.many.things that can go wrong with cookies and so many variables!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/11/new-york-times-chocolate-chips-cookies-from-jacques-torres.html
I am blown away at how incredibly delicious these look! I mean…is there anything better looking than a hot, out of the oven, ooey, gooey, melted chocolate chip cookie?! Your chocolate chunks look sooo good! :-)
Unfortunately, Seraphim and I are super duper allergic to corn, even in little amounts. Bummer. But, we can safely ogle your images any time we want! Gorgeous photos, Averie! YUM! :-)
I always forget about your corn allergy! I seriously just space it out. On something like a box of cake mix for those bars that you and I love so much, the white choc/yellow cake mix layered ones – do you have to buy specialty everything? Because I have known people with severe corn allergies and there is corn/trace corn in EVERYTHING. Our food supply is so contaminated for lack of a better word, corn.is.everywhere. You don’t realize this til you’re highly allergic but I fully get it; of all allergies, it’s honestly the one I’d want the least! Gluten is pervasive, corn is epic in terms of how everything is touched by it. Okay that was long and random but I feel you :)
I say try this recipe without the cornstarch and see what happens!
Yep! I have to buy specialty everything. Even baking powder that I use is a special kind that doesn’t have cornstarch in it. It IS in everything, so I read every label and if I can’t get it without corn, I figure out how to make it myself or substitute something else. Will give these a whirl without the corn and see! :-)
I’ve said it before and I will say it again (and probably again) I just love how much I learn from your posts…I had no idea about the bread flour…nor about chilling the dough so the cookies stay fluffier…each time I read your post I hope I retain my knowledge each time I bake/cook….so what is your next quest ;-)
Sometimes I feel like a broken record when I say things over and over, but I guess it’s still new to some people and glad you always learn some good stuff!
This post is chock full of cookie info!
https://www.loveveggiesandyoga.com/2012/11/new-york-times-chocolate-chips-cookies-from-jacques-torres.html
I love the tag line, chocolate chip and chunk cookies with cornstarch. You’re to cute! These look great and your photos are stunning. I love seeing all of those gooey chocolate chips. There’s nothing like a chocolate chip cookie straight from the oven. Zoe really wishes you lived in Northern CA, as I have been baking less lately and you are baking up a storm. She hovers over your blog and your photos. She even bookmarked your blog on her computer! Isn’t that so cute?
OK, still getting use to WP. Thanks for your encouraging comment yesterday!
xoxo,
Jackie
That’s so sweet of Zoe and if you’re ever down here, I have plenty of goodies to donate at all times!
BTW I didnt get a comment reply from you – I didnt with blogger either but I rarely remember to go back and check sites for comment replies so when the dust settles, your readers will love comment reply notification. That way you know you’re not just replying to thin air and no one sees it! In time, not a big deal, obviously :)
And yes the cornstarch is key in these babies!
Chocolate chip cookies are easily the most made and requested cookie I have in my arsenal! No matter how many batches come out of the oven, it never seems to be enough. Whenever my dad comes home, I make sure to send him back to Germany with at least two dozen big, soft CCC’s. Yours look so perfectly gooey and delicious, it’s easy to see why they just don’t get boring!
You are so sweet to bake for your dad and send him back with cookies! I bet you earn some major brownie points :)
I’ve never put bread flour in my cookies but I’ll definitely have to give it a try. I use so much bread flour in my yeast bread I’m surprised I’ve never added to cookies by mistake.
Second, yes, I do too add cornstarch to cookies, although I don’t do that too often since I like mine on the buttery-melt-in-your-mouth side.
And last, that oozing chocolate is calling my name!
Thanks for the Pin and you are the bread QUEEN! I covet all your breads and would love to make bread with you one day! And I’m surprised given that that you haven’t put it into the cookies by mistake too…ha! It lends great chewiness and I highly! recommend it!
And the cornstarch is a nice trick and glad to hear you’re on board with that too sometimes.
Luxurious puddles indeed! Look at those melty chocolate gobs of heaven. And holy puffy cookie.. I am swooning.
The best puddles ever!
That melty chocolate is calling my name!!! Pinned!
Thank you for the Pin and thanks for linking up my other cookies in your post today! You’re so sweet, Dorothy :)
I actually mail ordered Levain’s oatmeal raisin cookies. I posted the review on my blog over the weekend, but for the most part I don’t think they lived up to the hype. I have a copycat recipe I may still try. It’s so hard to find the best cookie recipes.
I just skimmed the post and they look really!! puffy! Like biscuits almost! I like my oatmeal cookies really dense and chewy, not as airy or ‘cakey’ so I have to say I personally wouldn’t have been in love either but preferences are so different. I urge you to try this recipe – I am SO PICKY and I give it the best marks!
It’s so tempting to make crazy cookies this time of year (you know the flavors, peppermint, gingerbread, eggnog, etc…) but gosh, you make it just as tempting to stick to the basics! Doesn’t the cornstarch work wonders?! I tried it in a batch of cookies last week and was in love instantly. I love that you used the two types of chocolate, and chocolate chunks are sooo good in chocolate chip cookies because they allow for maximum meltage (yes, maximum meltage :))
It’s funny when I was googling for the levain cookies your site came up #1 in the searches! And then there were a jilion copycat recipes and none of them are the same! Of all the copycats, your Levains look the best and that they’d yield the results that I’d like the best. Did you like love-love them? Or still on the hunt for ‘perfection’?
And yes cornstarch AND two types of choc rule the world!
That’s funny! I did love the Levain Bakery copycat cookies I made, but part of me likes to believe you can always improve the chocolate chip cookie… as in, declare “these are the best cookies I’ve ever made!” and then move on to try to one-up them. ;)
That’s the problem with declaring any cookie the ‘best ever’ – then the next one comes along and one-ups it! Or cake, or pie, or cinnamon rolls, or you name it, there’s always another latest and greatest but I really do feel like this is a SOLID cookie recipe that will last me ages!