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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Soooooo tasty and delicious. A little underdone at 10 minutes for me, but it’s cold here in Kansas! Not sure if I will ever know how these hold up after a couple of days, cause they disappeared in minutes. Another great recipe: I love how detailed and specific your posts and recipes are. Thanks Avery!
I am so glad you loved them, Sarah! Ovens and weather conditions, and the temperamental nature of cookies setting up, and 90 seconds can sometimes make a huge difference. Glad you found the sweet spot. And yes, it’s hard to keep these babies around for the week-long freshness test but they really do hold up. Glad you like all the details, too. If I am going to call something best-ever, I better be darned sure I back it up :)
Oops, I meant to leave that on the giveaway page!
I repinned your Chocolate Chip & Chunk cookies. https://pinterest.com/pin/129267451775935222/
Averie ~ these look mouth watering! You always take stunning photos I envy your work =).
I wish I could come watch you cook and photograph your food – I envy YOUR work! :)
Just pinned this recipe. I’ve got all the ingredients and can’t wait to start baking. I can’t stop looking at the pics. They do look absolutely perfect!!
If you make them, LMK how it goes for you!
I don’t typically comment on these (unless it’s for a giveaway :)) but, these are seriously amazing. I’ve been waiting for you to post a choc chip cookie recipe and I saw you post the NY Times one but didn’t have much desire to try those due to the work involved. So I jumped on these and they really are the best I’ve ever had. I wouldn’t change a thing! Kudos to you.
Thanks for commenting on a non-giveaway post – and to tell me that you love these!! :) I am so glad you think they’re the best you’ve ever had and wouldn’t change a thing. Awesome!
WOW. These chocolate chip and chunk cookies look AMAZING! Of all the chocolate chip cookie recipes I’ve seen claiming to be the best, I would have to say that these actually look like the best. I love a thick, chewy cookie, so I will definitely be giving your recipe a try soon!
The other day, I tried to click over to your site from my wordpress dashboard after you left a comment, but it brought me to a nonexistent site. BUT I just clicked on one of your recipes on FoodGawker, and here you are! I will be back often because you have some FANTASTIC looking recipes! I’m excited to try your lentil sloppy joes, as well as pretty much all of the desserts on here. :D
That’s awesome that you found me (that is so weird that you tried to click over to me and found a non-existant site…that’s kind of scary..wonder if my server was down and it was on my end or a typo in the URL field – gah, hate flukes like that!) but anyway these cookies are my new faves for just a straight-up choc chip cookie that WORKS and is fab!
Keep me posted if you do try any recipes!
Just made these cookies… Oooooooh my gosh. YUM! Seriously, they’re blowing my mind! I made them to celebrate National Cookie Day tonight, and I’m going to bring them to my intramural soccer team tomorrow, haha.
I am so excited I found this recipe!!! I am now writing it on a recipe card with the name “Best Chocolate Chip Cookies EVER. F’real.” I can’t wait to someday be the mom who makes the best chocolate chip cookies. All thanks to you! :D
I am so glad that you made them and loved them! And you’re so nice to share with your soccer friends. You will be popular tomorrow I’m thinking! :)
Wow, you know your cookie facts! :) These look so so good…if only I could find packed brown sugar in Germany. Your pictures have made me officially crave chocolate chip cookies to a point where I am just going to try making them with granulated sugar. I know the result won’t be as good, but they’ve still got to be better than any cookie you can buy at the store here. Thanks for the great recipe!
“Brown sugar, packed” is just the way Amerians tend to write our recipes with brown sugar. Packed into a measuring cup, not loosely placed into the cup like you’d place flour or regular sugar.
Brown sugar is nothing more than granulated sugar with added molasses. So if you had 1 cup brown sugar, I’d add maybe a teaspoon to it….and keep on stirring until you got it in the ballpark of brown sugar! I’d be surprised if they don’t sell brown sugar though?
I know, it sounds ridiculous, but google “where to find brown sugar in Germany” and you’ll see I’m one of many with this problem. :) They do have a brown sugar but the grains are much larger and the consistency much drier. I’ve considered the molasses thing, but molasses can only be bought at certain specialty stores and are quite expensive. I was able to find the brown sugar we know online so I guess the cookies will just have to wait until it arrives… Well, I think I’ve bothered you enough with my brown sugar woes :). Have a great time in Aruba!!
I made the Chunky Chocolate Chip cookies. They are good but I tried to make them smaller so it would yield more cookies. Had a really hard time. Had to keep putting them back in the oven. Does anyone know what the baking time would be if you halve the size of the cookies?
Thx
Part of the way cookies bake and overall success and results does have to do with the of the quantity of dough and overall mass, surface area ratio of edge to center, internal temperature while baking in large vs. small mounds of dough, and lots of science behind it.
So to halve each cookie, and these were not “big” cookies to begin with…you will be making mini cookies. And for those, I am not sure how much I’d reduce the baking time by, a minute or two, maybe? LMK what you end up doing!
I made them smaller and baked them 9 min. Turned out great. I made 45 cookies. They were awesome!
So cute cookies! Thanks you shared this recipes at my link party! Regards
I tried these last night, and while they were very good (and gone in a day and a half), they weren’t the best I’ve made. If I can recommend some….the following would be the best ones I’ve ever made:
https://notwithoutsalt.com/2009/01/28/the-last-chocolate-chip-cookie/comment-page-2/#comment-12855
I take it as a compliment that you ate the entire batch of cookies within a day – means they weren’t too shabby :) Thanks for trying them!
Ok, you have sold me! I cannot wait to try these cookies immediately! There is nothing like a freshly baked, perfect chocolate chip cookies, and these look so great!
Please LMK if you make them – I think you’ll be so happy! They’re my new go-to!
That photo of the half cookie with the melted chocolate – GORGEOUS! You know I’m going to make this and then eat every last cookie, right?
Well at least it doesn’t make 4 dozen :)
Wow, I have to say, these are by far the best looking chocolate chip cookies I have ever seen! Got Milk?
Thanks for the compliments!