Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! This chocolate chip cookie recipe is made with only brown sugar and makes cookies that are the perfect blend of soft and chewy!
These Chewy Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies are easy to make.
They're great spur-of-the-moment cookies because there is no need to soften the butter ahead of time. The dough comes together in a matter of minutes, and no chilling is required.
If you like a thicker cookie, you can refrigerate it for 30 minutes or so before baking, but no need to chill it if you don't want to.
And the use of all brown sugar gives these cookies a deeper, richer flavor. So, the next time a cookie craving strikes, bake up a batch of these cookies!
How to make
Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. The butter should be just melted. If you want to brown the butter, please see the note below.
Add brown sugar to a large bowl. Pour melted butter over sugar.
Stir to combine butter and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes.
Add egg and egg yolk; stir to combine. Stir in vanilla extract.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir until just combined. Please see the comments about flour in the recipe notes.
Stir in chocolate chips or chunks.
Using a medium cookie scoop (1.5 tablespoon), drop scoops of dough 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
The centers should still look soft and slightly underbaked. That will help to keep the cookies soft.
Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
Tips
Butter: If you want to brown the butter, you will need to use more butter because browning butter causes it to cook down. Otherwise, you will be left with a drier dough. If browning, you will need to use approximately 3-4 tablespoons more butter (so about 19-20 tablespoons or 269+ grams total).
Flour: Correctly measuring the ingredients is key! I suggest weighing the ingredients. If you aren't going to weigh the flour, then you need to aerate it (sifting or fluffing) and then lightly spoon into the measuring cup and leveling. If you don't want to sift or weigh the flour, please use less flour. Packing in too much flour will cause the cookies not to spread.
Chocolate: Can substitute 4 ounces finely chopped semisweet baking chocolate for chocolate chips. This will give you a flatter cookie that spreads more.
Mixing: I suggest stirring this recipe together by hand rather than using a hand or stand mixer.
Baking: It's important to slightly underbake the cookies. This will give you a softer, chewier cookie.
Storage
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.
If you’ve tried this chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who've made my recipes!
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Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar (packed)
- 1 large egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups all-purpose flour (Please see the note below about measuring the flour.)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt (or scant ½ teaspoon table salt)
- 10 ounce package chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.
- Melt butter in a heavy saucepan. The butter should be just melted. If you want to brown the butter, please see the note below.
- Add brown sugar to a large bowl.
- Pour melted butter over sugar.
- Stir to combine butter and sugar. Let stand 5 minutes.
- Add egg and egg yolk; stir to combine.
- Stir in vanilla extract.
- Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Stir until just combined. Please see the comments about flour in the recipe notes.
- Stir in chocolate chips.
- Using a medium cookie scoop (1.5 tablespoon), drop scoops of dough 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until the edges of the cookies are golden brown. The centers should still look soft and slightly underbaked. That will help to keep the cookies soft.
- Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to wire rack to finish cooling.
Video
Notes
- Butter: If you want to brown the butter, you will need to use more butter because browning butter causes it to cook down. Otherwise, you will be left with a drier dough. If browning, you will need to use approximately 3-4 tablespoons more butter (so about 19-20 tablespoons or 269+ grams total).
- Flour: Correctly measuring the ingredients is key! I highly suggest weighing the ingredients. If you don't weigh the flour, you'll need to aerate the flour (sifting or fluffing) and then lightly spoon it into the measuring cup and level. If you don't want to sift or weigh the flour, please use less flour. Packing in too much flour will cause the cookies not to spread.
- Can substitute 4 ounces finely chopped semisweet baking chocolate for chocolate chips.
- I suggest stirring this recipe together by hand rather than using a hand or stand mixer.
- Nutrition values are estimates.
- Love chocolate? Try the chocolate chocolate chip version of this cookie!
Jess
These cookies are amazing!
Just curious, is there a way to make these dairy free and they turn out similar? Would Crisco work for the butter or a dairy free butter? Thank you!
Kate
Thank you! Unfortunately, I'm not sure how a dairy-free butter would melt. I have had really good luck using coconut oil in cookies. That's probably where I would start. Hope that helps!
Kristine Vaughn-Hulbert
salted or unsalted butter?
Kate
I use salted butter.
dona
Wow this recipe looks so great! Can't wait to try it! But is it ok if I lessen the sugar in the recipe? because i think it will probably end being too sweet for my liking.
Kate
Hi! Thanks! The sugar helps to provide flavor and moisture, and it also helps to make the cookies chewy. So, you will lose some of those qualities if you cut the sugar.
Shelly
I googled how much 3 cups of flour weighed since it's not in the recipe. I got 15.34 oz. Using the aerate and spoon method, 3 cups for me was 14.5 oz which is what I used. The cookies came out poofy. What did I do wrong?
Kate
Hi! Immediately beneath the ingredients, there's a button that says "METRIC". If you click on that, it will give you the weights for the ingredients. I use a 120 gram cup of flour, which would be 4.25 ounces per cup, for a total of 12.75 ounces. I'm not sure what other measurements you used, but the extra flour would make the cookies poofy. Also, if you're cooking the butter down or browning it, be sure to follow those notes as well. Hope that helps for next time!
Jenny
Best chocolate chip cookie ever! I do 1 c. Choc chips and 1 c. Macadamia nuts (halved). Best ever!
Kate
Thank you so much!
Teresa
I absolutely LOVE this recipe! I’ve used it countless times and have experimented with subbing the chocolate out and adding white chocolate, candy coated chocolate, nuts, etc. Such a versatile and easy recipe! :)
Kate
Thank you so much!
Kellie
This is our favorite cookie recipe. I sift the flour but can never seem to get the cookies to flatten. What am I doing wrong?
Kate
Hi! There are three reasons why cookies may not spread. 1) Too much flour in the dough 2) the oven bakes hot, and the outside is setting before the cookies have a chance to spread 3) old or expired leavening. You could try turning the oven down 25F to see whether that helps the cookies to spread before the outside sets.
Cassandra
Baking this tomorrow! Did I miss if it calls for light or dark brown sugar?
Kate
You can use either! Light brown will give you a milder brown sugar flavor, and dark brown sugar will give you a richer, more caramel-y flavor.
Tay
This is my favorite cookie recipe EVER!!!! My friends and family rave about how good these are. The brown sugar makes ALL the difference.
Kate
Thank you so much!!
Kristen
Brown sugar only is now my new favorite way to make
chocolate chip cookies! I had no idea the difference it would make, but it’s perfect.
Thanks!
Kate
Thank you! I love the flavor that it gives the cookies, and I'm glad to hear that you liked it, too! =)
MICHELLE DARLENE MIRANDA
Great cookie the brown sugar is a lot better cookie than the white sugar
Kate
Thank you! I'm glad that you like them!
HA
My favorite recipe. I did brown the butter, and I also froze the cookie dough balls before baking, so when baking from frozen, I lowered heat to 355 and added maybe 4 minutes to cook time. TONS of positive feedback for this recipe.
Kate
Thank you! I'm so glad that you liked it! =)
N
I’m in India. Is it possible to see a picture of the brown sugar you use. It looks very different yet not so much from the two types we get here
miranda
Tastes yummy! I'm just having an issue with the cookies not spreading. I made them first by fluffing the flour. When they baked they were basically the same ball shape they were when they went in. So for the second go around I purchased a sifter and tried that way. Same thing happened. Both times the dough seemed pretty wet so I didn't think it was too much flour. All measurements were exact. You suggested weighing the flour. How much flour do you recommend i use in grams? Thanks!
Kate
Hi! I'm sorry to hear that! It's 360 grams of flour. Right underneath the ingredients, there is a link that says "metric". If you click on that, it will give you the measurement in grams. Another thing that you can try is turning down your oven by 25F. If your oven bakes hot, it can set the outside of the cookie before it has had a chance to spread.
Anya
I have tested like 8 different cookie recipes since quarantine started and this is the best one yet. They're so chewy and thick with a lovely crisp exterior which is exactly how I like them!
Kate
Thank you! I'm so glad to hear that! =)
Dani
I'm new to baking and I just want to know if this recipe is not that sweet since it uses only brown sugar. Because I tried making chocolate chip cookies before with both brown and white but it was too sweet for me. :D
Kate
Hi! I think the cookies are just as sweet as cookies made with granulated sugar (white sugar). If you're looking for a cookie recipe that isn't quite as sweet, you might like my whole wheat chocolate chip cookie recipe better.
Anna
Came looking for a chocolate chip cookie recipe that only called for brown sugar as I was out of white & glad I did. Here's how good these cookies are: I completely missed to add the tablespoon of vanilla and they're still delicious! I did opt to use the entire 11.5 oz bag of chocolate chips & added half cup of chopped walnuts & they are practically melt in your mouth good. My first batch got a little too brown, so I lowered temp to 350 & found that 8 minutes at 350 worked for me. Looking forward to making again to see how they taste with the vanilla added! Thanks for the great recipe!
Kate
I'm so glad that you liked them! =) Thanks for commenting!
Tan J
I had some brown sugar that needed using so I searched online for some ideas and I came across your recipe so decided to try it. I am so pleased I found it! I've made many cookies over the years but yours are by far my favourite.
The cookies are really yummy.
I have some extra happy kids tonight :)
Thank you.
Kate
Thank you so much!!
Rachel
Well, I thought I could replace the brown sugar with Swerve brown sugar. Let me warn you right now - STICK TO THE RECIPE! Lol, they didn't turn out terrible, but didn't spread at all, so I had to flatten them out before putting them in the oven on the next batch. And they're too sweet for my taste - which is probably due to too much Swerve brown sugar. I plan to make a trip to the store to get real brown sugar and try again...can't wait and thank you for the recipe! :)
Kate
Hi! Thanks for sharing that Swerve doesn't work in this recipe!