Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Learn how to make classic chewy chocolate chip cookies with this easy step-by-step recipe. You only need a handful of staple ingredients and can choose between milk, white and dark chocolate chips – or a mixture of all three!

A new year means a new personal baking project, and I’ve decided to make 2022 the year of the cookie 😍 Over the next 12 months I plan to share all my cookie baking tips, tricks and secrets with you, plus a whole heap of brand new delicious cookie recipes.

As a bit of research, I asked my lovely followers on Instagram what their favourite cookie flavour was, and there was one flavour that kept popping up time and time again…plain old chocolate chip cookies. There’s part of me that totally agrees, sometimes simple and classic recipes are just the best. So what better way to kick-start this new project than with classic chewy chocolate chip cookies!

About these chewy chocolate chip cookies

• The recipe. I’ve kept things as simple and easy as possible. Short ingredient list, step-by-step tutorial pictures and lots of helpful tips along the way. *Disclaimer* you will need to chill this cookie dough for a few hours or overnight 😬 I know the waiting time between making and eating your cookies can be torture, but trust me if you want to bake the most perfect chewy chocolate chip cookies, chilling the dough is essential!
• The texture. You may be thinking “what does a chewy really mean?”. Let me explain. Chewy chocolate chip cookies are soft-baked, not thin but not too thick either, and when you bite into them they have a chewy, moist texture. What chewy cookies are not: firm, hard, crisp, snap-able.
• The flavour. Where to even begin! The cookie dough is buttery, sweet but not too sweet, with flavours of caramel and vanilla. These cookies are filled with lots of milk chocolate chips, which add a delicious pop of chocolate in every bite.

Chewy cookies vs. chunky cookies

Okay, this is a BIG debate. I completely sit on the fence on this one. Sometimes I love a thinner chewy cookies, and sometimes I just want a big fat thickkkk chunky cookie. You guys were also pretty split on this when I did my cookie research on Instagram.

So guess what? I’ve created a recipe for both!!!

In this blog post you will find the recipe for chewy chocolate chip cookies. But if you’re looking for thick, chunky chocolate chip cookies (think NYC / Levain Bakery style) then check out this recipe instead. 

Choosing the best chocolate chips

For this recipe you can use either milk, white or dark chocolate chips depending on your preference. You could even use a mixture of all 3 if you fancy it. Now you may be tempted to pick up any old type of chocolate chips but…choosing a good quality brand honestly makes a huge difference to the taste and texture of your chewy cookies. 

Personally, I love Guittard Milk Chocolate Chips. They’re a little on the spenny side but so worth it, here’s why:

• Maxi in size – more like big chunks of chocolate rather than small chips
• They’re specially made for baking, so they won’t burn in the oven
• The chunky size means they melt into little pools of chocolate inside the cookie 
• Used by professional baking chefs, so they must be good right!? 😅

You can find Guittard chocolate chips on Ocado, in Lakeland or in Waitrose. Alternatively, you could use good quality bars of chocolate and chop them into chunks.

What makes these chocolate chip cookies chewy?

Baking perfectly chewy cookies is the result of two things: the ingredients you use and the method you follow.

• Ingredients. This recipe uses melted better, a mix of white and brown sugar, a whole egg + an extra egg yolk, all of which contribute towards the chewy texture.
• Method. The melted butter in this recipe can make the cookie dough a little greasy and wet at first, which is why it’s so important that you chill the cookie dough. Honestly I can’t stress this enough. Cold cookie dough = less spread in the oven = chewy chocolate chip cookies. You’ll also roll the cookie dough into balls, which will help reduce spread.  Just check out the difference between the cookies in the photograph below:

How to bake cookies with a gooey centre

This is the no.1 question I get asked when it comes to cookies. Regardless of whether you’re baking these chewy chocolate chip cookies or my chunky cookie recipe, they NEED to have a gooey middle. Here are 3 tips to make sure your cookies are gooey AF inside:

1. Chill the cookie dough. Baking the cookie dough when it’s still cold means the outside with cook first, then gradually the middle will heat up and start to cook. Before the middle of the cookies starts to cook too much, we take the cookies out of the oven and let them cool down. That way the outside is baked but the inside is soft and gooey.
2. Do not overbake. As the cookies cool down they will continue to cook from the heat of the baking tray and the cookie itself. That’s why we take the cookies out of the oven whilst they still look underbaked, pale and slightly wet in the middle. Leave them to cool for 15 minutes and the texture and colour will change, check out the photograph below to see the difference:

Can the cookie dough or baked cookies be frozen?

Freezing the cookie dough: once you’ve made the cookie dough, chill it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. Then roll the dough into balls, place in ziplock bag or container and store in the freezer for up to 2 months. You can bake the cookies from frozen for 13-14 minutes at 180°C (fan oven).

Freezing the baked chewy chocolate chip cookies: layer the baked cookies between sheets of greaseproof paper to prevent them from sticking to each other. Then place in a container and freeze for up to 2 months. Defrost the cookies at room temperature.

Quick links to equipment & ingredients

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